I slept in this morning, easier to sleep through the pain than to wake up and deal with it. Slept until 10 AM. Sometime during the night the tape over my underarm incision twisted at one end and stuck to my arm. As I raised my arm up to start my morning routine brushing my teeth before my shower I ripped the tape of about an inch off the end of my incision. Ok, no big deal. Went to hubby and had him cut off the end of the tape that had become dislodged, and finished my mourning routine. After I showered and was drying off I noticed an end from a suture sticking out. Ok, that was not good, as all my sutures were sub-dermal. I went to hubby to have him look at it to make sure I was seeing this right. Yup, he agreed and he said he could see a gap starting in my incision.
As soon as I was dressed and ate a quick breakfast I called Dr. Al-Jones office to let her know what was going on and to find out if she wanted me to come in or not. Yes, I was to come in to get that wound redressed.
Also after my shower I noticed that all the stubble I had left from when I started chemo is all gone now. I only have the fine fuzzy new growth on my head. I also noticed my pubic hair is starting to grow back in as well. I didn’t really see any other new hair.
I did pull off the waterproof bandage from the incision where they removed the port. I have another raw spot from the first bandage applied in the OR. I had covered it up when I replace the original bandage with the replacement after my last shower. Today I was able to remove the waterproof bandage and keep it off, so that raw spot was finally exposed to air and let itself be known to me. So bacitracin applied and now I just have the steri-strips over that incision.
Dr. Ali-Jones had me come in and her nurse took a quick look at what was going on under my arm. I told her about the overflow glue and how I could not get it off. No problem she said, she gave me some wipes to use at home that will take off the excess bloody glue that is all over. Sweet! Dr. Ali-Jones came in and looked, she peeled the old tape off my incision, pulled the end of the suture that was sticking out and closed up the gap that was slowly getting bigger; added more glue to the incision and then put steri-tape over everything. Good as new.
Then she told me she had planned to call me today as she had the pathology report. Since I had to come in, she decided to share it with me directly.
She miss-spoke on Saturday when she said she removed three lymph nodes. She removed four. All four were clear. Blink was originally 31 mm x 32 mm x 28 mm, based on the MRI, which has the most accurate sizing. Dr. Ali-Jones removed an ovoid section of my breast including the wire that marked the center of the original tumor. The ovoid measured 11.2 x 7.2 x 4.0 cm. All this in inches as I am sure most of us are used to dealing in inches is 4.41 in x 2.83 in x 1.27 in of my breast tissue removed.
This lump was sectioned into 17 slices. At first they did not find the clip, but when they radiographed all pieces, they found it in section 5. All sections were clear of cancer. They said the current specimen showed no residual invasive carcinoma. They did see marked fibrosis and histolocytic infiltrate, compatible with therapy related changes. This is considered a complete pathologic response to therapy. Which means the chemo kicked the cancers ass and wiped it out. The cancer cells died and collapsed in on themselves creating the fibrosis and histolocytic infiltrate.
I am cancer free as best as we can tell at this point. Friday, I get my new boobs and from there I have my follow up with both surgeons and my oncologist. I am not sure if this means I still have to go through radiation. I will find that out when I have my follow up with the oncologist in April. I will still need to heal from the surgeries.
No group tonight, hubby does not want to take any risks with my recovery. He worries that too much movement is not good for me or my recovery. He hears how much I moan and groan at night turning over. I did call into the Cancer Support Community to let my group leader know I would not be there, but my pathology report was clear. She can pass that on to the group.
Hubby asked if I wanted a celebration dinner. I told him I would really love a steak and champagne for my celebration meal, but that is not happening yet. So no celebration meal until I can really celebrate the way I want.
I also received more flowers today! Yesterday I received flowers from my mom; today I received two dozen roses from hubby’s cousin and his family.
Life is waiting to celebrate all my good news