Back home...

The surgery was a success! My surgeon was proud that I have matched scars on each side. She also rearranged some tissue, gave me a little lift and evened things out. I suppose this will help my chances at a modeling career. I peeked and, other than a couple steri strips, I can't tell the difference. I am very happy!

The worst part of the day was the wire placement. Long thin wires guide the surgeon to the biopsy sites. The wires are placed by breast imaging radiologists during a series of mammograms to plan, guide and make minor adjustments, then a final view is taken in two planes. I had 5 wires placed. I didn't count the number of mammograms. But most of them were taken with hollow guiding needles and/or wires in place. It was an ordeal but if you overlook the near fainting spell, I was a 'human pin-cushion' trooper.

The only concern is if all of the tumor was removed on the right side. The surgeon was confident that she removed all of the post chemo tumor on the left side. The pathologist will look at the edges of the removed tissue. If there are margins of non cancerous tissue surrounding the sample, then they can say the tumor was completely removed. The surgeon also took about 5 more lymph nodes on each side; she didn't expect any more would be cancerous. The pathology report will answer these questions by Wednesday.