Rose Mary Axell
04-02-2006, 02:39 PM
Jane is back home surgery look sucessful! Here is a copy of Jane's latest report on her blog:
A "sentinel node" is a node in your lymphatic system.
In the case of breast cancer, it is a node within the breast,
not in the armpit.
Sentinel nodes filter fluids from the breast into the lymphatic system.
If there is a cancer that is on the move,
it must go through the sentinel nodes to get into the armpit,
and from there, spread throughout one's body.
When they did their surgery on me yesterday, they took out two sentinel nodes
and handed them off to a waiting lab technician.
The lab tech tested them for cancer and reported back that they were both clear!
(I didn't find this out 'til today ... Saturday ... the day after surgery.)
So then my surgeon (David Calahan) took out "a small orange" size chunk
of breast tissue and then sewed me back up.
Clear sentinel nodes tell us that the cancer has not gone further than my right breast.
We wait for 10 days now to find out if it went beyond the "small orange" of breast tissue from my right breast.
If it did ... that's not so good.
If it didn't ... that's great.
Either way, I might still have to do radiation and/or chemo and/or Temoxafin.
On the other hand, I might not have to do anything.
The best news right now is that this is not life threatening
For those of you who want to read further here is the link to Jane's Blog
http://janehurl.blogspot.com./
A "sentinel node" is a node in your lymphatic system.
In the case of breast cancer, it is a node within the breast,
not in the armpit.
Sentinel nodes filter fluids from the breast into the lymphatic system.
If there is a cancer that is on the move,
it must go through the sentinel nodes to get into the armpit,
and from there, spread throughout one's body.
When they did their surgery on me yesterday, they took out two sentinel nodes
and handed them off to a waiting lab technician.
The lab tech tested them for cancer and reported back that they were both clear!
(I didn't find this out 'til today ... Saturday ... the day after surgery.)
So then my surgeon (David Calahan) took out "a small orange" size chunk
of breast tissue and then sewed me back up.
Clear sentinel nodes tell us that the cancer has not gone further than my right breast.
We wait for 10 days now to find out if it went beyond the "small orange" of breast tissue from my right breast.
If it did ... that's not so good.
If it didn't ... that's great.
Either way, I might still have to do radiation and/or chemo and/or Temoxafin.
On the other hand, I might not have to do anything.
The best news right now is that this is not life threatening
For those of you who want to read further here is the link to Jane's Blog
http://janehurl.blogspot.com./