Post-Op

I haven't had much pain, much to my surprise. I've been taking Tylenol in the morning and before bed anyway, just to bring the pain level down to zero.

Yesterday I removed the clear film (Tegaderm?) over my incisions. The steri strips are still there. The incision under my arm has started hurting a bit more after the film was removed. The incisions are longer than I expected, maybe two inches. I don't like looking at them.

One thing I have to do is wear a supportive bra 24 hours a day for the first 7 days. I believe the idea is to keep my breast from moving. They put a breast binder on me at the hospital. I've been switching between that and sports bras I bought for the surgery. Neither one is particularly comfortable.

The MyHealth app that Stanford uses has been updated with the surgeon's notes. In the description it says that five sentinel lymph nodes were removed. But the list at the end of the notes says six were taken out. The surgeon's note says I had a sentinel lymph node biopsy. But the resident doctor who assisted her lists both sentinel lymph node biopsy and axillary lymph node dissection. I assume I got a biopsy. Six nodes is higher than average for a biopsy, but it's also lower than average for a dissection.

Another confusing item is that it says I'm ER negative. I thought I was ER positive. I've sent a message to my surgeon's office for clarification.

If I read the note correctly, it says that the lumpectomy left a rather large hole in my breast and they had to move some breast tissue around to fill the cavity. To be clear, there was no tumor in my breast. Chemo got rid of it. But there were calcifications left behind that may or may not turn into cancer, and there may be microscopic cancer cells lurking in my breast that tests are not sensitive enough to detect. The lumpectomy was to remove most of the calcifications and the area where the tumor used to be.

A 2 x 2 cm device called a BioZorb was placed in my breast. It's supposed to help in targeting radiation later. I don't know if it also helps with the breast shape, but it gets absorbed within two years. I'll have to ask my surgeon if my breast shape will change over the years as the BioZorb shrinks.