Although it was only just over a week till we met the Surgeon as you will imagine it was a long, long week. We had a couple of things to do at the weekend, a garden party in a Suffolk meadow and an afternoon with old (I mean longstanding) friends which helped take my mind off it.
I didn't want to tell anyone, other people's illnesses are so boring and I don't like fuss or people gossiping about me, however kindly it's meant. But of course my sister had to know (just in case it's genetic which it isn't but .......), then I told my best friend as we were meeting at the weekend.
All surgeons are Gods - to a greater or lesser extent they all have your life in their hands
Mine is new to Medway having lived in Cornwall for ages but I looked him up and he seems very passionate (if that's the right word) about breast conserving surgery and has done little else for the past 20 years. I must remember to call it breast 'conserving" not "conservation"!
He is very nice, Egyptian and quite thickly accented but, as I'd read and re-read all my leaflets, I knew in advance more or less what he was going to say.
Ian and I had obviously discussed it at length before the meeting and both feel that the least surgery you undergo the better, so a full mastectomy followed by reconstruction was not something I would ever choose (if I had to have a MX then I would stay "flat") so I was more than happy when he recommended a wide local excision (or lumpectomy as it used to be called) followed by radiotherapy - although I could elect to have a MX if I wanted!
I will also need to have biopsies of the sentinal lymph nodes in my armpit as this is the first place an "escaping" breast cancer will go to.
We double-checked that I wasn't putting myself at any increased risk by having the WLE and then I signed on the dotted line.
Provisional date for op - 31 August (nearly 4 whole weeks to wait 😨)
Provisional date for op - 31 August (nearly 4 whole weeks to wait 😨)
