Much to do today

Well, big surprise, the floor really isn't done yet.

Bill was never convinced that this loft-carpeting project needed to be done to begin with, but he has humored me anyway, up to this point. Now, he is bored. Today, he wants to get out the chain saw and cut down the big old dead oak tree so it won't fall on our house while we're gone. That should keep him busy all day (much thinking to do, since he just decided this yesterday)!

In the meantime, the floor really has to get done today, sheets have to be changed, floors vacuumed, car checked and loaded, fridge cleaned out, dog stuff gathered and packed, bags packed, bills paid, details remembered. The good news is that it will keep me from being too introspective today. The bad news is that it still all has to be done. My only consolation is that when I get home, I won't be allowed to use my arms for awhile, so I can do my "Camille" bit on the couch without guilt. Or at least without the possibility of doing any more physical labor.

My mom asked yesterday (and others have inquired) what the deal is about the Sentinel Node testing, since the first ultrasound showed no visual axillary node involvement. Here's the scoop, for those who want to know:

Monday, I will go to my surgeon who will draw a felt-tip marker "map" on my chest, showing where the tumors are. I will then go to Nuclear Medicine (Radiology), where they will inject radioactive markers where the surgeon has drawn. We will then wait until those markers are "taken up" by the lymphatic system, and pictures will be taken of the specific lymph nodes that "light up"--those are the "Sentinels," the first lymph nodes that drain the areas of the breasts where the tumors are.

Those pictures will go to my surgeon, who will then know which nodes to remove in the outpatient surgery I am having on Tuesday. Those removed sentinel nodes will be sliced up and examined by pathologists on Wednesday. If there are cancer cells present, then the surgeon will know that he has to remove the lymph nodes under my arms after he does the mastectomy on Friday, because the cancer might have spread to the next nodes (under my arms) down the line. If those sentinel nodes have no cancer cells in them, that means the cancer probably hasn't spread beyond the breast tissue, and the axillary nodes won't have to be taken out on Friday.

So, while it was good news that the initial ultrasound look of the nodes under my arms showed no swelling or abnormal appearance, now they have to look microscopically at the actual nodes over by the breasts to make sure cancer cells haven't snuck past the sentinels and possibly headed into the arm nodes.

These tests, the "Sentinel Node Mapping & Biopsy," are relatively new--Dr. Susan Love says in the latest 4th edition of her Breast Book that this a "promising" procedure, perhaps a way to avoid the old hit-and-miss way of simply taking out a sampling of axillary nodes during the mastectomy, sending them out for a quick look by pathology, and the surgeon deciding right then whether to remove the axillary nodes. My surgeon will know a day or two before the surgery on Friday whether those nodes need to be removed. So, I feel fortunate that I have the benefit of this more definitive procedure, though I still fear the results. I really, really want to avoid the complications of the axillary node dissection, but I just don't have any choice in the matter. If the sentinels are cancerous, the axillaries have to go. If they are not, then I'll be very happy. Either way, I'll know ahead of time. So that's that.

So now it's time to get my working clothes on and get started on the day's fun-filled activities.