May 2014 ....not what I expected

I was so excited on May 8th, 2014 I was going for my DIEP reconstruction surgery. It was going to be the final chapter in my breast cancer fight. I was going to get a new boob and no more foob! Marcel and I headed to VGH for surgery everything was going according to plan. I went into the operating room and thought to myself I am going to wake up a whole new woman with a new boob and tummy tuck.

Well that wasn't exactly what happened. About 4 hours into my 9 hour micro DIEP surgery my plastic surgeon was getting ready to look for vessels to attach the breast when she found some swollen lymph nodes under my sternum (chest bone). Shoot!!! She consulted a few other surgeons removed what she found and sent it for testing. One of the lymphnodes was cancerous DAM IT!!! so she put me back together no new boob and no tummy tuck just some new scars and drain tubes for a week. The silver lining is that if we hadn't done the surgery who knows if we would have known it was in there.

When I woke up in recovery Esta my surgeon was right by my side she told me there was a complication so of course right away I looked down no new boob ok I can deal with it. Nope that wasn't all, she told me she had found a cancerous lymph node. I went back to sleep it must be a dream right?? When I woke up the second time Marcel and Esta were both there I looked at Marcel and knew right away it was true.

So what's next? I spent 2 days in VGH recovery from my surgery that I kinda had, then I came home with drain tubes and bandages for a week. I went back to see Esta the following week and thanked her for going above and beyond to find it and remove it. Drain tubes came out and I got taped up for another week so the scars would heal nicely.

On June 5th I went and saw Dr. Uhlman my Oncologist she said that my original tumour was 2 types the first was ER + the second was ER - the ER - is what has come back so the hormone therapy that I am on won't work for that. So she is sending me for a bone scan and CT scan to re stage me and figure out what is next. I went for the bone scan yesterday and I am waiting for a date for the CT scan.

I will keep you posted.

Love Liane