My Mother's Journey Through Breast Cancer

She's finally finished her chemotherapy! Now, it's the beginning of the end. She has her surgery February 16. She opted for them to test her left lymph nodes prior to surgery since for some reason they haven't done that already. She has to be at the hospital at 6 am. We will leave at 5 am. She cannot eat or drink anything after midnight tonight except a bit of water to take her meds. Once she arrives at the hospital, they will do all the pre-surgery stuff, like blood pressure, give her Valium, have the anesthesiologist talk to her, etc. Then she starts her 6 to 7 hour surgery. The left lymph node tests will determine if they take all her breast tissue on her left side or if they only do a partial. Either way, she's having a bi-lateral mastectomy.

Once the breast tissue is removed, the plastic surgeon will begin her partial reconstruction. He will insert cadaver "spacers". Eventually the processed cadaver tissue will be accepted as part of her own body. The plastic surgeon can only do partial reconstruction at this point because my mom will have to have radiation for 5-6 weeks after she heals from the mastectomies. When this surgery is over, she will have a drain protruding from each "breast". My mom will have to spend the night in the hospital, possibly two, depending on how quickly they get her pain under control. Then she will be bed-ridden for at least a week. That's pretty much it for right now. We will stay in contact with those who care as much as we can. We DO need your prayers because my mom is quitting smoking during this little process...God help us all! LMFAO!