So August 22, 2012, I found out that the two lumps were cancerous and the margins weren’t clean. (Basically both of the little pearls that were removed were all cancer, so I would have to have additional surgery to make sure the cancer didn’t spread beyond the lumps into surrounding tissue).  I had additional surgery on September 13, 2013.  My nipple (which had been saved with the skin sparing mastectomy) as well as about a couple inches of skin were removed.  Thankfully, no further cancer was found.

Prior to the re-excision (as the surgery was called), my surgeon wanted me to get a breast MRI so he could be sure that there was nothing else he needed to remove.  I went to the Imaging Center, had an IV started because the surgeon wanted an MRI with and without contrast, and then found out that the tissue expanders that were implanted when I had the mastectomy were NOT compatible with an MRI.  Aargh!  It took long enough for the nurse to find a vein in my right arm, just to have the IV removed.  I wish I would have remembered to read the little card the surgeon gave me after my surgery in January, I would have saved myself some time and pain in my arm.

After the surgery in September, I went to a number of doctors.  My oncologist wanted to start me on additional chemotherapy, a six month regimen of the drug taxotere.  To lessen the side effects, he recommended I receive chemotherapy once per week for three weeks, followed by one week off.  My oncologist also wanted me to see a radiation oncologist to decide if I should receive additional radiation to my right breast.