It’s been a little over 3 weeks since my lumpectomy and I feel like I’m on track for a healthy recovery.  The incision areas are healing quite nicely. The remaining breast tissue near the incision is still hard and bit bruised and tender, which is to be expected.  It may take a few more weeks for that to part to fully heal.

I was feeling anxious about the surgical pathology results.  It kept me up on the nights leading up to my post-op appointments.  I felt my body tense up and all those ‘what if’ questions slowly started up again, bringing me to my dark and scary place…

I had a mid-day appointment, so traffic getting to Santa Monica wasn’t too bad.  I waited a while in the exam room, when my oncologist finally walked in the door, overjoyed with the great news.  

CLEAR MARGINS and LYMPH NODES WERE NEGATIVE!

I’m not sure how else to feel but excited and I love that my doctors were so excited with me.  They almost seemed surprised by my body’s response to the treatments, which isn’t always the outcome for patients with ER+ breast cancer.  

We went over the pathology results, my doctor showed me the detailed report and I was stunned.  I kept seeing the words ‘BENIGN’ and ‘NEGATIVE FOR CARCINOMA’…‘Negative for metastatic carcinoma in four lymph nodes (0/4)’… although there’s a chance there could have been cancer cells in my lymph nodes, the chemo had taken care of it.  I’m not even sure I was listening to everything she was saying after that.  I do remember she put in a referral for a bone density test that I will need to have done soon, I will also need to do regular check-ups every 3 months, and we also chatted about endocrine therapy (but that’s a whole other post).

I can’t believe my post-op appointments went so well. I immediately texted my husband with the news.  And walked out of the medical building so happy and full of energy. We celebrated with drinks that night and there was a mini victory celebration with my friends and a delicious food platter! 

Next and final step… radiation.