I'm seeing my oncologist on Weds. I'm going to be asking him about lymph nodes in regards to surgery. I don't want all my lymph nodes removed. He had said that the one disadvantage to doing chemo first is that we won't know for sure lymph node involvement because the chemo would kill any microscopic cancer. But, I'm pretty sure a sentinel node lymph node biopsy will still be done. Have to confirm this. This is the first lymph node the tumor drains into. If there is no cancer there, then that's it and they don't remove anymore. But, if there is they usually remove more for biopsy. How many more? Well, that seems to be up for grabs. I don't like that. I don't want to wake up and find out I had 19 negative lymph nodes but, now no longer have those (and I'm just pulling that number out of the hat). Often times if there is cancer in the sentinel node then they remove all the axillary nodes. I need to discuss this with my oncologist and see what he recommends.
You need your lymph nodes. Not having them causes a lot of problems like edema of your arm and we are talking about my right arm here.
One of the things I love about you is that you are on top of it! You will never walk blindly into a situation just trusting those who are The Professionals like so many other people (including myself to a certain extent). Not only that but you somehow know what to look up and where to find the info! I would be completely overwhelmed by the extent of information and would drown in the flood of internet advice.
ReplyDeleteYou amaze me.