Surgery Day - Update 2

Hello family and friends,

 

It's time!  Mom was wheeled back into surgery at about 9:50 AM.  She and dad had been here at the hospital since 6:30 AM.  

 

When she arrived this morning, they had to put a wire into her breast to help guide the surgeons later in the day when they did the actual surgery.  She said that this was a little painful, but not nearly as bad as the biopsy.  After the wire procedure she went into one of the mammography rooms to get some radioactive dye so they could find her sentinel node and some other lymph nodes.  Mom was NOT looking forward to this part, as she had heard from many other people how painful this was.  She was only gone for about 30 minutes, and when they wheeled her back into the room with us, she said that it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was going to be.  She had asked for some numbing cream before the procedure, which likely helped.  She also found out that about 4 - 5 months ago, they changed the formula of the radioactive dye, so it is now not as painful as it used to be.  We were all very relieved that the procedure went well and was not as painful as she expected it to be.  

Dr. Bouton is operating right now. He is doing the lumpectomy.  After he is done, Dr. Traynor will operate on her thyroid.  Each surgery is expected to take around 1.5 hours, if things go well.  If cancer is found in the first few lymph nodes that they take out, the surgery will take longer because they will need to take out more lymph nodes.

Dr. Traynor will decide while he is in there whether he needs to take out the whole thyroid or if she gets to keep part of it.  We are hoping that there is no cancer in the thyroid and that she can keep part of it, as that will make recovery from that portion of the surgery much easier.  

 

I will keep this blog updated throughout the day.  We all truly appreciate your prayers, in addition to all of the other surprises that mom has received lately.


Update 1 - 12:15 PM

Dr. Bouton spoke with us around 11:50 and said the surgery went well.  The number of lymph nodes they take out during surgery depends on how many lymph nodes the dye goes to (usually 1 - 6); the dye in mom's body happened to go to 5 lymph nodes, so that is how many they took out today. Unfortunately, cancer was found in one of those nodes.  This means that she will likely have to do chemotherapy.  On a positive note, cancer was NOT found in 4 out of the 5 nodes, which means the chance that it has spread anywhere else in her body is small.  Also, they did not have to take more lymph nodes, which means less pain during recovery.

Dr. Traynor is working on her thyroid now - I will keep you updated when we hear from him.  


Update 2 - 1:10 PM

Dr. Traynor just spoke with us, and the thyroid surgery went very well.  He was able to take only half of her thyroid, and was even able to attempt to save one of her parathyroid glands.  The half of the thyroid that he took out was sent to pathology, and the initial reports came back as benign (non-cancerous).  This report is 85% accurate - they will now send it to a more extensive lab to make sure that it is benign.  If they happen to find cancer, they will have to go in within the next week to take the rest out... but, the chances are good that she will get to keep half of her thyroid.  

Mom is now in recovery... she will then be moved to her room for the night. Both of these surgeries are usually outpatient procedures, but with both of them taking place at the same time, she will spend the night in the hospital just to keep an eye on everything.  

Thanks again for your prayers - they are very much appreciated!