Today is the day for updates.  Monday afternoon, I had my surgery to remove lymph nodes and the tumor bed. Going into surgery, we were pretty hopeful that the cancer was completely gone.  It was so interesting how they truly test the lymph nodes. They use a radioactive solution along with a Geiger counter to show which ones are “hot”.  They determined that three of my lymph nodes had drainage from the tumor, so out they went. I had been warned that part of the surgery/recovery would be the most painful. They weren’t wrong. It feels like there is a hot knife in my armpit.  Interestingly, there isn’t an incision near the pain.  During surgery they removed the lymph nodes, as well as all of the tumor bed. These items went off to pathology to make sure there wasn’t any cancer in the lymph nodes and that they had clear margins, meaning that they removed all of the cancer related cells along with clean tissue to ensure all of the cancer is gone. I received the call from my surgeon yesterday. The lymph nodes are clear, which is a huge relief; however, the cancer had spread into my tissue further than the initial scans showed. When cancer is affected by chemo, they hope to have it shrink into itself. That being said, sometimes the body fights it like Swiss cheese, leaving little holes in the tissue. My body said Swiss cheese it is!  Due to that, they didn’t get clear margins. I will have to have another surgery on 12/2 to remove more tissues to make sure all of the cancer cells are gone. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but they path we are on none the less. I will also have to take a chemo pill for a while now so my body will keep up the good fight.  I meet with my surgeon again next week to determine how we move ahead for sure.