Hi All:
My surgery was a week ago and I wanted to follow up on my experience.
Everyone at the hospital was really great. The wire localization was not painful and went pretty quickly. I also had the shot of radioactive tracer the night before, followed by a scan so they could find my sential node.
The day of the surgery the anestesiologist came to pre-op and chatted with my husband and I was was great about explaining everything. I really appreciated this as the general anestesia was a new experience for me and I was very nervous. He gave me valium in an IV immediately, then I went into the operating room. I will always remember him putting a mask over my face and saying, "take a couple of deep breaths for me"...that was it and I was out
Woke up very groggy, but went out for a sandwich after leaving the hospital that afternoon.
I had 3cm of tissue at the site of my tumor removed and they also took 3 lymph nodes.
I am still sore and bruised and I am anxiously waiting for the results from pathology. But overall it was not as hard as I expected.