GOOD NEWS

Haven't heard that from me in a while, have you? Preliminary pathology report shows:

at it's largest, the tumor was 2.2 cm - no bigger than we thought - not considered "big" in the breast tumor world

the sentinal node - that first one from the tumor - was the only one that had any involvement. They retrieved 24 nodes, 23 completely clear - the one node that tested positive for cancer had no "extranodule involvement", meaning it had not left the lymph node, the node was not in any way enlarged or changed - the area in it that showed to have cancer cells was 2 mm in size. That's millimeters and I'm assured that's as small as it sounds - FABULOUS news.

The pathologist saw nothing but clean margins meaning he saw nothing but healthy tissue around the piece of me they excised. Which indicates they got all the cancer out in this surgery. Which means NO MORE SURGERY FOR ME!

I have no fever, swelling is slowly getting better, output into the drain is getting lower - I could possibly qualify to get it out tomorrow, but I won't - my next appointment with the surgeon is Thursday afternoon, I am positive this drain is coming out then. I cannot wait, i will make me very happy.

I'll soon be meeting with oncologists, getting my pathology slides re-read by UT, etc., etc., Nothing can start until I'm all healed up from the surgery, 3 plus weeks. So for now - we'll just soak up this good news, I'm gonna exhale and focus on healing up my boo-boo's, do my stretching exercises, be a good girl. I can beat this, how can I not with such a wonderful tribe of friends and love ones!