Wife Is Facing a Mastectomy...Relationship Advice Needed (Outcome Update)
For those of you who have been following my original post and associated thread (now closed) on the above topic, I wanted to share an update:
My wife had her surgery two weeks ago, and the overall recovery had gone very well. Today, we had a follow-up appointment with her surgeon to have her get the drain at the surgical site removed, as well as to find out the results of the biopsy on her "sentinel" lymph nodes that was done to see if the cancer had spread beyond the originally-identified tumor. Needless to say, the last two weeks were fraught with anxiety for both of us because we were unsure of what to expect...fearing the worst, but cautiously hoping for the best. Facing this appointment in some ways was worse than going in for the initial operation...at least at that time, we knew what to expect with no further surprises anticipated, but this time??? I suppose that in a way, we were both experiencing what a condemned prisoner must be thinking on the way to their execution.
Well, long story short - the news was POSITIVE and much better than what we were expecting. I'm not a spiritual person, but maybe all those good wishes sent my wife's way (including those from the fine ladies of this Forum) had an added impact. All I know is that when the surgeon shared the pathology report with us, he told us that all of the cancer had successfully been removed, the "margins" around the original tumor were clear, and that my wife was now officially CANCER FREE. Shock, awe, numbness, and elation..a veritable swirl of competing emotions, but in a good way.
Of course, there is still some follow-up work to be done. My wife will now be referred to a Breast Cancer Treatment Team of the type that Stephanie47 mentioned in one of her posts, and consisting of a number of medical specialists including an oncologist, a plastic surgeon, and an internal medicine specialist etc. They will now monitor her on-going progress and perhaps recommend a type of prophylactic chemotherapy that includes monitoring and adjusting her estrogen levels on a regular basis to prevent another tumor of this type from re-occurring at some point in the future. But these are preventative measures only. Right now, my wife is definitely considered to be cancer-free.
A huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders. Life can now essentially continue as before. Many thanks again to all of you for your empathy and support, as well as for the positive outcome that we have now experienced but had not dared to hope for.
