More ops, more scars

Met with the Consultant Breast Surgeon last Friday to talk about the next step. He seemed to think I might have forgotten what was going to happen next - perhaps some patients do??! - so he gently reminds me that we had talked about doing the Axillary Lymph Node Dissection (sounds like a laboratory procedure but actually means removing all lymph nodes under armpit).

I confirmed my recollection of this plan of action and said that me and the Consultant Oncologist had been proceeding on the basis that this is the next step.

Prior to this meeting I had managed to get my blood test for anaemia done at the GP surgery. The GP was ringing me that afternoon to discuss my results and in the meantime I had rung the receptionist that morning who had told me that my haemoglobin was 8.9. That's not good and it was the same level it went down to when I had to have the transfusion before. I told my Surgeon about this and he made some enquiries and eventually got a printout of the full blood count which established that my haemoglobin was actually 10, so still anaemic but not as bad as 8.9 and it was my white blood cells which were at 8.9, which is a bloody good level of white blood cells to have achieved less than 2 weeks post chemo! Well done, body. Shame you didn't show the same level of efficiency when dealing with cancerous tumours.

Anaemia panic over we decided the hb levels would probably come up to normal again by themselves so we were pretty safe arranging a date for surgery. That operation has therefore been booked for 11th November. I've been warned that it's an "all day list". Anyone who has been in this situation will know that is subtle doctor speak for "you will spend the entire day starving. Starving, I tell you!!!"

The other thing that happened is that on examination the Surgeon noticed my currently-redundant-but-still-much-loved port. He's taking it out. No, I don't want to talk about it.