Axillary Lymph Node Biopsy

First -- I received a phone call this morning from Kristi with my MRI results.  The imaging doesn't indicate any lymph node involvement (GREAT news) or any cancer on the right side or anywhere else they weren't expecting to see it.  It appears we are currently dealing with a localized tumor (also GREAT news). 

But still...we were going to go ahead with the axillary lymph node biopsy just be certain.  So I headed into the hospital for that procedure this morning.  The hospital was even MORE empty this time. We were screened for Coronavirus before being allowed into the hospital.  Ben wasn't allowed to come back with me at all and ended up having to wait in the car.  Things are getting straight other-worldly out there!

I had the same team of nurses & doctor from my first biopsy, and the process (while slow) went fine.  It's awkward and a little uncomfortable, but not painful. And I was able to watch on the ultrasound the entire time so I could see what they were doing and what the lymph node looked like.

This time of course they all KNEW I have cancer (and they knew *I* knew) so they were much more forthcoming about what they were seeing.  Or maybe I asked better questions.  In any case, we all knew I was now an *actual* cancer patient.

Based on what they saw on the ultrasound of my lymph node and the information from my MRI results, the doctor said he thought it was very likely the biopsy results would show no cancer cells.  

So we're hoping that's true. 

I have an appointment with a surgeon on Wednesday when I hope to have more information about the order of events and severity of the surgery portion of the process.