The Time Has Come

Ok guys, the waiting is over. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. The good news is that the lymph node biopsies came back normal. So, the procedure is the following. In the morning I am going to have a test - mapping the lymph nodes. They will put a dye into the lymphatics to see if any of the lymph nodes around the breast harbour any cancer cells. If there are any, those will be taken out for frozen section as I lie on the table. If they are definitely positive, the surgeon takes out all the lymph nodes (5 days in hospital), if it's normal or ambiguous, no more glands will be taken out until those already out go through further testing (2 days in hospital). So, there's still uncertainty, but it will get done. Whatever treatment will be necessary afterwards will be determined by what the surgeon finds.

I am totally overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. The morning test is close to my house, and I have to be there at 9am. Marianne B. will pick me up at 11am to take me to the Mater hospital in Crows Nest (on the other side of the city). The surgery is scheduled for the afternoon, so Judy P. will come in and hold my hand before going under the knife and then Nellie G. will be there when I wake up. Isn't this amazing? Oh, and last, but not least, Lucy SK in Namibia is organising a 5 continent praying effort, so if you get an email from her, please don't chuck it, just do whatever she says. Can't hurt, anyway.

That's all for now. Will get back on the blog when I return home in 2 or 5 days time.