I felt amazingly relaxed this morning as I hung around at home passing time until I had to leave for the hospital as I was scheduled into afternoon surgery. My first visit of the day was to the breast clinic, to drop in a magseed - basically a magnetic micro pin that the surgeon will use to find the cancerous lump and an upgrade on the wire guides that were used here until a few months ago. Apparently the clip tha's already there was designed to work with the wire guide, now the magseed will replace both clip and wire. Technology is improving all the time. Most pushing and shoving in the mammogram machine and all was well.
Then over to day surgery, where both the surgeon and the anaesthetist filled me on on what would happen. Did you know, many hospitals no longer use blue dye to find the sentinel lymph nodes as it is a by product from nuclear power stations and is difficult to get? Instead they inject me with iron filings and basically massage them up my boob into the lymph nodes……well there you go.
I was then somewhat bemused when the nurse asked me if I could pee in a cup for a pregnancy test. Hmm, I really am in a lot more trouble if that comes back positive. Anyway, off I trot to the loo and in the act of peeing in the pot I manage to set off the emergency alarm, resulting in my quickly sorting myself out whilst desperately trying not to spill anything!
Peace was restored, I assume I am not pregnant and I walked down to theatre around 4pm. So the next hour is clearly a blur, but I woke up with pink dye all over me (apparently it's the hygiene wash but it hasn’t half left a stain on my white towels!j and one very neat cut as he cleverly managed to remove the lump and a single sentinel lymph node in the same incision.
Back on the day ward, most welcome tea and toast and ready to go home about 2 hours later, complete with a pair of compression socks (1 pair for 2 weeks, don't push the boat out NHS) and a long list of do's and don’ts! Felt like it was all well managed, very smooth and I know where to go for support should I need it. Results in about 2 weeks……time to put that in box on a high shelf and not think about it?
Apparently I am now meant to do nothing for 2 weeks. Not quite sure how that's going to work out, but let's see 
