I had surgery 3 weeks ago to remove the cancerous lump I had found in December, and some lymph nodes that were suspicious on an ultrasound and PET scan. This is the second time I've had breast cancer (first time in 2012) and this is being considered a local recurrence and the surgery was to do a further axillary clearance to what was done the first time (I also had a double mastectomy last time). The surgeon was pleased with how the surgery went, and felt confident she had got all she went in for. However, the histology report showed only cancer in the lump, and not in any of the lymph nodes removed, which doesn't match the scans, as there was at least one thing showing up as dodgy further up in my arm pit. I am due to start chemo soon (was already the plan) but now I will also need another ultrasound in 2-3 weeks and another PET scan in around 3 months, to see whether the thing further up had, indeed, been missed. It feels really stressful when I had thought the pre-chemo surgery had removed it all, and now there is a question mark around this.
