Help and advice please regarding “next steps”

Hi, 

this is my first post, so hello all 

I was diagnosed with DCIS & also breast cancel in my right breast  and had my  mastectomy at the start of February this year. During my follow up appointment with the surgeon, I was advised that one of four axillary lymph nodes, came back positive with cancer. My operation operation to remove them all is planned in a couple of weeks.

Both my partner and I were totally shocked as prior to this all the news were positive. I had a lot of biopsies  taken over the course of NOV/DEC  and with the exception of the tumour which was just under 4 cms , the surgeon said everything was isolated within the breast and  said it had caught it early and wasn’t expecting any positive results from the sentinel node biopsies.

My questions are

1 should they find more nodes with cancer after my ANC, along with whatever treatment is needed after, (ie) chemotherapy,radiotherapy etc, can pathology tell how long they have been in the nodes and if so does that give an indicator if it has spread?

2 Also, following whatever treatment plan I am offered, do they then give you a PET scan to see if it has spread further? 

For some background, I did have a partial  hysterectomy many years ago however I still have my ovaries, as the consultant said they were stick to the bowel caused by abdominal adhesions, caused by previous surges, so they left them. Given  this is a hormone led cancer, I am so scared that I may have to just wait and see if it reappears somewhere else and will feel like a ticking time bomb,  so to speak. 

any advice or information would be really appreciated 

Virtual hugs to all of you out there

Julie x