Surgeon Couldn't Find Lymph Nodes

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Hi Every body.

I hope all treatments are going as planned for you.

I just wondered if anyone had had a similar experience to my own. I had a wide Lateral excision at the end of 2021 and then re excision to clear margins early 2022. Unfortunately I then required excision biopsy this September as I have a local recurrence.

I went through a mastectomy last Monday but my surgeon, the morning after the surgery, told me that she couldn't find any blue stained sentinel nodes and couldn't find any axilla nodes either. Does anyone know what happens next as surely this will be quite important for any future staging and treatments?

Love and hugs to all

  • Don't know if this helps. I had sentinel node and WLE 18months ago. The sentinel nodes did not take up the radioactive injection which I had prior to surgery so was unable to identify any sentinel node. I had auxillary node sampling instead which meant he took 5 nodes . 

  • Thank you for getting back to me.

    I can only hope that some axillary nodes found there way in to the breast specimen.

    Hoping all goes well for you.

    Love and hugs

  • I had 30 lymph nodes removed, no dye was used. The student nurse who was in theatre said that part of the op was harder than the breast surgery. It does sound strange that they couldn't find them. It was only in 1 lymph node. 

  • Thank you for your reply.

    I have had radiotherapy which may have shrunk them but unfortunately I have very little confidence in my surgeon any way so this is just additional concern

    ,All the best and love and hugs

  • Love n hugs right back at you. We have to believe somehow things are going right. I'm up and down just a bit paranoid. Today it's not raining, I might even dance outside with my group.