I had lumpectomy/node sampling/34 rads sessions /tamoxifen and recon (fat grafting then implants) in 2008. Surgeon notes state I had 19 nodes and he took 7 - so I was left with 12. Tumour was 17mm grade 1, ER 3 PR2, HER2 negative all 7 nodes were clear.
In 2024, during an ultrasound to check my implants were not leaking they found a new tumour - same breast. 19mm grade 2. I was booked for mastectomy with sentinel node sampling or node sampling/clearance depending in how the sentinel node looked. Day of op I had a radioactive dye injected through my nipple and was told that it was a tracer dye which would track to the sentinel node.
Saw the surgeon a month later for post op follow up. She said - quite offhandedly - she took tissue sample from my axillary but the lab couldn't find any nodes in it.
I wasn't too concerned at the time - but recently I've been starting to wonder if they should have gone back to find/sample nodes. If the dye was there to track to the sentinel node why was it not found and whipped out.
Obviously now my mind starts to do that 3am trick of telling me they missed it, I'm riddled and I'm going to be dead and buried by next Thursday.
