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Some things I've learned over the first week.
-My wife is doing a double mastectomy. Just taking out all the tissue/plumbing and getting a double reconstruction. The initial part of the reconstruction actually happens at the same time. They put in 'extenders'. They're somewhat like balloons that are implanted below the chest muscle. They are pumped up slowly over a few weeks to stretch the chest muscle to the proper size to accept the implants.
-During the surgery, they have a pathologist on hand to immediately test the lymph nodes under the arm for cancer as this is the first place that cancer will move to if it spreads from the breast. If they are positive, they are also removed during the surgery.
-In my wife's case, it's possible that she may not need radiation or chemo. Radiation in her case depends on the lymph node findings. If it hasn't spread, may not need radiation. In regards to chemo, they have recent findings that indicate that a good chunk of cancer does not respond to it. They have indicators that can tell them which cancers will/won't respond. In the cases that it won't, they don't bother with the chemo.
-Full recovery time from initial surgery is around four weeks, though it sounds like she can go back to work in 2-3 weeks since she has a desk-based job.
-It's wonderful to find out how many people care about your family when something like this occurs. We've had wonderful support from everyone.
-We're going to tell our kids about it this week now that we have a plan of attack. Hopefully we'll be able to say the right things. I'm sure my wife will shed some tears when we tell them, so it'll be my job to keep focused so they don't get too scared when Mommy cries.
-My wife has a grade 2B cancer. It's considered the higher end of early stage cancer. Five year survival is around 80-85%, so we'll take those odds.
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