A glitch in the plans

I need a sentinel node biopsy before or concurrently with surgery. To trace the initial lymph node(s) to which a breast drains, a radioactive dye is injected on either side of a tumor, and then a blue die is injected in the same places.  This has to be done from 2.5 to 15 hours before the node can be removed and biopsied. The sentinel node is located by a hand held Geiger counter. Then, the node area is opened and the first one to three blue nodes are removed and biopsied. That is scheduled for December 20.

My mastectomy surgery is scheduled for 12 hours on January 10, a Monday. They don't do sentinel node dye and tracer until 9 a.m. weekdays and never on Sunday. My only choice was to wait until the third week in February to have the mastectomy and node biopsy at the same time, or to have the two separate surgeries. I chose the latter which is also my surgeon's preference.

This way, I'll know when I go into mastectomy surgery whether the lymph nodes are involved.  It will probably be a relief to have that information before Christmas though I hate having to go through general anesthesia two times and have two surgeries.

The difficulty in scheduling this mastectomy is not because I'm in a socialized system. It is because the type of surgery I'm having requires the coordination of several different doctors. Two of them, both of whom must be there, do the DIEP flap and are the only ones in Colorado who do that particular surgery. In fact, there are only about 60 in the nation who do it. From what I understand, there is only one hospital (Sky Ridge) that is equipped with the microscopes and other equipment to do the microsurgery.  I will spend a night in ICU where they will use doppler to monitor the blood flow to the newly constructed breasts. If I was willing to have a different kind of reconstruction, I could have been in and out already.

I have a list of women who are willing to talk about their experiences with the DIEP flap.  First on the list is my plastic surgeon's mother.  How's that?

I'm scared. This is whole new territory for me.

Just say No to Obamacare.