Pre-op day – 6th February 2019
Given the short notice of my node biopsy op, I had to have my pre-op the day before. It was a fairly non-event with me just having to have a couple of blood tests and to answer a few questions. It was a nuisance having to travel 20 miles to the hospital for about 10 minutes but it had to be done.
Sentinel lymph node biopsy op – 7th February 2019
It was a relatively early start as we had to be at the hospital for 9.30am.
The weather was terrible – snow! Travelling from home to the hospital was somewhat dodgy as the the snow started to come down just as were over the tops….. the road was soon covered with snow. Thankfully we made it before it got too bad.
We parked the car at the hospital where I was having the operation and then walked over to the other hospital for my blue dye injection. It was all somewhat underwhelming. I am not sure what I was expecting but I thought the injection would be a lot more than a simple injection. The blue dye was injected into my breast and I was ready to leave.
We made our way over to the other hospital and checked in. My check-in time wasn’t until 2pm but they did say that my room would be ready straightaway. We were planning on having a walk around the town but the weather was so rubbish that we decided to check in early.
I’d taken bananagrams to keep us occupied and we played a few games of this on the bed.
After seeing the anaesthetist and consultant, I changed into my sexy op outfit…. lovely paper knickers and gown! Thankfully I had my own dressing gown and slippers to allow a sense of normality. I walked down to theatre. After my cannula had been fitted in the pre-op room, I walked through into the main theatre where I lay on the bed and chatted to the nurses whilst the anaesthetist explained to me the different liquids that he was feeding into my cannula. In no time at all, I was asleep.
I remember waking up in recovery. I felt fine, if not a little cold. I was soon covered in an ‘electric blanket’. After what felt like a few minutes, I was taken back to my room. It was 5.55pm. I was expecting Tim to be there but he wasn’t (through no fault of his own). I’ve got an oxygen mask on but it was a little unpleasant so the nurse attached a nasal cannula (tube going up the nose). This was much better.
I asked the nurse if she had contacted Tim and she said she’d phone him once she had sorted out my obs. Half an hour later she returned and I asked again…. she’d forgotten. Great! My sandwich (ham and pickle) arrived…. having not eaten for the best part of a day, it was nice to eat.
Time was getting on and I wondered where Tim was. At around 7.30pm, there was a knock at the door – it was Tim. He’d been wandering around town before coming back to the hospital around 6.30pm. After waiting, he asked the receptionist if I had come out of theatre and she said to just go up to my room….. the nurse has completely forgotten to contact him. Whilst I understand she was probably busy, I didn’t his was very goods as he and my family, who were expecting Tim to call after about an hour of me going down to theatre were probably worried sick as it was around 3 hours later.
The consultant popped by to see how I was doing and said that he didn’t expect me to be so “chirpy”. I actually didn’t feel too bad. Thankfully I didn’t have and side effects of the anesthetic. We were told that we would have to wait 4 hours post the operation as I needed to have a blood thinning injection to prevent blood clots. The nurse did say that she could give the injection to us and that we could go home but this would mean that Tim would have to administer the injection…… mmmm, I think not! It was only an extra 40 minutes so we decided to wait and get the nurse to do it. The injection was just a quick one in my stomach. It was fine and once that was done, we were soon on our way.
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB)
This is a surgical procedure that is used to determine if the cancer has spread beyond a primary tumour into the lymphatic system. An ultrasound is usually done before the operation to assess the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes are usually the first set of lymph nodes where breast cancer will spread because the breast and armpit are close to each other.
What is involved in the operation?
In a sentinel lymph node biopsy, a blue dye is first injected into the breast. The lymphatic vessels will carry this dye along the same path that the cancer would likely take. The first lymph node(s) the dye travels to will be the sentinel node(s). During surgery, the surgeon cuts the skin over the area and removes the nodes containing the dye.
The few removed lymph nodes are then checked closely for cancer cells by a doctor called a pathologist. If no cancer cells are seen in the node(s) at the time of the surgery, or if the sentinel node(s) are not checked by a pathologist at the time of the surgery, they will be examined more closely over the next several days.
If cancer is found in the sentinel node(s) later, the surgeon may recommend a full
axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) at a later date to check more nodes for cancer. If no cancer is found, it’s very unlikely that the cancer has spread to other lymph nodes, so no further lymph node surgery is needed.
Lymph nodes are responsible for draining lymph fluid, so their removal can cause some side effects after surgery. One side effect can be lymphedema of the arm, which is a chronic swelling of the arm. The blue dye will more than likely cause the breast to turn a shade of blue and it is also normal for the patient’s face to be slightly tinged post the operation – this will soon disappear.
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1 - The Journey Begins click here
2 - Diagnosis click here
3 - MRI Scan click here
4 - Results Confirmation click here
5 - Biopsy click here
6 - Reconstruction Options click here
7 - Time to Decide click here
8 - Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (you're on this page)
9 - Lymph Node Biopsy Results click here
10 - The Big Op click here
11 - Day 1 Post Op click here
12 - Day 2 Discharge Day click here
13 - Week 1 Post Op click here
14 - Week 2 Post Op click here
15 - Week 3 Post Op click here
16 - Week 4 Post Op click here
17 - Week 5 Post Op click here
18 - Week 6 Post Op click here
19 - Week 7 Post Op click here
20 - Weeks 8-13 Post Op click here
21 - 5 Months Post Op click here
OhBoob! 