Break Out the Champagne

Day 8 Post Op
The drains are out!!! Yeah! Had my second visit to Dr. Doezie's office, and he was very pleased with the way things are progressing. Fluid output from the Jackson-Pratt drains had dropped enough that he had no hesitation in removing them (a fairly painless process).

And tomorrow.... I get to take a SHOWER. I'm so excited!

Pathology Update
Dr. Kushner's PA called me back at the end of the day, and reported that my hormone receptor tests are negative. This is what I was hoping to hear! My expectations had been swinging from one extreme to the other. I started menopause very early, around age 37, was mostly done by around age 39, and was officially done by age 42 (officially means a year without menstruation). I never took HRT, so on one side I was certain that I couldn't have estrogen-sensitive tumors, because I was convinced there wasn't any left in my body. But I wasn't sure about progesterone, and the odds are very high that a given breast cancer IS hormone receptor positive, so sometimes I was certain that it WOULD be positive, and was mentally preparing myself for those results, too.

I can't be sure until I've met with an oncologist, but I think these results mean it's unlikely I'll need ongoing drug therapy.

The news is good enough, for now, that Pete rushed to the fridge for the slightly flat bottle of champagne he had opened for friends a couple of nights ago, and poured us a glass.