What surgery is planned

I am going to go into hospital on Tuesday 5th, I have to go in the night before surgery to get checked over and to fast overnight (I am not looking forward to going hungry). They are planning to do a lumpectomy on the 6th, removing the lump and a margin of tissue and skin surrounding it. Also, they will be carrying out a Sentinel Node Biopsy. This is where they inject a blue dye into the lump and follow the path of where fluid drains from my breast into the nodes under my armpit. By following the dye they can locate the first draining lymph node(s) and remove these. These can then be biopsied. If these come back clear then I think they can be quite happy that cancer has not spread into the lymph nodes and do not then remove any further nodes. If these are positive I will need to go back in for further surgery later on to remove all the lymph nodes (you can have any number - I think 20 is about standard). They also have to check whether they have removed enough tissue during the lumpectomy and have a clear margin of non-cancerous tissue around the tumour, if not then I may need to go back in for more surgery to remove more breast tissue.

Generally, it will take around 10 days after the surgery before they will have all these results and then re-scheduling of operations can begin if necessary. But, I have a very nice surgeon and we are hoping for the best. I could be in hospital from anywhere between 2-8 days depending on how I go. I also will keep everyone posted on the "blueness" of my boob and urine! common side effects of having the dye injected that can last for some time apparently.