I'd love being in the woods. I grew up in a small, rural community, paper mill town.
Fall is my favorite. The lakes and waterfalls, and it's just beautiful. 2012,
I had a bilateral mastectomy and a lymph node dissection. The lymph node
dissection were the lymph nodes inside of the armpit. After the lymph node
dissection, found out that cancer was still in my lymph nodes. So I had to go
through radiation. Went through 33 radiation treatments which took about
seven weeks. And at that point, I was in remission. But the radiation treatment
and the lymph node dissection created so much tightness in this arm. It ached all
the time. The skin was so tight. It was so painful. In 2016, I was referred to
University of Chicago Medicine, and they referred me to MedStar Georgetown
Hospital to see Dr. Song. Dr. Song is one of the pioneers in lymph node transfers.
iI's a relatively new surgery. And I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and the
procedure needed to be done with bloodless medicine. We will not accept a
blood transfusion from someone else. Bloodless medicine is much more
meticulous so that the patient does not lose so much blood during the course of
surgery. MedStar Georgetown is a bloodless
medicine teaching hospital which was perfect for my situation. The incision
was made from the bottom of my armpit down about 6 inches, located the cluster
of lymph nodes, and then transferred those lymph nodes into
the arm area here so that the lymphatic tissue would be able to drain. Dr. Song
is an extraordinary surgeon. You see how passionate he is and how much he truly
cares about his patients. He is the best at what he does. When I woke up from
surgery, the achiness in my arm was gone. It felt
so much lighter. I, after four years of feeling that heaviness and that achiness
in my arm, it was almost hard to believe.
My daughter, Molly, and I came all the way from Hurley, Wisconsin, to have my
procedure, and I am so very thankful that we were able to do that. It was so nice
to have my follow-up appointment with Dr. Song. Medicine has come so far, and
I'm so thankful for that continued research. And to other patients who may
be going through the same thing, there are other options. Don't stop living your
life. Find out what's available. Keep searching until you find what's right
for you. I'm just grateful, grateful that this was an option available to me.