The Sentinel Node Biopsy was always, I think, a part of the surgeon's plan. Now that I know a little bit more about it I am thrilled. But at the time I didn't know what it was; I didn't even care. I wanted to do what she said. By this time I had read and convinced myself that she was right, and anything she wanted to do was a-okay with me.

I decided to go ahead with this procedure because the surgeon recommended it. I have such faith in her and everything had gone so well for me, besides, and I knew she wanted to know more about what was going on within my body.

Before surgery, I went down to nuclear medicine, had a little prick here and there, and waiting through a machine thirty minutes and you are done. You have no side effects that I could tell.

They did take my right breast and then I had TRAM flap reconstruction. I had to wait to find out about the lymph nodes, and that's when I heard the wonderful news, five days after surgery, I think it was, that the lymph nodes were clear.

I would recommend this procedure. Sentinel Node Biopsy seems like an easy, wonderful thing and I know it helps the surgeon.

I discovered my cancer in a doctor's office, in a
	very routine exam, not expecting any trouble at
		all. The doctor found a lump in my right breast
			that I had not been aware of, unfortunately.
				My tumor was a Stage III, so they wanted
					to start the chemo first to shrink the
					tumor. I had four courses of Taxol and four
					courses of FAC and it was wonderful,
				because immediately my tumor began to
			shrink. Even my doctor couldn't believe it, I
		think. So I was really thrilled, still am thrilled,
	with chemo.