I had dye injected in my breast before surgery. During my surgery, the surgeon removed the first clump of lymph nodes off the breast, then she started sentinel nodes. Those were tested while I was still in the table. They were negative, so she stopped there. If any were positive for cancer, she would have taken the next clump, and tested until they were negative.

No it’s not about “spread”. It’s about how many they will remove during surgery. If you don’t have any in your nodes per a biopsy, normally they remove only the closest nodes to your tumor, called sentinel nodes, and it’s usually something between 2-5 max. I had 3 removed.
When they’re talking about auxiliary, that means removing all or many nodes on that side, which could be 15. That’s a much heavier surgery and carries long-term risk of lymphedema etc. So make sure you understand exactly what they will be doing and ask why. Don’t let them remove more than necessary because some surgeons are quick to do this to cover their bases but don’t always care for the consequences to you.

My initial order was written sentinel nodes because I told her at our first meeting no lymph node removal, only the sentinel nodes and my surgery was postponed when it was supposed to happen so when I saw the new order on mychart written lymph node removal I about flipped out and contacted her office to make sure she wasn't going to remove lymph nodes, she reassured me then.

I do lymphedema breast massage daily.
I have it down to a quicker massage.