The day before my double mastectomy I had an appointment where they injected this radioactive liquid into my chest near one of the tumors. Sometimes this procedure is done the same day as the mastetomy. The liquid goes to the sentinel lymph node(s) which are the ones located closest to your cancer. This allows the surgeon to find and remove the sentinel lymph node(s) during surgery where they test it for cancer cells. If they don't find cancer in the sentinel lymph node(s) then they finish up with the mastectomy. If they do find cancer in the sentinel lymph node(s) then they will remove more lymph nodes before finishing up with the mastectomy. Typically when cancer spreads beyond the original tumor(s) it travels through your lymphatic system from one lymph node to another before eventually moving to your bones or other organs and becoming stage IV cancer.

Ask your doctor or nurse if they numb you up with lidocaine or another numbing agent before they give you this shot. I mention this because for me the shot burned really bad for a few minutes during and afterwards and then the pain slowly eased up. It was probably about 10-15 minutes until the pain was gone. Not all places give a numbing shot to the patient because they don't think it is necessary when in reality it is. I was told it felt a bee sting before they injected me, which was really unhelpful because I'm allergic to bees. It felt more like 10 bee stings. After the shot I told the two young ladies who took care of the procedure that everyone giving patients this particular shot should have to experience it once for themselves so they know what they're talking about. I tend to be vocal when things hurt and/or are misrepresentd. I know it's not necessarily what you want to hear, but it's helpful to know what to expect in advance. Good luck ❤️

The dye procedure was done right before surgery for me. The lymph nodes that start clearing away the dye first, are the ones that would be most likely to have picked up cancer cells, so those they call the sentinel nodes. They removed three for me, and all clear- so no other (auxillary) nodes needed to be removed and tested. They did numb before the needle- and the tech apologized, and said it would help a lot, but it would still be uncomfortable. He was right, but that passed pretty quickly as they were already giving me an IV with meds for surgery. Hugs!

Thank you Rosegardengal , i always have anxiety not knowing what it will be .but the MIR show now evidence of lymph node involved .I’m continue to pray for that.

Yooly, mine was read incorrectly, showing stage 4, don't be afraid please, after surgery I was diagnosed with 1A, I had two areas and they combined the areas