breast cancer: post surgery photos
(first surgery - wide local excision and sentinel node biopsy)

  1. 14/Feb/2009                                      2. 14/Feb/2009                                         3. 20/Feb/2009                                     4. 20/Feb/2009

The blue stain is the dye they inject in order to find the sentinel nodes. It also makes you do a smurf-blue pee when you first go to the toilet after surgery. I wasn't expecting that and it was a real surprise! You can see that the blue dye stayed in my system for quite a long time (and in subsequent photos). The small incision under my arm is for the sentinel node biopsy. The red spot on my breast is just a skin pigmentation (nothing special) and the other red mark under the scar is just a pimple! Stitches were internal dissolving ones and the tape just helped hold things in place. I didn't have much pain at all after that surgery; it felt like nothing more than how it looks.

If you would like to share YOUR breast cancer photographs (anonymously), please email them to tish.kirkland@hatiheri.com and I will post them on a sharing page. My aim is to create a resource to demystify breast cancer and what it involves.