06/04/2026
Long update post:
Yesterday I had surgery #2! No more b**b surgery, this one was all about lymph nodes (my 2 b**b surgery sites have clear margins yay!). During my last surgery on 5/12, they did an Axillary Sentinel Node biopsy, taking and testing 5 lymph nodes. 4 out of 5 had cancer, which is why I unexpectedly had to have an Axillary Node dissection, meaning I had to have all lower level lymph nodes removed on the right side. This was a surprise to my surgeon and oncologist, based on all my scans and MRI(s) they only suspected maybe 2 lymph nodes had a tiny bit of cancer. It's a bummer, but they have to be thorough and sometimes surprises happen once they do the lab testing. When they find more nodes with cancer like this, then they take the rest out of caution, cause otherwise it will just keep on spreading. Just goes to show how unpredictable cancer can be, and glad I am to be in a city with such great cancer care.
I had an overnight this time since it's a little more invasive in my armpit area andl have to have a drain tube (yuck), but I'm confident in my surgeon and medical team, and hopefully today is the last of the surgeries 🤞. I get to go home in a few hours!
Thank you everyone who has been so supportive! Also thank you to everyone who has had to work with me on some appointment rescheduling, it kills me having to move people around and take time off work. I will be back to work as soon as I can, but I predict my arm will be pretty sore for a while before I can tattoo, hopefully no more than a few weeks (hopefully sooner!)
Lastly, please dont hesitate to schedule a tattoo with me! Like I said, I will be back to tattooing as soon as possible and can really use the business due to all this time off work and medical bills. I also have some art and creations for sale on my website if you want to support my business while I'm down, I am going to try to get some art done at least while not being able to tattoo which I will add to the website when I can, along with some other stuff I've made prior to surgery 🖤💜✌️
Also, the reason I need to take time off from tattooing is because this surgery is basically in me armpit/lower arm area. When I tattoo, I use both hands/arms, my right arm holds a lot of tension stretching the skin for long periods of time, so until I'm not all swollen and sore (or have the drain tube), I have to wait. But I hopefully can still get some drawings done with my left hand whole recovering 😊🤞
