The “large tumor” the surgeon felt during the physical exam turns out to be a large sac of fluid, assumedly left over from last September’s surgery. I’m told this is not uncommon, and that the plan is to drain it.

The radiologist — who was good enough to let me see the images and describe what he saw — doesn’t believe I have Inflammatory Breast Cancer but, since he’s not a breast cancer specialist, he added that he can’t entirely rule it out. Fair enough: I wouldn’t want to be a radiologist who contradicts the surgeon either.

Tomorrow I’ll get two more tests (bone density and PT scan), which will be looking for metastases. Assuming those are clear, I’m fully back among the living. When I have the final diagnosis, I’ll write more about what I’ve learned about myself during the last five days… some of it surprising even to me.

In the meanwhile, I broke my “nutritionally dense only foods” and celebrated last night with pizza and wine. A girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do.