The next surgery

I have to make this quick - "Dancing With the Stars" is on in 15-minutes! At least I can still enjoy my guilty pleasures!
So, it's set. My mastectomy will be on Oct. 12. The first available date was Oct. 11, and I just looked at Dr. Beatty and said "really, well that's not happening!" Oct. 11 is my birthday, and as if birthdays aren't bad enough anymore, I sure as hell didn't want to say goodbye to ol' leftie on my birthday.
This time, my sister Cheryle is coming from Alaska to take care of me. This will require an overnight stay in the hospital for me, and I will be very sore. Also, I'll have a drain for a few weeks, which totally grosses me out. So, she'll stay as long as I need her.
Dr. Beatty spent a great deal of time with me talking about next steps. My medical oncologist, the wonderful Dr. Kaplan, felt radiation would be a given. But then my friend who had a double mastectomy called me and questioned why that would be necessary since by removing the breast they're removing the cancer. Good question. She didn't have to go through radiation.
Dr. Beatty said they would radiate the chest in that area, but he also said the pathology after this one will tell the story.
As usual, I fall into a strange category. I had a huge tumor, but no lymph node issues. He said that's very unusual. The lobular cancer that is still there is a sneaky one. He used a cluster of grapes as an analogy. The grapes are the lobes that store milk, and the branches are the milk ducts. So, the cancer starts in the grapes, and sneaks up the ducts, therefore making it hard to see in imaging.
If pathology is super clean after this surgery, I can possibly skip radiation and move on to reconstruction.
If it's questionable, I suppose I'll have to do radiation, which will be a pain in the ass because it's every day for 6 weeks. Also, they can't start reconstruction until 6 months after radiation, because it changes your skin texture. It has to totally heal. So I still have a lot of decisions to make and much more to endure.
Meantime, there are prothethics, and believe it or not, they recommend Nordstrom for the best prosthetic bras and fitters. Yay! I can put it on my Nordstrom card - and the insurance company will reimburse me. It's sort of bizarre, yes?
So, before my surgery, I'm going to be consulting with at least three plastic surgeons so I am armed with knowledge. Aaah! Dancing is starting!