NOLA in September?
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Hi Celtic. It's definitely a dilemma - either exercise and have your drainage output go up, or to take it easy, eat bonbons, knit, etc., so it goes down. Personally, I opted for increased energy with exercise and eventually the output went down. Good luck!
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Celtic,
I have been walking two or three miles a day and was hoping it will make me heal faster (and hopefully sleep better.) I think I feel better when I walk. I may be very wrong about this but I thought that exercise would just make the output go up temporarly for the day and would not delay the date the drains were pulled. I guess I should ask this question when I talk to the center. They seem to encourage walking.
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Catching a cold or sinus something! Does anyone know what I can take 2 weeks b4 surgery?
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You ladies are so funny! I love the reading the posts and laughing.
Celtic-I hear you about sitting around and knitting. I love working out because it gets my endorphins going but I can't see myself doing much after 6 weeks.
My abdominal incision in the middle continues to ooze a bit of water, blood, because I accidentally ripped the skin glue again. I thought the Center said the sterile pad was for comfort but I've not worn the pad twice and each time I pulled the skin glue off right in the middle of my belly. Do I just sit around and knitt or go walking? Well, in the morning I walk and in the afternoon I sit around.
Anyone had delayed stacked DIEP? My chest and foob feels extremely tight with pulling. I also can't lift my right arm very high let along lift a cup above my shoulder. Is this normal? I still walk like a 90 year old lady slightly hunched over. Can't seem to feel comfortable after this surgery except when I'm sleeping. I love sleeping at night cause I can't feel anything.
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Here in NOLA awaiting Stage 2 tomorrow. We have had a fun 2 days but now we are at the hotel and getting ready for a big day tomorrow - pre-op in the morning then surgery in the afternoon. I will be so glad to get through this. I got a ton of mosquito bites tonight at Commander's Palace so now I'm looking forward to anesthesia just to stop itching!!
Lisa if you are still at the center post your room number here. If you are up for visitors we could stop by tomorrow in the morning we will have an hour or so between appts and surgery.0 -
Kaitsmom-what is Stage 2b?
If you're not satisfied after Stage 2, do you have a stage 2b? Is that more liposuction?
Stage 2 and beyond-are the areas numb after liposuction? Although I know I need to suction all this fat off my belly and hips I'm kind of scared. The Center calls me once a week and Stacy said that some people need to tighten their abdominal muscles. OMG did anyone do this? I know the outcome is probably really good. I'm vacillating because I want the outcome to be good but can't imagine more pulling and inability to exercise. I'm already numb by my foob and abdominal area.
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Laura-glad to hear you had fun for the past two days because it just makes everything so much nicer. The great thing about tomorrow is that you'll be that much closer to completion! Yeah!
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JustLaura, thinking of you. We will be looking for you on the skinny side:)
Surfagirl, My tummy muscles are very lax, having carried a single then twin pregnancy, and being well past menopause, and mostly-- extremely de-conditioned. After my DIEP, my tummy was far from flat. The muscles are just too weak to hold in the deeper layer of fat, organs, etc,. All of the nurses and PA told me Dr S would want to do a plication ( stitching up the center of the abdominal muscle to tighten it). Being still uncomfortable after my DIEP from May, with tightness, pulling, stuck together feeling, AND having read the accounts of several who'd had plication (Springtime), I was really distressed about the possibility. I was overjoyed at my stage2 pre-op when Dr S said that he could do a plication, but that some SIT-UPS( etc) would accomplish the same thing without all the pain and prolonged recovery!!!0 -
hi all
life has been so busy......surgery will be here soon. now i think i should have scheduled stage 2 earlier because i have totally healed up and i am not looking forward to rehabilitating again. i am hoping that stage 2 is easier......after stage 1 i was hotel bound except when my friend pushed me around in the wheelchair to get food.....i had bad back spasms.
nola here i come......again......i hope this will be my last trip down for surgery.
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Running, I posted your stage 2 Dec date!
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Surfagirl - I think many or even most people are happy with their results after their stage 2, and do not need further surgery. I am having a 2B at my request because there is an area that has a fairly large (well, to me) indentation which has been there since my mastectomy 4 years ago. I think Dr. D did try to do some fat grafting there, although I am not sure, and I keep forgetting to ask. Anyway, I want to give it one more shot to see if it can be improved upon. I don't know if he will try something else, or try to add some more fat, in which case there will be some more lipo from somewhere to "harvest" the fat. Otherwise I would not expect to have more lipo at my 2B. I am not looking forward to that part because I found the lipo to be fairly painful. Sorry - gotta tell you the truth.
That's also why I didn't do the plication - I know some women do benefit, but Dr D said in my case, "it would be a lot of pain for some small benefit". My local PS said the same thing when I saw him this summer to have him check my incision that I was concerned about at the time - wanted to be sure it was healing properly before I went traveling and went in the pool. My muscles are not too bad, and I hope to strengthen them some more with some exercise. I also hope to lose a few more pounds and that will help as well. I am not completely flat, but am pretty satisfied, and can't imagine putting myself through the plication. But everybody is different. I think if you are able to get up on a surf board, you must be fairly fit, and have some decent muscles, so I would wait and see what the Dr. says when you go in for your pre-op. The lipo does not remove the deeper fat, only losing weight can help with that. That is my understanding, anyway. Anyone please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken. Oh, I do not have numbness in the areas I had lipo done, although I have read that it can happen.
Ugh. I just started on antibiotics today since one of the very small incisions above my nipple where they fold the skin to create the nipple, has become very red and tender in the last 24 hours. I am 4 1/2 weeks out, so this is pretty unexpected. Anyway, I called the service and Dr. Trahan called me, had me send a picture, and then he called me back. I was pretty pleased that he called as quickly as he did. We are not sure if it is a stitch still in there irritating things or trying to push itself out, but he said he didn't want to take a chance in case it was an infection, so we agreed I should take an antibiotic. I said "I have worked too hard to get these boobs and I don't want anything to go wrong now. And you guys have worked hard too". He laughed and agreed with that!
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Surfagirl, I highly recommend some physical therapy with someone who has experience w/breast recon. I had problems with my range of motion on my cancer side. The PT really helped. My PT worked on loosening the scar tissue on my belly. I thought I was working on it, but I was far far too gentle to make any difference. I worked on it, too, after she showed me. My PT also had me work on my ab muscles. All the that surgery and numbness sort of disconnected me from proper movement, so I had to relearn using my core properly (I cheat a lot in my movement, apparently). The range of motion thing is probably a common thing, but I don't consider it 'normal.'
Semper, Amy and KBodie: I hope to see you all in Dec! My plan is to make the 10 hr drive to NOLA on Dec 13, pre op Dec 14, surgery Dec 15, post op Mon Dec 19, drive back home Dec 20.
Good Luck Laura! I can't believe you are back for Stage 2. Time flies!
Lisa, I hope you are doing well.
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Cider, Kaitsmom, and Jersuha: thank you for all the information. Seems like plication is a lot, I will opt not to do it if it is offered. I'm fine with fat on my abdominal. I am pretty strong, just on the heavier side. I could lose about 15 lbs, lost 10 so far because I'm worried about the lipo and trying to lose what I can before surgery.
Cider-I've not heard of a PT who has experience with breast recon here. Would I ask a PS?
Tigsun-The pro to doing Stage 2 after being all healed up is that your physical body had more time to heal. I was kind of thinking of waiting a while to do Stage 2 later but I also had some fat transferred right above my chest area that has too much fat now.
Kaitsmom: who did you call to send a picture to Trahan. I'm thinking I should send one to be sure things are healing o.k. in my abdominal because I'm almost 5 weeks out and it's still raw and open in the center.
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oh yes I am all healed.
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This is a bit off topic, but I consider it very important.
Any woman who has dense breasts where mammogram missed your cancer, please consider sending a short email with your "story". Info below. We may be able to effect a federal change!
On Nov. 4th, the Mammography Advisory Committee (governed by the FDA) is meeting to discuss the Mammography Quality Standards Act. If you are a woman with dense breast tissue and received a late stage diagnosis of breast cancer, please send a letter (Shanika.Craig@fda.hhs.gov) to urge them to include breast density information on the patient's report.
An example letter can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/DENSECA
See the post "Do you know your breast density" about two down.
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SurfaGrl - Just call the Center and tell then you still have an open wound. They should probably hear about that anyway, at this far out from your surgery. Then they will tell you if you should send a picture. Since yesterday was a Sunday, I called the Center number, and on the message they give you the answering service number, who then contacts the doctor on call. They try to connect you with him while you are on hold, which is nice. They couldn't connect me yesterday, but the Dr did call me back within 30 minutes.
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SurfaGrl--I had a small open wound on my incision about 4-5 weeks out, and I went to a wound care clinic. It probably would have healed on its own but it healed much faster the way they were treating it. They were able to debride it and used a "wound healing matrix" material that sped up healing. You might want to check out what wound care clinics are available to you where you live.
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Spring - This is important!!!! I'm going to write to them even though my BC was still "early". It wasn't found on my mammogram but by me. If I had been getting surveillance MRI's it would have been caught even earlier! I could have done without the whopping 2 cm and 1 cm nodes with extranodal extension! Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
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Spring - I am in the process of writing my letter now . . . I feel like part of me will always be angry that my cancer could very likely have been detected sooner . . . it was large enough that an MRI or possibly even an ultrasound (?) would have shown it. I thank God that I felt strongly compelled (obsessed?) to have the breast reduction done and that it was found, but if it would have been found earlier, my treatment plan might have been different, etc etc etc. And what if I hadn't had the reduction? etc etc etc Ok, not wanting to go down that rabbit hole today . . .
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December girls! Me, me, me. From reading about past stage ones, it looks like I will be in NOLA until 12/15-ish? I would love to meet any and all of you ladies that have helped me so much with your stories. I don't post a lot but enjoy meeting in person. (c:
Justlaura- Hope you're doing well. Toomuch- Good luck tomorrow! Healing vibes to all recovering.
Jeskachi- Can you please tell me the name of the pre surgery vitamins you mentioned? Thanks so much!
Oh! And I found out my melanoma guy, who is also a breast surgeon, will help me out (if needed) after my surgery in Dec, woot!
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Hi! Me again! So . . . they have added a second antibiotic to the first one that Dr Trahan prescribed for me yesterday, and Laura said to me, "Just be sure you take some probiotics or eat some yogurt". Well, I eat Greek yogurt daily, so I've got that part covered, but can anybody recommend a good probiotic in addition to the yogurt? She said it's not just for yeast, but to help with the whole GI tract and hopefully avoid diarrhea. Ya, that would be my preference too . . .
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Spring,
I will also write an email. My bc was also caught "early" but I was not aware until after my diagnosis that because of density issues mammography did not work well for me. In retrospect I should have been getting MRIs all along. Even though I was getting yearly mammograms I was diagnosed with a 2.5 cm slow growing tumor seen only as a "distortion" on the mammogram. The two additional tumors also present were not detected on the mammogram and were not caught until a MRI was finally ordered after I sought a 2nd opinion.
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I'm dense too. (c:
I had a clean mammo six months before diagnosis.
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I was dense too! Spring, I sent a letter off to mystate representatives early this morning, as the governor is trying to cut funding for mammos for low income women and I have already heard back from two of them. Ladies - write your congressmen/women, as well as state and local reps. The only ones advocating for us are.... US!
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Amy, I'm always taking probiotics in pill form, in addition to greek yogurt. I always have Culturelle in my rotation. It's easy to find (target, walmart). Those cultures survive into the gut, whereas cultures in yogurt don't survive that long. Another I use is the Pearls (again, pretty easy to find). Right now I'm taking a Whole Foods 365 brand. I like to change up the strains.
Adey, I would love to meet up with you in Dec!
Another dense woman here. My 1.5cm IDC tumor wasn't found via mammogram, ultrasound or MRI. I never had a mammogram because I wasn't 40 yet. Thank goodness I found my other tumor and decided to go with mx.
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cider8- Great! We're kinda sorta neighbors. (c:
kaitsmom- I was going to go get my pro biotic to tell you the brand but as cider said there are many. I would probably get one that is refrigerated tho'. Also good for the GI tract is L-Glutamine. Best wishes.
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I tried a few probiotics. Align is the one that was recommended by my internist. It really helped (and I was having major digestive issues from the antibiotics). The others (which were mostly acidophilus) just made the problem worse. Pearls definitely made things worse because the antibiotics made me lactose intolerant. Culturelle I've tried in the past and I think it helped. But Align is definitely the best. Also expensive, unfortunately.
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My pharmacist just told me something interesting . . . If your doctor phones in a prescription for things such as a probiotic, iron supplement, things like that, even though they cannot be paid for with a prescription plan, if you have a health savings account or a flex-plan, that can be used to pay for those types of things. I never realized that. Might as well use the money in the account, and you also don't pay tax on those items either when you use your HSA card to pay for them! Anyway, dreading starting the new antibiotics - I have never heard of taking two at the same time before . . .
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You didn't used to have a "prescription" to claim things like that on your FSA. That rule came into effect this year. It means fewer people will use their FSA for those things because it's a pain in the @ss to ask your doctor for a "prescription" for OTC medicines. If you have a doctor who will do it, more power to you. But it's a pain for them too.
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Kaitsmom - I was on two antibiotics for several weeks - it is not fun but it can be done. Just make sure you do not take them at the same time unless you are told it is okay. My sister suggested I take them both at the same time (which I stupidly agreed to) and I got so sick to my stomach, it was gross. But two hours apart with something to eat beforehand was not hard to do as long as I was writing down the times so I could make sure there was time between the two.
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