Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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It's been awhile since I've posted—everything drags out so long, especially due to insurance practices. However, it is now certain that I will start chemo. I got my port on Friday, and that went fine.
My Oncotype score was high—no room for thinking that I might take a chance and refuse chemo. PET scan showed no evidence of metastatic disease. I have been told I will get a wallop with the first 4 treatments given over two months—no question that the hair will go. The insurance co-pay for the first four treatments totals $2650 which will use up our admittedly flimsy financial cushion, but will help to reach my max out-of-pocket soon enough so that most of the next 12 treatments and the radiation will be 100% covered—unless the wiley insurance co. has more tricks up its sleeve.
I'll be spending most of my time over at the chemo group but I won't forget about my fellow lumpers and will visit when I'm feeling up to it. Wish me luck. If I must suffer, I hope my excess body fat will suffer as well.
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where do I find genie pads?
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Surprisedat65, Good luck with your chemo. Sounds like your attitude is positive and that should help you get through it. HUGS!!!!
Florida2015, That's GENIE BRAS (the pads come with them; I took the pads out since they rubbed my incision). I got mine at RiteAid. I recommend going up 1 size. I didn't want anything tight. If you are lacking endowment, you might try Walmart's padded camis in the junior's dept. Go up at least one size, 2 is good also. I have tons of them and they are the most comfy thing. Might be too hot in summer but I sure appreciated them this winter. HUGS!!!
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Thank you Peggy, I will get the padded camis tomorow. I am used to underwire and padding filling me out. The couple warner bras I bought have been good also, without underwire but they have shape to them and don't flatten me out. All of my bathing suits have underwire. Is underwire an issue once radiation treatments are done with?
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Florida2015, underwires won't be an issue after radiation but comfort may be. I just don't fit Warner bras. I carry what teeny bit of fullness I have on the bottom of bust. Warner bras assume you have something on top and I'm rather concave, leaving a lot of empty space that kind of "pops" when touched, like as in a hug. I have ton of cute hugely padded underwire bras that I love but aren't very comfy yet. There isn't a ton of support in these camis. I normally am a medium and I buy large. Probably could even buy XL. I'm rather thick through the middle even though I'm thin. For $6, how can you go wrong? Some of them have a hook on the straps to make them a racer back if you want. Try one, then go buy a zillion. Hope they work for you. BTW, I went braless most of the time during my rads - my SLNB incision was still being irritating. That's not as much an option in spring and summer as it was in the fall - I wore sweatshirts. Good luck!
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Hi Everyone.
Kay, Yes I will be seeing the same plastic surgeon who did my fat grafting. It happens to be his last day as he also does hand surgeries and will be just doing that so hmm.. I sure hope that it isn't anything do to with the stem cells in there. I am hoping hoping hoping it is just that pesky saroma rearing its ugly head. My GP said he felt it was a hematoma or a cyst. I hope the ultrasound will give some answers. I also hope the PS surgeon can do something the day I see him being its his last day. UFF
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ndgrrl, I am also hoping seroma, cyst, or hematoma. And glad that you're getting in to see the PS, even on his very last day! I truly hope he will have a plan, and that the US will show nothing serious.
Florida, as much as the Warner bras don't work for Peggy, they're working quite well for this very modestly endowed 34A. Especially the "lift" models with the little bump pad at the bottom of the cups—so we're all individuals. Whatever tiny bit of fullness I used to have on the bottom was taken, on my left side, by the Lx surgery. Since surgery, I've not wanted to go back to underwires, even though at this point I probably could. I kind of discovered a new world of wireless bras. Around the time of my surgery, I did wear the Genie and Coobie (very similar) bras, and also discovered (on the BC.org boards) the Handful sport bra. All have the little removable pads. I relied on them, especially the Coobie bras, after surgery and during rads. I wore a Coobie comfort bra home from my lumpectomy, and it was, indeed, comfy. I slept in it for several weeks while healing, and it helped a lot. I also went braless at home once my skin got so tender from rads. But I'm 3 weeks out from rads tomorrow, and skin is getting pretty good. I wanted something lighter in a bra, without the shifting pads, and thus the quest. Now it's Warners, one Spanx wireless, and a sport bra I found that's comfortable and fits me well. I'm even going to try a Victoria's Secret wireless with convertible straps, 'cause who knows? It's way less fun than shopping for shoes, I have to say. But I haven't had a chunk chopped out of my feet
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Kay, your girls must be perkier and fuller than my worn out ones. I have the concave problem with a lot of bras. It takes quite a bit of padding for me to get fullness on top and the Warner bra didn't have it. It was comfy though. Right now I'm wearing my 20+ year old Vickie's Second Skin Satin bras (that I removed the underwires from). They are working very well for me. I have a ton of colors and they are all my 36A plus they are "built" for me. I'm going to remove the underwires from the 36B ones that I have nice full pads I put in when I want a "real" figure. (I have both sizes in racerbacks too). Maybe someday Victoria's Secret will make that bra again. Haven't checked in a couple years.
I happen to love shopping for bras when I *know* that they will fit. Shoes are good too
HUGS!
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Hi Peggy -
I haven't been on for a while, so let me say Congratulations on your clean mammogram. Have you gotten the final report yet? I will be having my first post - operative mammogram on April 29th. That will be followed by an appointment with my RO on the same day.I was told that for the first year and a half, my mammograms will be out of synch with each other.
I am having something going on recently. I thought it was lymphedema, but it appears not. Beginning to think that it could be some cording starting to act up. I do have some new and different scar tissue beginning to form according to my BS. So I am trying to track that down - there is always something.
MarieBernice6234
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MarieBernice, I have gotten my final report. Microcalcs in both breasts but are benign. My BS said they will never go away. I thought they might dissolve (shows what I don't know). I will be having an MRI sometime in June. Possibly because the spot that was tender that started me on this journey is still tender at times (and it is not where the BC was). Nothing has ever shown up in any of my tests. So maybe the BS wants the MRI for other reasons. I'm fine with it.
So you are having one breast done each time, not both? Ugh. That must be annoying. I had both done at the same time.
Just what you needed - cording. PT take care of it? I have to remember to keep stretching or things get tight. Luckily that's all I need to do to take care of it.
HUGS!!!!!!
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Haha, Peggy, I don't think anyone would describe my girls as "perky and full." Maybe my standards are lower than yours, after a lifetime of being under-endowed and having that just be my normal?? Completely unpadded bras just do nothing for me, I might as well go without. But I don't like heavily padded ones, either. Sigh. Thought I was done with the Vicky's bras, but just noticed they currently have a wireless, lightly padded model that has straps that can be worn cross-back! Imagine. I ordered one and we shall see. Time for this obsession to stop, though.
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Kay, why should you stop obsessing? You'll find bras that you like and work for you. Be sure to look at Walmart for lightly padded bras (or Meijers - though I don't think they're in PA). BestForm and Vanity Fair often have comfy non-wire style. HUGS!
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Peggy, I should stop obsessing because I now have a drawerful of mostly workable bras, and this is getting expensive
I don't live someplace where going to try on a lot of bras (or anything else) in one place is closer than 40-60 minutes away, so I tend to research extensively online and then order online. Not the most efficient or cost-effective strategy! Of course, I can and do return things that don't work at all, but sometimes I'm undecided until the "next great thing" comes along. I was just comparing prices at VS the other day when I discovered a wireless model there that caught my eye and I had to order one to try it. It would be better to just find the "perfect" bra and buy however many I need, but apparently that's not the way I'm doing it. I do have a Walmart close by, but I have so many "issues" with bras, it's hard to just walk in and find something. And who knows how many changes the boob's going to go through as time goes on? Oh, well. I'm just glad I found some I like, since I was worried after surgery that I'd never be happy with the way I looked again. As it is, there's no difference that anyone would see once I'm dressed. Being pretty flat-chested to start with makes for less drama, I guess.0 -
Surprisedat65, I'm so sorry you have to go through chemo. I hope you find it very manageable and one more step to ensuring your good health going forward.
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Peggy--Back from Japan and trying to adjust to the 13-hour time difference! But being with the kids and grands is worth the sleep disruption, as was the chance we had to go to the island of Shikoku, rarely visited by Westerners, and explore a beautiful place full of orange trees (yum) where life is way less frantic than in the areas around Tokyo and Yokohama, where our family lives.
Congrats on the good mammo report. As for the MRI, my surgeon (who is doing all my follow-ups) ordered one for me for this July (before my 2-and-a-half-year visit). He said he wants a fuller picture of the scar tissue that is still visible at my tumor site, and he also said it's "a good idea to have a baseline MRI on the very unlikely chance that we'll want one later." (He didn't order one during dx, since the tumor was clearly visible on mammo and ultrasound.) This will be a new experience for me at 74--my first ever--but then again my lumpectomy was my first ever surgery too. But I was glad that he told me his reasons. T.
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Hi, Kay--Just a quick note before I have to get back to my editing work, rather a challenge while readjusting to the 13-hour time difference. This is the seventh day since our return from Japan, and travel wisdom says that recovery from jet lag takes one day for every time zone crossed, so we have only 6 more days to go till normalcy! (Kind of like the feeling during the rads boost!),How's your revising/editing going now that you are well past rads? Hope the fatigue has worn off by now, and that being outside with your animals is giving you new strength. Hope your husband is doing fine now, too. Spring is finally springing here in Devon, and there are also signs of life (workmen) at the Devon Horse Show. I am really looking forward to it this year, since It'll be great fun to meet in person next month! Trudi
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Hi, Trudi, welcome back from what sound like marvelous travels! And realizing that our planned meeting in Devon is, indeed, next month already makes it sound quite soon! That will be so much fun.
I hear you on the challenge of switching gears back to writing/editing. I believe my editor and I mutually agreed (definitely reluctantly on my part) to accept that the deadline of my having everything with the dog book finished by, um, about now, was not realistic or doable. Cynthia, my editor, who is a complete sweetheart, has been so sympathetic re my treatment and also my family's challenges with SIL's health problems, and she urged me to take care of all that first, and the book "will publish when it publishes." At the time she said this, I was still really struggling with late SEs of rads, the virus I caught a week after finishing, and family stuff, also trying to get some semblance of strength back with riding, husband's mystifying (at the time) episode of ocular migraine, etc.—so I was relieved to have that deadline pressure off.
So I'm officially 3 weeks out from rads today, and glad to say I'm feeling much better, with energy and strength beginning to return. Skin is looking much better, too, and never did get to the point of breaking down, luckily. I would say it's only in the last 5 or so days that I can really feel I've turned the corner on post rads/virus fatigue. So I'm sitting here revising that manuscript again now, and the windows are thrown open and the daffodils blooming out in the woods and around the edges. Even though the weather is still veering rather wildly, spring is here. I'm appreciating it a lot this year.
Happy editing to you!
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Tgtg, welcome home. So glad that you had a grand time in Japan!
I had an MRI prior to my lumpy but it was soooo inconclusive due to all the hematomas left over from my core biopsies. I would guess that my BS just wants a complete look. I found laying on my tummy for 30 minutes very difficult. And the last 10 I couldn't move one iota (after they inject the contrast or whatever it is). And of course I wanted to sneeze, clear my throat etc. And my back hurt. My BS told me to take a valium. Well, I would except that I'm driving. She said take a couple Tylenol or ibruprofens. So I'll take the Tylenol. I don't mind the MRI, I'm not claustrophobic. But do keep the valium in mind. Anyway, I'm not particularly concerned. HUGS!!
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Tgtg and Kay, I hope the Devon Horse Show is on TV. I've watched it in the past and I love show jumping! I get Canadian TV channels and they show a lot of show jumping. Hope you have a grand time meeting up!
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Hi Pontiac Peggy -
Well I am not absolutely sure that it is cording. I don't see the cord - but it certainly feels like there is a string tightening and pulling. She said I could ask my RO about this next week. My BS has seen me two times within the last month -so she has a chance to look andmake comparisons. Meanwhile, I am still trying to use my arm in ways that I can so there aren't any more problems.
MarieBernice6234
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MarieBernice, I'm not sure if I'd recognize cording but I certainly notice when I tighten up under my arm and down my side, sometimes into my upper arm. What I do (and my BS said it was good) is stretch, trying to move my arm so I can feel my stretching pull against the tightness. Mine has hurt only once. But that's all I've done. I don't think I'm using one arm differently than the other but, of course, I could be. I hope that just stretching works it all out for you. HUGS!!
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Peggy--Thanks for the MRI feedback--it's always good to know what's coming. But I'll pass on the meds--I avoid drugs like the plague, and only take one if it is absolutely necessary--took nothing after the lumpectomy and felt fine. My antipathy for meds won't change at this point--I'll just use will power to stay still.
It really is serendipity that our house is about a 5 minute walk to the Horse Show grounds, and Kay even wondered if she might have found free parking near it in previous visits. But this year she'll park in our driveway, not on the street! Hope you get to see some of the classes on TV--the DHS showcases riders/horses that appear at the Olympics and other world class events, so the jumping is really exciting. Trudi (I realized that I never finished typing my name last time--oops!)
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(Finally! I can post now that the site is back up). Tgtg, I only took Tylenol after my lumpy (except for 1 pain pill in recovery). I'm sure you won't have any issues. I got very stiff and uncomfortable after my only MRI.
Have you and Kay met before? What fun it will be. I'll scour my TV listings to find the Devon Horse Show and watch as much as possible.
Hugs!
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Peggy and Trudi, weighing in on the MRI comments, I've never had a breast MRI (and if it requires that you lie on your stomach as Peggy seems to be saying, that would be difficult for me with my back & neck issues!). But I have had several MRIs over the years of other body parts (riding horses for a lifetime=plenty of orthopedic issues)—my shoulder, knee, and wrist are the ones I can think of right off-hand. I've found the procedure tedious but otherwise not so bad. I guess I'm not too claustrophobic, but naturally the minute I'm told I can't move for an extended period of time, that's the moment that the urges to scratch the nose or cough suddenly appear. The other thing is that it's very, very noisy in there. Often they'll provide you with a headset and the music of your choice to partially drown out the clicking and clacking noises. My husband told me that the MRI of his head that he had done recently when he had the ocular migraine was kind of difficult for him. But I've never needed to take a Valium, or an NSAID, to get through an MRI.
Peggy, Trudi and I haven't met in person (yet!), but after "meeting" here, we realized that we live not far from one another and have lots of things in common (besides BC), so I'm really happy we will get to meet in person soon! I go to the Devon horse show in May almost every year and have for many years—it's about an hour and a half or even a little less from my home. And it's true that finding parking near the show is always a big challenge. It's in a pretty residential neighborhood and I can't wait to find out just which of those houses is Trudi's. It was funny to find out that she has been volunteering for the show for years, and taking her boys (and now maybe her grandkids?) to watch. My daughter went to nearby Bryn Mawr College for her undergrad, so I have a soft spot for the area for that reason, too. Devon is one of the oldest horse shows in the country, so there's a lot of history there, and it's fun to watch some of the top horses and riders compete, and also watch them warming up before their classes. I hope you can find it on TV to watch!
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Kay, I can believe that DH had a hard time with his head MRI. Like you, the minute I'm told I can't move, it is soooo hard not to. That laying on the tummy is the hard part and your legs are on a pillow propping them to the right angle.
I'm so glad you and Trudi are hooking up. It should be a ball for you! HAVE FUN!!!
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Kay and Peggy--Took a break from my editing project and found your posts. I second what Kay said about a pleasant "side effect" or upside of bc--the fact that we connected here in the lumpectomy lounge with our many common interests and activities (an early one we noticed was that we tend to write lengthy posts--natural for a writer and an English professor!) I am looking forward to meeting Kay at the horse show in the flesh--which both of us now have a little less of since bc.
The DHS is a venerable local institution (it supports the hospital where my boys were born), and is the largest outdoor show in the country. The grounds lie empty most of the year, but are used for Dressage at Devon (also an Olympic qualifying event) and the annual Scottish games, and sundry other special events. We live so close to it that we can hear the announcer in our yard, from the very first class of the day, at 7:30, until the last competition ends, often at 11 PM. The big May show depends on local volunteers, of which my sons and I were three, both for the preparations and for the two weeks of the show. I now just enjoy the show, without volunteering, especially in the company of my 11-year-old PA granddaughter, a wannabe horsewoman who plans to be an equine vet. And this year it will be the setting for Kay's and my face-to-face meeting too!
As for the MRI, I was told I would be lying face down for it, so back issues are a non-factor. When the scheduler asked about being claustrophobic, I said that I remember only one instance of a brief panic attack--when we were jammed into a mine shaft elevator descending to the bottom of the Park City (UT) sliver mine in total darkness; so she scheduled me for an "open" machine, in case the darkness and the sardine-can situation were not its only triggers. I will look forward to some classical music, though, to distract me from some of the noise that I have heard so much about.
And now, back to work to meet my deadline (which isn't as forgiving as yours, Kay, since this is a monthly publication!) Trudi
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Hi, thought I would chime in here a bit. I had an MRI last August and will be having one again this August as they are watching a couple nodules in the breast where the cancer was found. My Oncologist told me everything was fine that was until I had a Ultrasound for a cyst they are watching and the Radiologist mentioned the nodules and a later appointment with my RO also mentioned them. I am sure the oncologist was trying to spare me worry, but really did he not think that the radiology center wouldn't call me to schedule that MRI that was recommended at some date and I would freak as I did when I was not told about that cyst! UFFAnyway my MRI lasted about 45 min total and I was face down on a pillow like is used for a massage. I am such a hard start for an IV I found that to be the most difficult thing. I felt sorry for my cousin who got the job of trying to get it started- I had requested her as she has worked for the breast center for 27 yrs. She felt so bad, finally ended up with the IV in the crook of my arm. It worked that is all I cared about. This next time I have an MRI I am going to request music- I had ear plugs last time and it just didn't do it. My face got a bit hot from lying down in that pillow all that time but it wasn't horrible. I didn't get claustrophobic as I was lying face down when put into the tunnel- feet first so I had no idea I was even in there except for the noise. I had thought of taking some Ativan before the procedure but drove myself the two hours to the clinic so couldn't take it, but it still turned out ok.
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Tgtg, no way would I ride an elevator that far down like you did (nor up that far). 10-12 floors is about my limit. What my problem seemed to be with the MRI was that my back was being bent more than is comfortable for me - almost swayback. I used to be able to sleep on my tummy but I lost that ability about 25 years ago.
How fun to work the DHS! I've wanted to go to the Motor City Horse Show but haven't made it. Or maybe Spruce Meadows in Calgary.
NDGrrl, poor you and poor cousin. Sometimes doctors are idiots - even good ones. I'll take Tylenol - that should do it.
HUGS!!
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I found the sound of the MRI to be like if someone a car over from you is bumping their bass too loud. then the click sounds and other stuff.. my brain turned it into a Tron movie. I had music..80s.. so id just sing a long in my head. I was actually quite comfy. but like everyone else, the phrase " dont move" means everything itches
my next lx date is set... May 1st.. and another week off work after I had requested May 11-15th off for cabo. no snorkling for me this trip..so I guess Ill be doing some recovery pool side
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Panthrah, I didn't have a problem with the sound from the MRI. "Don't move" is a definite trigger
There are worse places than Cabo recuperate. HUGS!!!
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