Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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I will be there in spirit ladies. Next time for sure!
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How is your son, Molly?
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Oh, poodles, been there/done that--last summer. Bob had just recovered from the perforated bowel, 2 unsuccessful hospitalization attempts to “medically manage” it, and finally the hemicolectomy (and the long stretches of Flagyl, “soft diet/no alcohol” between each episode). We even went to Taste of Chicago to see the Chieftains. He came home from work a couple of evenings later, sat down to dinner and said, “I think my hernia’s enlarged.” I asked him if he wanted to go straight to the ER and he said no, he wanted dinner and would sleep on it and let me know in the morning. About midnight, I went upstairs and he was sleeping soundly, even snoring. So I went to sleep too. Woke up around 4 am to crank up the A/C, and his side of the bed was empty. Checked the bathroom--it was empty too. Turned on the light and noticed his clothes were still there (he sleeps in surgical scrubs as PJs), but his shoes and phone were missing--and his wallet was there, cash & credit cards still inside but driver’s license and insurance cards missing. So I called his cell, and he answered, “Yeah, I’m in the ER at St. Francis, and I told them the hernia was incarcerated and asked them to operate. So pay the AmEx bill online and take an Uber up here so you can drive my car back.” Got up there, and they admitted him in the Same-Day unit as a 23-hr. admit. Then a little over a month later I was under the knife getting a lumpectomy.
So you can see why I’m loath to keep adding to the family collection of surgeries.
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I just saw $40 flights to Seattle on Spirit in case you get a wild streak. Or, if you fly to POrtland, we can pick you up!
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Poodles, OMG! Something else. Sure not what you needed. But it sounds like you have DH's repairs scheduled so it will work with your surgery (which I would guess was pretty tricky to work out). I'm sorry that he has a hernia that huge. Definitely don't want to let it go. Praying everything goes smoothly!!!
LovesLiterature, I would guess that it was lighting up your sentinel lymph nodes. Did they remove any? I would guess you haven't gotten your pathology report yet. It could be that they were being ultra-cautious and trying to cover all bases in one surgery. Where are you located? We find that practices seem to differ between the States and Canada, as well as regional differences.
Traci, You're lucky your pits have feeling back so quickly. It took over a year to have nearly complete feeling restored for me. Anyway, congratulations again on that weight loss - it's fantastic!
Shumba, see you got your diagnosis public. All this stuff is tricky because you have to make each and every item public. Can't say make it all public. That would be too easy
The more you share with us, the better we can answer your questions.HUGS!
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LoveLiterature, words of wisdom. hmmmm. Atypical hyperplasia probably means getting a lumpectomy, which it sounds like you had. Most doctors have radiology insert a blue dye, technetium 99, to be more precise. The dye shows how the breast disperses lymphatic fluid and can also enable a tumor marker to show the areas of concern. You don't have to have nodes removed to have the dye inserted. Basically, on a mammogram it will light up your world like the 5th of July. You can't go fishing without bait, just think of the blue dye as bait. I would say most doctors do lumpectomy's versus an excisional biopsy. Why did they not do a stereotatic biopsy or an ultrasounded guided biopsy? Don't be surprised if they offer a treatment for your atypical hyperplasia. They may either watch the area of concern or be more aggressive with radiation. You should read the forums called Beyond Diagnosis, or their information page on atypical hyperplasia.
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Sloan, that would be fun if we could add Sandy! Sandy, do you have 5 minutes not scheduled?? I'd love to see you again! IHGJ (Judy) who lives here in Spokane will join us Sunday nite Oct 2. I'll check with Traci again to see if she's available. The more the merrier.
HUGS!
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Sloan, I haven't been to the downtown parks since I moved here - too busy going elsewhere plus they are working on them. Oh not right, I went to Manito Park. It's all flowers. The one downtown is the river and falls and is pretty. Right now I'm planning a trip up to Arbor Crest on Monday and we'll go up there following the river. It's a lovely drive. You're very close to the river at your hotel. I am not near the river - I'm up high and have the greatest view of the city when I come down off the prairie I live on (very steep hill). It's very pretty country.
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Oh, how I wish I could be there, Peggy! But on the 1st I have Bar Show rehearsal, and the evening of the 2nd Rosh Hashonah begins. Shrink appt. on the 3d. And Bob’s cataract surgery is on the 5th.
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Aw, man! I wish I could meet with y'all in Spokane. I will be flying to Seattle Sept 27 to see my sister, who lives in Poulsbo. If I had an extra few days I'd totally drive us both out to Spokane.
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if I didn't take so much time off work for recovery I would try.
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Pontiac Peggy, thank you! There wasn't any discussion regarding sentinel nodes... If they were checking out my lymphatic drainage system surely they would've told me. Maybe Not! I'm in Southern California and so far, doctors here are kinda vague. I've had to ask specific questions every step of the way because they aren't forthcoming. Dying to get my hands on the pathology report.
And yes Michelle 😉 even though there is no lump per se, they took out a lesion of tissue the size of a sweet pickle. I've been to the ADH club thread on here and they've been super helpful. But I haven't seen much on the blue dye business. Yes, to answer question I did have stereostatic core vac biopsy before the removal of my ADH (they had found microcalcifications on Mamo). So, I find myself on the precipice of an ADH treatment plan or a cancer diagnosis. I am a 42 year old mom and teacher. Nice to meet you ladies. :
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I won't see my MO again til the 3rd, so I will be there too... I'm looking forward to it
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Sandy, I don't see 5 minutes in that schedule!
Poodles, that's crazy. My good friends/neighbors across the street came here from Poulsbo! The moved back to be near family (I think half the people in Spokane are seniors who move here to be near family, especially grandkids). Maybe your sister knew Val & Ron Pick. Now wouldn't that make the world small? Wish you could come too!!!
Molly, I know you'd come if you could. Maybe next year!
LovesLiterature, You might consider reading Dr Susan Love's Breast Book. It discusses lots of things besides cancer. Most of us have found we have to educate ourselves so we can ask the right questions to get good answers from our docs. Write down every questions and bring that piece of paper to your next appointment. Make a point of showing it and ask each question, write down answers. Most docs will stop and and answer your questions. They also need to know how much information you want. Perhaps they are vague because they don't have the answers yet-that's a possibility. My son lives in San Diego; nieces and nephews and friends in LA and surrounds. I love SoCal!!!
HUGS!
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Judy, YIPPEE!! I'm glad. We'll pile us all in the minivan and off we go to Arbor Crest! Steak/seafood restaurant for Sunday night. Of course everyone is invited to my house - gotta get covered with pet hair don't you??
HUGS!
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ChiSandy, when i had my hysterectomy, my husband got sick, he had pancreatitis a lot, but as soon as i got home from the hospital, instead of going in and resting.. i had to take him to the hospital, he was in for a week, stretched my stitches from opening our truck door so much, but it healed ok and he was in hospital quite a lot. he had about 18 surgeries since birth and looking back after we got married, i've had about the same... not really liking surgery, but can understand getting the family collection going... The knees were my major problem... i tore them up enough to have both replaced... this BC thing was totally out of the blue... but now i've got it... get through the c, r, and h and get it done!
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Sloan... Are you still in Spokane on Monday? We get home sunday night.. late!
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LovestoFly, I just wanted you to know that I went through natural menopause at 41, thought that was very unfair, so I took hormone replacement, and I do believe that's what gave me cancer. I wish I had just accepted it. I don't know if it makes it any better, but it does happen naturally at that age, too.
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I wish I had known about the wrapping! I wanted it, but was so afraid of doing damage, I didn't. I will now, though.
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Licata519, if your surgeon or any other surgeon would like more information on the wrapping, Dr. Tam Mai, 2014 Fellow from USC, is the BS who did it. She is at Springfield Clinic in Illinois, but I believe it is something she learned at USC. They are the only medical school that does oncoplastics, and it may be one of their protocols. All I know is, there was minimal pain, no scarring, and no swelling.
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After my lumpectomy last December I went on my annual trip to Mexico during my healing time while waiting for results. I had sentinel biopsy, 3 nodes. No one had told my about lymphdema at all or mentioned any precautions while flying. I was totally new to all this BC and overwhelmed to say the least. It is a 5 hour flight but I never had any complications thankfully!
Next week I will be flying again to Halifax. Should I be wearing a compression sleeve when I fly? Is this the new norm that I should be doing? I don't fly a lot, usually just my Mexico trip but I want to be prepared and do it right to avoid any issues.
Thanks for any advice you can give! Back to the sleep clinic tonight to test a machine to be sure it helps me
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Sandy -- Good for you. It is always best to listen to your body.
I am still in the hospital. Still running intermittent low grade fever, but my WBC is way up now when it was in the crapper last Friday night. Today we accessed my port for the first time , and drew blood for cultures from it just to make sure it is not contaminated. One of the other cultures come back positive with a Gram Positive Bacilli. We are still waiting for it to be identified. So the present ETA for departure is maybe Friday
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Traci, glad that you will be available on Monday! I'll email you.
Elizabeth, sorry you're still in the hospital. Glad the WBC is up. But geez, that's rotten about the port
Hope it clears up quickly and you can go home soon!HUGS!
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Dara - time does pass quickly. So glad you only have one infusion left. Wishing you a minimum of SEs between now and then.
Poodles - boy the hits keep coming, don't they? Wishing your DH a quick recovery from his surgery.
Traci - losing 40 lbs is a real milestone. Congrats! Glad you can finally feel your pits too....
Sandy - intuition is a powerful thing. Glad things worked out the way they were supposed to
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Hugs to all, life can throw so much at us, I am humbled by your strength and fortitude, and your sense of humour ladies!
You may think there are differences in the way wounds are dressed between different regions, US and Canada. Well here in England I came home from an oncoplastic breast reduction to remove a 5cm lump with no dressing at all. My nipple and areola looked like they'd been removed and replaced elsewhere, and were covered in clear skin glue, but there was nothing else. The glue slowly dissolved over three to four weeks. So no compression, and yes I did have substantial swelling, and the cavity filled with seroma fluid which leaked. They told me to wear a supportive bra day and night for a week, so I've been back in my favourite underwires for the last 3 weeks, I don't find non wired bras provide enough lift.
Interestingly, my sister had a lumpectomy at a hospital 50 miles away a few months ago for a much smaller excision and came home with a waterproof compression dressing which had to be left on for two weeks, she was told to wear a sports bra day and night for 4 weeks. So it's not a weird English thing. Anyway my BS is from Poland and trained there now I think about it! But he is the head consultant and I think that is how the whole department operates.
I had my re excision today and am gutted, the new shape I had after the oncoplastic reduction has been ruined. After the first op the new breast shape was smaller but rounded and lifted as if I'd had an implant, but now the top half of my breast looks emptied and shrunk. He said he'd re excised the whole cavity, by weight it's almost the same amount of tissue again as the first time. I guess it's better to get it all out, particularly with grade 3. But it seems a real shame, I was so happy after the first op.
So at the moment I'm eating raspberry cheesecake and trying to give myself a lecture on counting my blessings, my vanity is nothing compared to my health and my family's.
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Elizabeth, continued healing wishes. Being hospitalized is sucky & boring, but it does enforce rest and "recharge your batteries."
Karen, I was told--even before being diagnosed with stage 0 LE--to wear compression on any flight longer than 4 hrs. I was fitted for a sleeve & gauntlet even before surgery. I wore them between Chicago & Rome (forgot to remove it 1 hr. after landing in Amsterdam for the 2-hr flight to Rome) and between Amsterdam & Detroit. (Didn’t don them for the 1-hr Barcelona-Amsterdam or the 40-min. Detroit-Chi. legs). I noticed slight fullness & tightness in my upper arm while on a shore excursion to Taormina near Sicily’s Mt. Etna, which abated w/in a mile of descent in the bus. And I got slight finger swelling on the Amsterdam-Detroit leg because of high-salt airline food and that the Juzo gauntlet did not fully cover the first knuckles below my fingers.
Because I had cording before leaving for my trip, I had made an appt. with an LE specialist. He said he never prescribes compression for anyone with fewer than 4 nodes out, and that my measurements hadn’t changed since pre-surgery; but because I reported symptoms he was diagnosing me at stage 0, or sub-clinical, so that Medicare would pay for a certain number of therapy sessions. And he also prescribed a glove (extremely uncomfortable but I admit it's effective). On a subsequent flight from London-Geneva (2.5 hr.) I didn’t don compression, and noticed my rings were tight and it was harder to make a fist. So I decided to wear it on any flight >1 hr, foreign or domestic. (Didn’t need it for the 45-min. turboprop flights between Rome & Pisa).
I also wore compression as a precaution, after I noticed swelling after a high-speed elevator ride to the top of the Hancock for Mother’s Day brunch, for ascents to higher altitudes (in the Blue Ridge Mts. for a music conference and in Hickory, NC for a benefit). I wear it for long guitar practice sessions, concerts where I play w/o a break for an hour or more, berry picking, intensive repetitive motion against resistance like cheese grating, sweeping, etc. and of course aerobic and resistance exercise. I didn’t wear it for long walks in hot weather in Rome, and didn’t experience swelling anywhere but legs & feet (unrelated to LE).
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Awww, Dizzybee, I don't blame you for feeling disappointed. It's not a vanity thing at all. In a perfect world we wouldn't have to choose between our breasts and our life. I had a BMX last Feb because my genetic testing revealed two serious gene mutations which caused my BC. I thought I was totally okay with that--I mean, what use are they to me now, at age 59? And I really tried to be okay with it, despite all the terrible wound complications I suffered. But it was no use. I am decidedly NOT FINE with my mutilated body. It's been a depressing experience, made especially more so as we get closer to Pinktober. I am already sick of hearing about breast cancer and early detection and I don't want to see any more PINK.
Anyway, rant over. I just wanted to say, I understand. It isn't fair and it's not only OKAY to grieve, we MUST grieve over these personal losses. I imagine we will eventually absorb all the feelings and move on, but until then we must not shame ourselves. Feelings are just feelings, neither good nor bad. Better to feel your feelings now, than to bottle them up and feel them forever.
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I will wear pink all year long, whenever I feel like it, for no other reason than I look good in it and that particular garment fits, flatters and is clean. But I have stopped wearing anything pink with slogans, pink ribbons as symbols (except for the Pandora charm my housekeeper gave me for my birthday), and will not use or wear anything that has been made in pink for “awareness” of bc--unless its manufacturer follows through on a promise to donate a considerable and finite sum to bc research, not just “awareness.” Because “awareness” has produced too many smug and clueless misconceptions.
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Sandy, I also like and wear pink year round. I do buy special "pink" items. I just bought 2 from LandsEnd and the donations go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are foundations I don't support but that's another story.
HUGS!
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I will sometimes use my pink Kyser guitar capo (bought in 2003) bought to support SGK--but that was long before I had bc and before I knew about “pinkwashing,” or that SGK does donate to research but not as high a proportion as does BCO. But the little pink ribbon cz Pandora dangle is special to me, because my housekeeper bought it for me as a birthday present and I know how hard she works for her money, and she is more than employee--she has been a dear friend for over 30 years, our families are family to each other, and we will go to the ends of the earth for each other.
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