Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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I've been on Femara for 8 months and I have had no SEs as far as I can tell. Some of my symptoms might be construed to be SEs, like joint pain and concentration problems, but I have had those for years. I don't think they have been made worse by the Femara.
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You're welcome, Michelle. It is good for those of us not suffering with AI side effects to share our experiences with whatever drug we're on, otherwise all people hear are the horror stories and they want to run for the hills!
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So very true, Grazy. And that is not minimizing the SEs that some women DO experience. But it isn't all of us. And do keep the goal in mind: helping to make sure that BC doesn't come back.
HUGS!
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I am having my wle tomorrow so I'm hoping they get it all and I'm ok with it afterwards, the first look I'm dreading I felt OK about it today I'd a pre op and a chat to a cancer councillor in the hospital felt better after talking to her I want this out now really and to get on with treatment and the rest of my life.
Wish it was tomorrow now and it was all over.
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I don't really understand all the terminology here I must brush up on it
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Lorri, it IS confusing. At the top left of the page there is a link for abbreviations. That will help decipher all our shorthands. Good luck tomorrow. I hope you have nice big clear margins and feel good. Make sure you take pain meds before you feel crappy. It is easier to keep pain under control that way. But you may not have much pain at all. I didn't have much. I felt pretty good. I was lucky that they gave me Dramamine for anesthesia nausea so didn't have any. Just don't overdo for a few days. Be sure to ice everything. 20 minutes on; 20 minutes off. And do the arm stretching exercises as directed.
All of us just want to get through active treatment and resume our lives. Things will be a bit different always but most of us do just that and take our anti-hormonals without even thinking about them.
Let us know how it goes and we're right here for you.
HUGS!
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Lorri, tomorrow will come very fast. I know how agonizing the day before was for me. I kept praying it was tomorrow at 5pm and I was home. What is a WLE?
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WLE is wide local excision, aka lumpectomy. It's the official terminology in the UK, not sure if you're in Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland Lorri?
What's the official term in the US and Canada?
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WLE: Wide Local Excision—effectively, a lumpectomy or excisional biopsy with generous margins.
Michelle, I have had few SEs from letrozole, and they seem to have gotten milder over the past 10 months as my body’s gotten used to much lower estrogen levels. I think it would be a very good idea to get that test to see if you’re among that significant minority of patients who are poor metabolizers of tamoxifen.
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Dizzy, just lumpectomy (Lx) . Sometimes it is also called a partial mastectomy but that is not a preferred term. You'd think that English speaking countries would use the same terms for medical things but that sure isn't the case. Brits get "jabs" and we get "shots." Always interesting.
HUGS!
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Dizzybee, technically it's "BCS" in Canada (Breast Conserving Surgery), but my surgeon just said "lumpectomy" most of the time.
The very best of luck tomorrow, Lorri! Let us know how it goes.
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In your pocket, Lorri!
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Lorri70 - Tomorrow will be over much faster than you think. My doctors allowed me to take some Tylenol PM the night before surgery. I'm sure I wouldn't have slept a wink without it because I was so nervous. Hoping you get some rest tonight and that everything goes well tomorrow.
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Everyone uses lumpectomy when they talk, wide local excision is only the term the medics use. And the surgeon I didn't like, who insisted we talked about a mastopexy instead of breast reduction. It was like the terminology was there to show her status. But she was also the one who told me to stop asking questions, so we were never going to get on!
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hello, when can I take off my dressing. I had my lumpectomy on Monday. I see the surgeon tomorrow. I do not remember what she told m
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Positive2strong, if you aren't sure then wait until you see your surgeon tomorrow.
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Hi Positive2Strong - I took my gauze dressing off after two days, but the steri-strips stayed on until they came off naturally, which I'm pretty sure was a week or more after surgery. The edges just started to lift after a week and then the strips peeled off eventually in the shower. I waited three days to shower after surgery and didn't let the water hit my chest directly.
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Molly, that was a very informative video from UCLA. My biggest takeaway was that if malignant cells are found in the sentinel node(s), you don't need to have more nodes removed! I don't think this message has reached a lot of breast surgeons, and it needs to. Lymphedema is so widespread that node conservation needs to be done whenever possible.The doctor giving the webinar seemed to be saying that complete node dissection is never necessary.
I will have my chemo port removed next Wednesday. And my first follow up mammogram the day before. Sure don't know what they will be able to see with all of my radiated and still swollen tissue. But I guess it will serve as a baseline of sorts.
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Postive2strong, what Grazy said is what I was told. I had my lumpectomy on Friday, was told to wait 48 hours to shower; I took off the dressing then as once they were wet, off they come. I was told to leave the steri strips until they fell off on their own or 7-10 days if they stayed on.
Feeling kind of crappy today. My arm hurts, just achy. My ribs are sore, I think from the way I've been sleeping and I'm constipated, I'm assuming from the T3's. Ick.
Made my follow up appt with the MS; Oct 25 I find out all the pathology and next steps for sure.
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thank you all for the good wishes, yeah wide local I said I didn't know the terminology😀 I was just going by what my surgeon called it partial mastectomy was on a letter omg that's an awful thought, I am in the sunny south east of Ireland. I'm sorting out kids things for tomorrow I've 2 little ones and an adult child so he's minding them I've to leave early so I won't have much time too think really thanks
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grazy thank you for sharing about AI. Been on tamoxifen for six months and ovarian suppression for one and a half, I know that the next step is to switch me to an AI to further lower my risk of recurrence. Even though neither tamoxifen or ovarian suppression of being too bad for me, of course every step is scary and I'm worried it's the one that's going to make me miserable.
Mlp my brother also has bipolar disorder, I often feel like in spite of getting cancer, I am still the lucky one. But if it comes back, I might not feel that way anymore. That said, his is not very well-managed
Michelle I think for now I'm glad that I went with an LX, I'm glad that I was able to have a lesson truths of surgery, and that I still have my breast, but I think that if I had a recurrence I would probably also go for a mastectomy
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LTF, I think many of us would consider a mastectomy upon recurrence (in the same breast and same location).
HUGS!
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LTF, Peggy - I've thought that as well - if cancer recurred in the same breast I'd probably have a mastectomy and if I were having one off, I'd just have both for the symmetry. At 57 now, I really don't think I'd even bother with reconstruction now that I've discovered the breast forms I've mentioned previously. If I got cancer in my other currently unaffected breast though, I'd have a another lumpectomy. Does that make sense? Each breast gets one chance
That's what I think now anyway... who knows what I'd do if faced with the decision.0 -
Grazy, that's how I feel. A recurrence is definitely different from a new BC. And even if it were in the same breast and they thought it was brand new I might still go with an Lx. But it's easy to talk hypotheticals; reality is something else. Hopefully we'll never have to find out what we'd do.
Lorri, good luck!!! Dancing away in your pocket (and I dance terribly so watch out!).
HUGS!
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If you get a recurrence in the same breast, I thought there wasn't really any other option if you've already had rads?
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ok, thanks, I have no gaze just the strips. I haven't needed any pain Meds. First day was great but yesterday and today I just feel wiped out and some arm pain. I think because I am using it too much.
I am so confused on treatment plans of everyone that seems to have my diagnosis. So far they have told me radiation and then an anti estrogen drug for 5 years.
I am thinking I am not having chemo because it is not in my nodes. Now I read the prog + is more aggressive.
My biopsy says
DICwith mucin out features
Tumor grade moderately differential
Nottingham MBr grade 2-3 score 6/9 tubules score 3 bucket score 2
Mitictic figure score 1
Tumor involves 6 out of 8 tissue cores
Linear extent of tumor in this biopsy up to 4mm
Tumor volume is approx 80% of represented tissue
Neg for lymphatic. Vascular invasion
Neg for carcinoma not Insitute
Non neoplasticism breast tissues trial fibrosis
estrogen # 99 %
Proges- 5% Her 2 -
P53 over expression negative
Ki67 proiliferative index high
I have nothing in nodes like I see on your reports
Any thoughts, is prog - aggressive.?
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Positive2Strong, this is from your BIOPSY right? Not from your surgery? The results from your surgery can be different. When do you have your surgery? If you fill out your profile and make it public (on your settings), that can help us immensely. You do have a lot of information and generally the course of treatment discussed for you is standard.
HUGS!
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Peggy, the problem with doing a lx for a local recurrence or even new ipsilateral primary is that lx (except for some DCIS) requires radiation, and you can’t radiate the same tissue twice (i.e., you can’t subject it to another course of rads). Even if, like me, you had shorter but stronger targeted partial-breast treatment, there is enough “scatter” that it’s truly a crapshoot to avoid overlap (and is almost impossible).
That video only reassured me that lx +rads was the right choice for me. What I didn’t know, though, was that no longer does finding a positive node on SNB require further axillary dissection, but that even SNB may turn out to be unnecessary because tumor biology—and to a lesser extent size and a clean margin—is a clearer prognostic determinant of what kind of adjuvant therapy to do. If the breast remains, then certainly radiation; and which systemic therapy to use would depend on the above factors besides lymph node status. It’s also the first acknowledgement (even impliedly) by a member of the surgical community that lymphedema may be commoner than previously thought (though we patients have always suspected), and that the more nodes removed, the higher the chance. I had only four removed (2 sentinels, 2 hangers-on, all negative), yet even that was enough to impair lymphatic drainage from arm to axilla and then clearance from the body.
Should I get a contralateral primary and lx wouldn’t produce too much asymmetry, I’d probably choose lx + rads for that too. But if symmetry weren’t achievable without reconstruction, or I got a local recurrence or ipsilateral primary, I probably would get a bmx—either going flat, or increasing the odds of symmetry via the exact same reconstruction done on both breasts on the same day. I’m 65, married 45 years, so sensation isn’t that important to me any more (there are other buttons to push). And if the tumor biology on the core-needle sample indicated a non-aggressive form, I might advocate forgoing SNB too. Bilateral LE scares the heck out of me. Bad enough having only one good arm (and it’s not all that “good”) for BPs, IVs and blood draws.
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Riiiight, I did know that the same breast can't be radiated twice... totally forgot that as I was musing. As my mother has said all my life: Don't Borrow Trouble!!! so I won't worry about it another minute longer.
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Sandy, of course you're right. I'm with Grazy. Just plain forgot. I think that not having a SNB would be great. I find that my arm does annoy me if I don't stretch it regularly. Like you I had 5 (3 + 2 hangers-on). I don't know if my annoyance is LE, I suppose it could be. But it doesn't seem like what you have. I sure wouldn't blame you for not ever having an SNB done again. I don't intend to borrow trouble either. BC sucks.
HUGS!
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