Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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Hello everyone. I had my lumpectomy a week ago and am healing very well. I didn't need pain pills after day and a half, and constipation didn't last long (a big concern of mine. ) I'll try to hit the high points of the path report based on what is reported above.
I'd appreciate some help in understanding the key points of the path report , so if there's a place in the forum that explains terms, please provide a link. I have an app't with oncologist and radiologist next week butlike to be prepared .
Also, I need new bras -- for sleep and no wire for during the day. I've tried entering phrases in the search engine in quotes , like "b est sleep bra" butI end up with many posts that justt contain the word "Bra". So if anyone has any recommendations for comfortable wireless bras and sleep bras, or links in the forum, that would be great. I'm a 40B
Surgery : 5/18/2017 Lumpectomy Right Breast Mass .7cm Grade 1
Invasive lobular ductal carcinoma in situ (LCIS) No DCIS present
sentinel lymph nodes: two benign nodes
ER+/PR+/HR2-0 -
Hello everyone. I had my lumpectomy a week ago and am healing very well. I didn't need pain pills after day and a half, and constipation didn't last long (a big concern of mine. ) I'll try to hit the high points of the path report based on what is reported above.
I'd appreciate some help in understanding the key points of the path report , so if there's a place in the forum that explains these terms, please provide a link. I have an app't with oncologist and radiologist next week but like to be prepared .
Also, I need new bras -- sleep bras and no-wire bras for during the day. I've tried entering phrases in the search engine in quotes , like "best sleep bra" but I end up with many posts that just contain the word "Bra". So if you have any recommendations for comfortable wireless bras and sleep bras, please sned them along.I'm a 40B
Surgery : 5/18/2017 Lumpectomy Right Breast Mass .7cm Grade 1<
Invasive lobular ductal carcinoma in situ (LCIS) No DCIS present
sentinel lymph nodes: two benign nodes
ER+/PR+/HR2-0 -
Nancy, I haven't really had anyone treat my disease as nothing but, like gardennerd, I've had people who are confused. I've also gotten the "so are you going to lose your hair" question. Then, "oh, so you're not having chemo, just radiation - well, that's not so bad. A woman in my BC support group asked, so you're just Stage 1? I don't know what stage she was (her surgery and treatments were 10 years ago).
That's why I like this particular thread. I find I don't have much in common with many of the women on some of the other surgery threads. What they're dealing with - mostly reconstruction - is outside my scope of understanding.
Here's something I'm going to have to either ignore or do something about: I'm noticing that my right breast is now noticeably smaller than my left. Since my CT scan showed a sizable spot of edema two weeks ago, I'm guessing some swelling still remains. That means, of course, my breast will get even smaller. I can notice the difference when I'm dressed and wonder if anyone else can. Are there partial prostheses? Does Knitted Knockers make such a thing? How would you even guess at a size? My breasts are on the small side - just a B.
It will be nice to have a day off tomorrow. Today was a very busy day - I'm pooped!
My DH will be participating in a Memorial Day ceremony tomorrow, reading letters sent home by soldiers. He's a Vietnam veteran and has a tough time on Memorial Day.
Hope everyone has good dreams tonight.
MJ
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A couple of times I've heard how great my plastic surgeon was, or “wow, your hair came back really fast!" Most people who haven't dealt with early-stage bc know only what they've seen on TV or in movies (or remember relatives who had it years ago) and just assume “cancer" automatically means chemo, and that “breast cancer" always results in the loss of the breast or breasts (further influenced by those celebs with BRCA mutations, or who wanted “peace of mind"). Actually, lumpectomy used to be considered dangerously experimental as recently as the late 1980s.
But more often, I feel a twinge of guilt over being lucky, having stage IA with clean margins, low Oncotype so no chemo, and large enough breasts with the tumor located “high & outside" so that not only was lumpectomy possible but 18 months post-rads the only way to tell I had lumpectomy & SNB are the scars. Even the “tan" has faded away. The R one (“Louise"), which had the surgery, actually looks rounder, perkier & more “normal" than the larger droopy fatty L (“Thelma"). Before surgery, Thelma was half a cup size larger than Louise. Due to a seroma, which was enlarged by radiation, both girls were the same size for awhile, though Louise's enlargement was lateral—like “she" swallowed a grapefruit—and my cleavage skewed left. But the seroma has resorbed so much that Thelma is now more than a cup size bigger than Louise (which is smaller but still shows no divot). Luckily, I have some old pads from a Genie bra I bought in my skinnier days that still never fit me.
Kim, hooray for clean scans! Sorry you'll need chemo. As to surgical bras, the BS' NO warned me ahead of time not to freak out if I woke up in a large ACE wrap because they didn't have surgical bras with big enough cups, nor velcro binders that could accommodate my upper abdomen. (This former “pear" became an “apple" at menopause). I did wake up in a surgical bra—a white high-necked, high-backed Velcro Royce in size XL—about two Xs too few. I have no idea how they were able to shoehorn me into it, except that I was still out like a light and limp as a rag doll. I had to wear it for 48 hrs and was glad to shed it and toss it in the wash. Because I was told to wear a soft cup bra home from my core biopsy, I had a couple of 42DDDs (and a 40H from Lane Bryant); but also, because I was told that I would have trouble pulling anything over my head or fastening a bra in back, I ordered some front-hook stretch-knit leisure bras by Leading Lady in various colors from BareNecessities and HerRoom. (WalMart online now carries them too, as does FullBeauty aka Roaman's or Woman Within). They come in A/B, C/D/E, and F/G/H, and they do stretch. I have since learned that the ones without hooks can be stepped into and out of (which is how I put on my swimsuits, even the tankini top, and the Amoena shelf-bra camisoles).
By 3 wks post-op, I was back in some of my underwires, and wore most of them during radiation because the wires didn't touch the radiated area. I got used to sleeping in a leisure bra in order to keep a Swell Spot pad in the R cup to bring down the seroma bulge—and I still wear them for sleep, because they prevent Thelma from getting a yeasty rash due to skin-on-skin contact. Besides, without a bra you can clearly see the asymmetry, which is embarrassing (not that Louise is smaller after surgery but that Thelma is so outsize, floppy, and hangs nearly to what used to be my waist—like naked horny Granny in those old Buck Brown Playboy cartoons. Don’t ask how I know about those cartoons…).
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Hi Folks,
Been off-line recovering from bi-lateral reduction.Kim, so wonderful that you got good news from your scans.Poodles, what a relief to find a good care support for Christian, so you can travel to be with your ailing mother and your family.
Kim, was it you who pointed out that all this emerging one year post clean mammogram?I had a mammogram and a screening MRI on the same day.The screening MRI showed several suspicious areas but the mammogram report was all clear (with a disclaimer about dense breasts). I received the "routine mammogram" note the same day I had a biopsy of an area of concern on the MRI. I am extremely lucky that a gyn I consulted for the first time used risk assessment tools and urged me to get a baseline MRI. I'm very lucky but I'm aware that without the new doc who happened to be attuned to risk, my invasive cancer might not have been detected for along time.That's a bit unsettling.
I gather that there are other imaging approaches that would help for those with dense breasts. At the breast imaging center, I found ads for a "Fast MRI," which is for women with dense breasts who don't meet the breast cancer risk level for a full MRI but want additional screening. I believe it's only 10 minutes. I suspect it's easier to get insurance approval.I think it might help for those with dense breasts.Also an ultrasound seemed to show a lot more for me than the mammogram, but there was still other stuff visible on the MRI.
SarasotaLady, others may have responded about a guide to understanding pathology reports. Just in case . . . The best I've found Your Guide to the Breast Cancer Pathology Report is on the breastcancer.org site. It's part of a section with other articles about getting your pathology report, etc.
Nancy , TR:people treating early stage cancer as nothing. Remember range is 0 – 4.That said, I find it helpful to avoid stages and said, I'm lucky that it's "early-stage," so the outlook promising but still need various types of treatments.(Remember, some of us will take hormone-suppressant meds for 5 – 10 years!)
I've encountered many who treat "early-stage" as nothing. I'm finding it upsetting. As I posted previously, I was in a breast imaging waiting room, where someone who'd had a later-stage was extremely dismissive of someone with DCIS (who'd gone through rounds of chemo).Then again, I've interacted with some who were treated for much more advanced-stage cancer, who've acknowledged that "none of this is easy" and who've been understanding, even though they went through rounds of chemo, and endured many side effects.Some who had early-stage cancer c. 40 years ago, when radical mastectomies were common and when – as Sandy pointed out- lumpectomy was considered experimental, have been supportive and have said they're pleased to see progress with breast-conserving techniques. Also, I'm going through survivor guilt and I'm trying to work through it.Folks on this forum have offered very insightful comments that I've been finding very helpful.
I'm sending good wishes to all.
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Hi,
Was it MJ who asked about partial prostheses for change in shape/size of radiated breast (smaller and firmer).In searching for post-surgical bras and accessories I found these listed.Also, not that anyone wants more surgery, I understand that some insurance pays for reduction of other breast to create symmetry.
Was it SarasotaLady who asked about online searching for suitable bras? I found it helpful to search for post-surgery bras, for post-surgery compression garments, and for front-closure bras.Many retailers include mastectomy and wireless and certainly sports bras among the filter options.There are some specialty companies for breast cancer survivors or medical supply stores that offer special sections for post breast surgery.
Bras:After LX and SNB, I woke up wrapped in a wide ace bandage, which remained for 48 hours, until first shower. After bilateral breast reduction, I had a surgical bra.(I didn't go home with drains so by time I got home, the surgical bra was SOAKED with red drainage. Yikes!)Others have posted great suggestions about bras so I will try not to repeat.
Plastic surgeon (PS) who did reduction requires wearing post-surgical compression garment 24/7 for 4 weeks post-op. Then a wireless (no wire) bra with cups for the next 6 months post-op. PS does not recommend a sports bra.Insists on cups with no underwire to help contour breasts.
I've been trying the types of bras suggested by others on this list. PS said NOT to buy any bras until first post-op.Then I realized that local stores only carried the types I needed online – at least in my band size (42).I'm experimenting and must figure out way to look and feel presentable for a presentation in a week!Currently, I must wear gauze to catch drainage, I still have an open sore (from pre-surgery yeast infection under fold of breast), and still need more compression (promotes healing and feels better at night). After surgery, all the gauze dressings were on breast with NO tape.I forgot to ask if OK to tape.I need smaller gauze to stuff under breast fold, where I need to put lotion.I need for the open sore under my breast where I had pre-surgery infection is falling out as I walk!! I found some larger gauze and I'm seeing if my skin is OK with taping the smaller gauze. While waiting for mail orders of several types of front-close, soft cup bras, I was able to remove underwire from pre-surgery bra with G cup. The gauze fills in the extra cup size. To get compression, that is supposed to promote healing and feels more supportive at night, I wear the surgical bra over it.I'm sure all will work out.I just need some time and some advice!I am NOT complaining.40 years ago, my mother had a single radical mastectomy for what I think was early-stage breast cancer. I grew up aware of that and of her LE from the full node biopsies they did at the time.
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Regarding bras, its difficult for me to find bras in local stores because of my cup size, so I have to order. I just had my lumpectomy two weeks ago. Even if I could purchase locally, I don't think I would want to go through the process of trying on a bra to see which ones work in a store. Those in need to shop might consider going to internet (herroom.com or barenecessities.com) pick out a few styles. I always wore underwire so I definitely needed to get new bras. So I went the route of shopping via internet. The sites provide dimensions and in particular the side widths (a concern for me as the location of my SN incision) Some ordering might consider the band contour in front of the breasts or width of band all of which the sites provide information.
I hate the idea of sending back items I've ordered but the idea of easing the shopping experience definitely was the priority. I ordered one size larger in band width as my cath. tubes from brachytherapy landed in the fold of my breast. And afterwards the bandages from incision at breast fold is taking up room.
I will say I had thought my incisions were the major source of discomfort, until I had the brachy balloon removed. It was so nice to have it removed, pressure off. Definitely a different sensation. But more importantly I could upgrade from a leisure bra to a regular bra. Can't wait to get back to an underwire (if I can eventually).
To all . . . pamper yourselves the best you can. I know its hard sometimes but everyone of you deserve it.
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SarasotaLady, Welccome! We're glad you found us. When you first start your breast cancer journey it is such a confusing time. You don't even know what you don't know! You asked about deciphering your pathology report. Here is the link to various articles on pathology reports: Pathology Reports. I'm sure you'll find the right article there to help. Also, I recommend that you read Dr Susan Love's Breast Book. It is a comprehensive guide to breast cancer. I'm a 36A and I went braless most of the time during my radiation treatments. I wore Genie bras after my surgery - they worked well for me. I'm glad you are feeling good and hope that your path reports are fantastic!
HUGS!
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Blooming, for years I have removed the underwires in Victoria Secrets bras. I don't quite get why they think underwires are necessary for A cups but I loved the style of bra and it fit great AFTER removing the underwires. Now I wear mostly padded cottony camisoles I buy at Walmart for $6.
Remembering all those who served and have passed in service to our country, including my father.
HUGS!
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~Tappermom~ Gardennerd~
I can't speak to bras because I didn't wear one most of the time after surgery and during radiation. My breasts are large, but I still felt better letting them hang free.
As per prostheses, I have ordered Knitted Knockers, but have not received any yet. I also ordered Awesome Breastforms and got them very quickly. They are free and either knitted or crocheted. You can go to awesomebreastforms.org and fill out the request form. I really like mine. I needed a form because my breast shrank considerably with radiation and flopped around in my bra. It was painful after awhile. The breast form fills the gap for me. They also do swim forms if you need them. I only ordered one the first time and found I needed another so I could wash the first. So if you can, try to order a pair (if you only need for one breast) or two pairs if you need to cover both breasts. They will do forms for mastectomy and lumpectomy.
The only time my smaller breast is noticeable is when I am bra-less.
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To anyone who wishes to pipe in, I cannot believe the reactions people have regarding those of you with stage 1s. I think so much of it is just ignorance. I know I knew very little when all this hit me like a freight train. I think I have recently had the opposite reaction, since my stage is officially now 3A. I quickly looked up 5-year survival rates, and that seems to be significantly less than when my BS expected this to be 1A, so I quickly closed the webpage. Some ladies at church yesterday kind of gasped when I told them, as did a friend who had BC last year.
Now I feel strangely odd, that I seemed to have had a successful lumpectomy (though this tumor was not small by my standards), and yet I am stage 3A with 6/7 cancerous lymph nodes. It's all quite confusing. Perhaps the ONC on Wed will enlighten me about the future going forward. I am feeling so well, honestly 10 days post surgery, that it doesn't even feel like I have the big "C." Even tender armpit seems to be regaining feeling more each day. I walked 2.0 miles yesterday at a fairly good pace, and I trimmed the grass around the brick wall today with the right hand and had no concerns with pain.
At this point, I am thankful for clean bones and organs. My DH reminded me if chemo is indeed for 6 months at 1x every 2 weeks, then that's just 12 sessions. When you look at things from a different perspective, you can deal with them better. That's what I am trying to do -- just be thankful for what this is NOT!
Blooming, Yes, I had a clean mammogram in April 2016, and I also had ABUS (automated breast ultrasound) with that mammo - no findings on either. Same procedure this year and there she was. Though even through ABUS, they thought it looked like 1 cm. When the biopsy was done, it looked closer to 3 cm. At final removal, it was 3.6 x 3.0 x 2.0. All in one year. I don't know what to say about that, since I am not smart enough to know why it could have grown like that in a year's time.
Off to do a little retail therapy!
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Thanks for that link, velvetpoppy. How do you figure out what you need when you have a good portion of your breast left? Do they make the prothesis so it fits over the breast?
MJ
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~Tappermon~
Mine doesn't fit over my entire breast. I need it to fill in the gap near the top of the bra cup, but I can adjust it as I need it to fit. When you get to the "how to order" tab there is a box where they ask you to give them as much detail as possible. There is also a 'special needs' box you can fill out. You might also be able to find them on FB. This is what my forms look like.
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Yikes, I didn't plan on the pics being so huge!
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KimPossible - someone will come along and explain survival rates better. I too felt alarmed about them when I dove into my cancer research, but the numbers are presented not as straight forward as you would think they would be. Don't be alarmed it is how they word it. If your oncologist doesn't explain on next appointment then be sure to ask.
I know I said how surprised I was to read that 1 in 8 women will have breast cancer to one of the nurses at the breast cancer center. She quickly cleared that ratio up as to being an increased figure for older women . . . not an overall ratio to be used of all ages. See . . . the wording can really distort the interpretation of facts.
Your DH has the right prospective on your chemo treatment. I also remind myself that this is a blip on the screen or (bump on the road) often as it IS truly a small time factor in our lives that we will be dealing with regarding biopsies/surgery/treatment.
I do know that the sizing of the lesion can change. My lesions measured differently from biopsy to CT to MRI to mammogram to surgery.
I am embarrassed to admit that I had skipped five years of mammograms before this years mammogram in which they found the cancer. Before that I had YEARS of religiously going for my annual. I mean, OMG! what was I thinking? I had stupid all over my face. Honestly, I guess I didn't go as I just didn't find it to be an enjoyable experience. Stupid.stupid.stupid. The "what-if's" if I waited another year or even longer? It could have been considerably worse. Way worse. It is the one thing that I make sure I share with my women friends. If anything, PLEASE get your annual mammogram. I share my stupidity now and in just two months I have had five women come back to let me know they went and got checked. Their sharing this, something normally not part of our discussions, is a gift. I may not harp on the topic but I know now, it certainly won't be a non subject either.
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Nancy618 I've also had the same "Oh, it's stage one, that's nothing" type of reaction from a few people. Surprisingly one of my friends - who survived Stage 4 - has been the most understanding. What has really bothered me is one comment I got that said I got cancer because "Obviously your subconscious is trying to tell you something."
Gardennerd When I was diagnosed, it was my first mammogram in seven years. I had been diligently having them every other year, but somehow got off track. I had no idea it had been that long. It was actually the whole debate about the Affordable Care Act, that got me worried and thinking I better get checked while I still had health insurance.
I'm also confused about one part of my pathology report about the MRI taken after the lumpectomy and before radiation (which starts this week). Thanks to everyone for providing the links for info about pathology reports.
Hope the holiday weekend went well for everyone. Big excitement around the islands was a black bear showing up. Turns out they can swim.
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Hey, I had 19 annual mammograms with no problems whatsoever (the baseline 5 yrs. before that required a second try because it was a “portable" machine that shook when an elevated train passed by the clinic building, which had “suspended" wood floors—turned out it had been a “motion artifact" that wasn't there the next day). Then the 20th showed the “focal asymmetry not present in 2013 or 2014." And though the radiologist who did the followup dx ultrasound estimated the tumor to be 7mm. Two weeks later, the radiologist who did my core-needle biopsy said “9mm." Two weeks after that was my lumpectomy—and the surgical path report sized it at 1.3cm! Did it double in size in only four weeks, or did it pop out of nowhere between May 2014 & Aug. 2015? Mind you, I don't have dense breasts. Most likely, mammo equipment got more accurate over 25 yrs, and radiologists learned more too. (And the discrepancy over the course of four weeks? Shadows, interpretation, and most importantly the fact that one can't clearly see the actual size of a tumor without actually seeing it in the flesh--no pun intended).
And it's interesting to note advances & refinement in treatment over the years. The day before my final rads session, I was at a party with two friends who'd had DCIS 10 years earlier—both had BMX (it was a given) and one had chemo. Nowadays chemo is almost never administered for pure node-negative DCIS—even if hormone-receptor negative, which it is half the time; HER2 is almost never tested in pure DCIS, because more than half of DCIS tumors are HER2+—because they are by definition in situ and non-invasive. And my MIL, who was 63 back in 1975, one day noticed her nipple was inverted, so she went to her gyne. The very next day she was admitted for surgical biopsy, with the understanding that because (they believed back then) breast cancer is so aggressive, should a frozen section performed on the biopsy sample while she was still under general anesthesia come back malignant, there would be no time to waste and therefore a mastectomy would be performed immediately. And even a “modified" or “limited" radical mastectomy was considered to be a revolutionary and “kinder" surgery—since “only" the breast and all the axillary nodes were removed, instead of also the pectoral (and sometimes part of the inner upper arm) muscle and chest wall.
We've come a long way, baby.
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My mom had a radical mastectomy in 1976 with something like 20 lymph nodes removed. They even removed all the muscle. She is a little bitter today that all the prosthetics are designed for today's mastectomies that don't take nearly as much out so the ones she needs are harder to find when she needs new ones but obviously she is happy for all the advancements, especially once I got diagnosed. Also they told her nothing about what kind of cancer or anything which my doctors wanted to know when I was diagnosed. Not that they knew about hormone receptors or BRCA back then anyway. But it seemed they didn't feel the need to give her medical details. She was 24 - she alsoprobably didn't ask.
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kb870 - " Women would go in for a biopsy and wake up maimed! They were forced to sign the consent before the biopsy would be done!"
Oh my gosh . . . that definitely shows we have come a long way.
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I had sentinel node biopsy with my lumpectomy last week. Every bra I have rubs the SN incision and it doesn't seem to be healing as well as the breast incision. I've tried putting gauze in there. I feel better there without a bra and my breast feels OK without it (very small breasts) but after time the lumpectomy area feels better with a bra. Ugh. Is it bad to not wear compressions/sports bra a few days after lumpectomy? (I had a previous benign lumpectomy and wore sports bra for about 3 weeks, was more comfortable and healed well) Trying to decide which area to prioritize pampering in this healing phase. How worried should I be about the SNB incision getting rubbed/irritated
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My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 59, in 1969. What they did to her was unconscionable. She went to sleep for a biopsy and woke up missing her entire left breast down to the chest wall, muscles and everything. But what made it so much worse was how they "fixed" it: they detached the left side side right breast at the sternum and stretched it across to the left chest wall. She had one giant Cyclops breast hanging down right in the middle! I was 13 and i well remember my sense of horror when she showed it to me (her way of making a PSA to do monthly breast exams.) Grandma had to sew her own bras to contain this big ole uni-boob.
She also had chemo and cobalt treatments (gamma radiation with a cobalt radioisotope.) The Cobalt treatments killed portions of three of her ribs over her heart, so they had to go in and remove about a 4" by 4" square of ribs and forever after that you could see Grandma's heart beating right through her skin.
Grandma lived another 17 years and died of colon cancer. She probably had one or both of the gene mutations, like i have, that causes breast and colon cancer (her parents died of colon cancer and almost all of her siblings had either breast, colon, or lung cancer.) I dont know how she bore her experience.
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Epic Squirrel - Personally I would go for comfort. We are all different with locations of incisions to size of breasts. I had lumpectomy and a excision of a benign lesion same time with SNodes. I'm the same, my SN incision is the troublesome spot presently as other incisions along with brachytherapy tube incision are all healing nicely. It appears to be a concensus that the SN incision is generally the one that bothers most.
I still have staples in my SN incision and I'm either trying to avoid skin to skin contact or that area being pulled by not very supportive breasts (leisure bra) or a more supportive bra that runs close to the line of the SN incision. So I am basically swapping up daily. But my emphasis is on the SN incision as it is slightly pink, deals with more potential for infection with being skin to skin and well? it is the only one that grabs my attention presently.
You "might" consider taking one of your older bras and just cut out the area that it is around your SN incision?
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Mustlovepoodles - its so odd that we don't think (well some of us don't) that 1969 is that far back. And yet look at the attitude and manner in which they treated cancer. Makes me wonder if we are to look 50 years forward, will the methods of treatment be so antiquated also?
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Gardennerd, isn't that barbaric? Truly, the Stone Age of cancer medicine. I think women in the future will be equally horrified at the treatments we receive today. My mother is convinced that reconstruction earlier than 5yrs post-BMX will cause recurrence and death. Her sister had BMX in 1979 and that's what the surgeon advised back then, so that's what mother believes. I haven't told my mother that I intend to have recon. (She's in hospice now, so I'll just keep it on the down-low for now.)
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Epicsquirrel: I had the same problem with the surgical bra. I found some other bras that had a lower strap on the side and didn't rub the SNB incision but until then I used the gauze. I was very uncomfortable with no bra (I still am). My mom went to target and bought me every bra with no underwire that was close to my size to try. I still have to go return the majority of them and my surgery was two months ago.0 -
EpicSquirrel - The SNB incision was (& to a certain extent still is) most bothersome. What worked for me - DH found gauze pads with a smooth covering that I taped (using sensitive skin tape) onto the front close bra I wore where it would rub the SNB incision. Hope you find some relief. Healing thoughts coming your way.
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EpicSquirrel, I'm also small busted. I went without a bra for the longest time post-lx. I also found that many of tops were now too small in the armhole for comfort and rubbed on that damned SLNB site. That discomfort lasted for about a year and even now will occasionally act us. I generally wear padded camisoles I get at Walmart. They provide the limited support I need and don't rub anything. I do wear bras once in awhile but not often. You might consider the camis.
Poodles, that is barbaric what was done to your grandmother. I still remember hearing of such things back in the 60s. You're wise to not tell your mother that you are having reconstructive surgery - she definitely would not understand that things have changed over the years (thank heavens!).
Hope everyone had a good Memorial Day and remembered those who perished for our freedom.
HUGS!
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Poodles, I am horrified to read the story of your poor grandmother - life must have been awful after having been disfigured in such a way!
There is a good book about the history of breast cancer treatments:
The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America by Barron H. Lerner
It also sheds light on the American approach to disease. As a European, I am astonished to read how many women in the US undergo bilateral mastectomies or have their ovaries removed. These procedures are certainly not as popular in Europe - but our survival rates are similar.
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee also has some good sections about breast cancer and is a great read in general.
The ultra-radical surgeries advocated by Jerome Urban of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre and followers are still giving me nightmares - he sometimes even removed a few ribs...
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Mustlove, That just breaks my heart to read what your grandmother endured. It's amazing someone even come through that kind of treatment emotionally intact.
I know a friend of mine whose mother went through a very radical MX in the 1960s, and the way she described it was fairly similar. She lived into her 80s, though. I think women of that generation were tougher in so many ways. I know my grandmother, whom I lost just last December at 98, was simply amazing. How I would love one of her hugs right now.One of my business clients just revealed to me HE had breast cancer twice -- the last 8 years ago. I know it's about a 15% rate for men, as one of my high school classmates lost her first husband to it in his late 20s. So, we have come a long way for sure.
Epic, I am 11 days post LX and SNB. I agree the SNB has given me more issues of irritation. I found a cotton dress in my closet to wear to church on Sunday that had "flowy" arms, which held the material away from my underarms. I don't have another like it, but it was wonderful! I was never so glad to get the gauze/tape off, so I personally am not interested in taping over it. I felt like that added to the irritation. I also found it helpful, when relaxing on the couch, to get a long kidney-like pillow and just prop the arm up on it to the side. I did that the first two night's of sleeping as well. I am happy with how it is improving each day, though. When I walked at the trails on Saturday night, I had to hold that right arm out much of the walk, because I felt it was rubbing too much.
Sandy, Thanks for sharing your story of size changes. It all makes sense to me (well, as best it can), because of the density, but it's still helpful to know that others journeyed on a similar path of expecting this then it was that. One day at a time...
Oh, and I dropped off my mini-Schnauzer for a teeth cleaning early this morning. I could not believe what they are charging me! WOW! I should have asked ahead of time. My DH, who never had pets until we joined the family, will be super surprised. The vet is an undergrad friend of his, so he can take it up with him!
I don't think my anesthesia cost that much! 
Peace and laughter to all today. I am busy with work, and that is making me happy today. Back to it...
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Is it okay to post a question here? I had a lumpectomy on my left breast May 4th 2017. I didn't notice immediately, but maybe two weeks post surgery I experienced what felt like new bruising on my left side, lower, front rib area ... Since first experiencing it as just sensitive to the touch, now it jolts me awake at night with sharp pain if I turn a certain way. Like a muscle pull?My surgeon said it was probably just bruising, but there is no visible discoloration. I have not started radiation yet. What could be causing this pain?
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