Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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DearLife - I got my post op summary by phone from my family doc. She called me the moment she got them just to say "good news! margins are fine, they got it all & lymph nodes are negative" on day 9. If you have a good relationship with your family doctor maybe just ask if they can quickly call you when they receive them.
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I had my Lx on a Wednesday and my BS called with my path report at 5:30PM on Friday - 2 days! I was so relieved. I hadn't expected it for several more days.
HUGS!
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Hi Gals
Thanks so much for the good wishes. I think the bleeding has stopped. I am supposed to take off the top dressing today.
Harleylove, I am sorry you had to join our club but you will find so much knowledge and support here.
Runor, I am sad for your suffering. No one should have to endure that. I hope you get your mammogram soon and all will be good.
They are making progress all the time to improve bc care but it seems to take longer for new techniques to get adopted depending where you live. It is also harder if you don't live near a big cancer centre. As for women who choose MX, I know some are concerned about the impact of radiation and hormones in the future. If you are older like me, those concerns are not as great. If I can get 20 more years out of this, I will be happy.
It is interesting to hear there is an alternative to the wire placement. I did feel like a fish on a hook, but I would rather they find the right spot than go digging around. I had the dye but that was only for the nodes. Don't know how many they took but doesn't feel too sore there. I rolled up a towel to support that arm in bed and it helped.
Now the freezing has gone I feel stiff and a bit swollen but not too bad. Better than expected. I'm meeting a friend for lunch so getting back to normal. The nurse said to choose local rather than general anaesthetic if I wanted functionality sooner - cooking, cleaning ha! But she also said no heavy lifting or vacuuming for a few weeks. I said I hate vacuuming so she told my husband I shouldn't vacuum for a year. I liked that.
MO Beth - a Bellini is a cocktail made with sparkling wine and peach nectar. Maybe it's a Canadian thing. I think we need cocktails in this lounge!
My very best to all of you.
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DearLife lol re cocktails in the lounge, I agree. Best recovery wishes to you!
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Thanks Moth Good idea. I will try calling my health care centre. I live in the gulf islands most of the time and our only doc is on mat leave, so it has been a revolving door of weekly locums.
Meanwhile, my surgeon is seeing me today to check the wound. I have been sending iPad pix to the nurse and she thinks it needs a look over. I will ask the surgeon for any updates - margins, how many nodes, size of tumour.
It is so hard to get a family doctor here but I have a referral to a new GP in Vancouver in a couple of weeks. I really need the continuity. Interestingly, I heard that a physician can't refuse a pregnant woman or a cancer patient.
My long time GP, younger than I, died of non smoking lung cancer 8 years ago. 20 years ago I had a surgical biopsy that showed I had LCIS, making me high risk for breast cancer. I didn't realize it at the time, maybe they didn't know back then. But this info got lost in my file until recently. Continuity isso important.
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TLFrank, it was kind of weird leaving one hospital with a wire jabbed in my boob and driving to another, in a different town. Thus is the situation with rural Canadian health care. Same with the long waits.
The ride wasn't painful as I was pretty frozen. I arrived at hospital 2, scheduled for 11:00 surgery. I sat there, in the waiting room, HUNGRY and craving coffee until 3:00 in the afternoon. By that point yes, the wire in my boob was hurting! Any other time I walked into a hospital with a wire stuck in my boob it would have been an emergency, but apparently this time there was no problem leaving me sit there for 4 hours longer than planned. Piss me off.
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Hi Runor and all,
I'm home from lumpectomy. Doing well with pain control—they were very proactive at hospital and sent me home with Rx. The needle insertions (2) were practically painless, which was great. It did take 3 tries to get an IV, in a weird spot, but I'm just glad they could. I too had a delay...ready for surgery at 10 am, and it was almost 1:30 pm before I got to OR. Hungry, headache, and having to get up for loo every 20minutes. But no problems after that. Home by 7:30 pm with long drive and stop at pharmacy.
My surgeon felt she got good margins, and she took a fair bit of tissue, though we won't know results until appointment. One not great piece of news...while IHC showed HER2 negative, FISH was positive. Sigh. That means a year of herceptin is likely in addition to aromatase inhibitor. But we will see... Hope everyone is feeling better this week! And I was thinking of beautiful BC, my happy place, in the OR.
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Hello everyone,
Glad to have found this site-so much helpful information.
Newly diagnosed after two mammograms, ultrasounds, and multiple core biopsies (in one session). Lots of confusion, delays in scheduling, and miscommunication. Emotionally exhausted. Found an excellent surgeon who explained reports and outlined options. Hoping to move forward with his help
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Welcome JosieO! So sorry to hear about your diagnosis. You have landed in a very good place here at BCO. It’s a sisterhood that no one wants to join but you will find lots of information, shared experiences, answers to a lot of questions you will have, and kind loving support.
You will get through this event in your life!
Blessings..
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I had my Lx on 1/30/18. I have healed well, and am preparing for treatments. Saw the radiation oncologist yesterday, and he is very much in favor of the partial breast accelerated radiation, which is very high amounts of radiation twice a day for 1 week, only at the site of the tumor. Has anyone had experience with this? I have 1 week to gather info and make up my mind if this is the route I want to take.
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runor, I don't know, skip this step, cut me open, sounds perfectly reasonable to me
I'm so proud of you making it through that wire ordeal! I'm totally a wuss too. In fact, I had a big, noticeable lump -- thank goodness -- or I probably would have never gone in for a mammogram. I hadn't had a mammogram since 10 years before that. Yep, I was that person, no family history, so I was very lax on those. In fact, very lax on going to the doctor in general...a wuss when it comes to needles, procedures, etc.
Harley, welcome. I didn't have chemo, so I can't answer your question, but somebody will be along, I'm sure, with a good answer for you.
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Astyanax, glad you're home and pain control is working for you. Welcome JosieO to our group. Lots of support here
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JosieO...multiple biopsies...wuss over here. One of those almost did me in. Welcome
We'll help you through it! dlj140, welcome. I'd like to suggest that if a week is their time frame and not yours, that you not let them rush you. One week to decide? Why is that?
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They didn't squish my breast in the mammo machine to place the radioactive seed--instead, the same radiologist who did my ultrasound-guided core-needle biopsy used ultrasound to locate the tumor & clip, and the Nuc. Med. team injected the seed. Then they went over my breast with a Geiger counter and when they reached the spot on my skin above the tumor, it clicked like a Purim "grogger" (ratchet wheel noisemaker). The tech declared to my radiologist "she's hot." I said "thank you." (Should've replied, "that's what he said").
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Hi, Josie0, and welcome. Sorry all this has happened to you, and it saddens me because it seems a bit too common. I had 2 mammos and an ultrasound in our small town--and they were all confused. Ended up traveling to the highly respected teaching hospital an hour away--and so worth it. More mammos and an ultrsound and core biopsy, but they found it (both DCIS and IDC)! I had my lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy yesterday. Doing well overall.
Emotionally exhausting describes this whole mess perfectly. I have found a lot of good information and recommendations here on this site. Does your facility have something called a nurse navigator? This helped me a lot--she coordinated all my appointments and care, and I can call or email any time at all. She will answer any questions--or find out for me. I'm very glad you found a good surgeon--worth their weight in gold. I now have copies of ALL my reports in a binder I take with me to appointments. I also take DH or a friend to write things down. I ask a lot of questions, but often, my surgeon is already answering what I was thinking. My hospital also has a patient portal I use for appointments and reading reports.
Somewhere on this site is a list of post-op stuff to have on hand that has really helped. For example, I found bras that are working well (the one I got in the hospital was wayyyyy too tight and the velcro scraped my incision). This one is supportive without gouging anything. They had many good suggestions.
I think that information is so important, but I know it's scary sometimes, too. For example, yesterday I was reminded that *I* had to keep telling everyone that I'm allergic to a commonly used pre-op med. Yes, it's on my chart. Yes, everyone asked me. But they would always follow by, "Please be sure to tell (the next person) because we use it a lot." No problems--there were multiple time outs and everyone asked, always. But yeah--having to remember that stuff when you are about to have surgery...overwhelming.
Wishing you the best and please let us know what we can do to help.
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Donna, I have not experienced this, but I am very interested to hear about it. I face an hour drive each way for treatments. I think the advice about having a little more time is good. What about risks vs. benefits? I wish I could tell you more--like you, I'm in the information gathering stage...
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This is a bit gross, but a post surgery alert. It took me by surprise to find out not only my urine was blue after the radioactive dye. Also neon poop. And I wish I had taken something for constipation. This is not normally my problem but I guess the surgery meds did it to me. I didn't take anything afterwards except a couple of Tylenols.
Otherwise, all is well three days out. The nurse changed my dressing yesterday since it was oozing but now all is good. Sleeping better, bleeding stopped.
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DearLife - Thank you for that heads-up on the technicolor toilet. I would have been very surprised and probably a little worried.
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I remember using the toilet before I left the hospital, being very drugged I asked if the blue toilet was from me. I'm old enough to remember some toilet cleaner that left the water blue. But, it was me. 😁
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LOL, yeah, that blue dye is eye-opening.
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DearLife - Glad to hear you’re surviving through your lumpectomy - I remember how weird it was to experience the blue pee! I also remember the pre operative guide wires, shots hurting as they were put in prior to surgery. Not pleasant, but you live. I hated the drain tubes too. The worst was my lovely pink flat straight jacket - what were they thinking? They gave me an expensive surgical bra after my bypass, but I guess breast surgery was too cheap for a decent bra. I would think the flat straight jacket would have worked better for the sternum stitches. My whole chest has gone through the gamut these last three years
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Astyanax66,
Thank you for your kind words and good wishes.
No, the hospital I am using does not have a nurse navigator, surprisingly. It sure seems to make sense. One of the concerns I had was trying to perceive who is really directing the process. My hope was to have a team of professionals who identified my specific needs, appropriate responses, and a structure to move forward. Fortunately the surgeon I chose does recognize that need and builds it into his process.
I am slowly working my way backwards through this board, reading all of the relevant posts and learning so much-things that I didn't think to ask. So thanks to all of your generous contributions, I will be informed. And as ready as I can be. Just today I saw the “blue urine" comments-yikes! So glad to not be surprised and upset by that.
As I get more info I'll be sure to fill in my details and make them public. Surgery this month (lumpectomy) and pathology and genomic testing should tell me more.
Many thanks and best wishes to you and everyone here
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Thank you, DearLife. Already feeling the support and generosity here
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Thank you, Bella.
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I didn't get the blue pee (actually blue+yellow=green) because I didn't get the blue dye, just the radioactive isotope shots. My nurse-navigator and patient portal were worth their weight in gold. I, too, kept a binder for the active phase of my treatment. But I used the Levenger Circa/Staples Arc (identical but cheaper--and you're likelier to have a Staples than a Levenger near you) system. Specially punched paper, flanged plastic discs instead of rings, notebook covers, dividers, portable punch, ruler, even a little zippered pouch (for receipts and discount parking coupons from my rads days). Whenever I had an appointment, I would remove that section of my binder as a mini-binder; and when I'd get home, I'd punch any handouts, reports or after-visit summaries and put them in the appropriate section. Now that I am on a 6-month MO & Prolia schedule, 12-month mammo & breast surgeon cycle, and am 2+ years into a 5-yr stretch of letrozole, I've decided to "save a tree" and let the patient portal do the work. All good unless I forget my login info...
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Yes, I was expecting blue urine and got nothing! Oh well...
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I peed blue, took a pic with my cell and sent it to my kid. She makes me look at all her gross, stupid stuff so I figured it was time to get even. Blue pee. Take that!
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I had a lumpectomy last Friday and have felt great ever since. No pain, minimal bruising, etc. However, my nipple has been super sensitive ever since and I'm trying to figure out why, especially since the incision was at the side of my breast. I have Raynaud's Syndrome in my feet and nipples so I wonder if that is related. The sensitivity is the same sensation I felt during the 6 weeks I tried to breastfeed both my children and it is very uncomfortable. I saw the surgeon on Thursday but of course forgot to ask her about this.
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ReadyAbout - the nipple is enervated by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th intercostal nerves. Depending on the location of your mass and the incision, it's possible those were touched or disturbed which would cause some irritation and extra sensitivity to your nipple.
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Two days until my lumpectomy for benign pash.
I was told no lifting more than 5 lbs for 3 weeks. No shower for two days.
How else can I prepare for recovery? What helped you?
I am going to catch up on laundry today and tomorrow. And gogrocery shopping.
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