Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
Comments
-
Louisa, I definitely needed a sports bra following my lumpectomy. Gravity is not our friend after breast surgery and a sports bra gently holds the girls in place. Definitely go with a size or two larger than what you normally wear. There will be swelling and fluid retention in the breast having the lumpectomy so that breast may be enlarged for awhile. Wal-Mart carries Fruit of the Loom sports bras that hook in the front. You may not be able to pull a bra over your head so an open front bra will be much easier for you.
I needed support while I was in recovery. My recovery nurse provided a package of two Fruit of the Loom open front sports bras. They were size 44 (LOL!). I normally wear a 38. They felt great. You definitely don’t want anything too tight.
I had more pain and discomfort from the SNB than I did from the lumpectomy incision. I wasn’t expecting that to happen.
Blessings for a great outcome (clear nodes and margins) from your surgery
0 -
SLL101984, in my opinion, breast cancer involves A LOT of waiting. I found the lump before Christmas, was diagnosed on 2/1, had a lumpectomy on 2/23, (had lumpectomy on Fri and was back at work on Mon) and have experienced several odd delays in the past month. I am scheduled for bilateral mast. in 3 weeks because I am not a good candidate for radiation. I will also have sentinel node biopsy during surgery. I am STILL waiting on Oncotype, HER2, etc. - long story, so I don't even know whether I'll need Tamo/chemo, etc. Settle down for a longer ride than you'd anticipated. Susan Love's Breast Book is a great resource, as are the forums here. You can do this! We can do hard things!
0 -
I had my Lumpectomy Friday afternoon and I have exhausted ever since. All I want to do is sleep. Is this normal
0 -
Aprila1, it is absolutely normal. Remember you've had major surgery! Most of us think of outpatient surgery as minor, but it isn't. Your body is telling you to rest - listen to it. Don't overdo. Pamper yourself. Let your body work to heal everything. Remember no heavy lifting! Let everyone wait on you
HUGS!
0 -
My lumpectomy was in 2014 then I had 22 radiation treatments. I just started getting this god awful pain, almost like a muscle spasm in my breast,arm pit and back. My doctor says it's normal but if it's normal why did it just start 4 years later? So much pain that it takes my breath away. Has anyone else had this happen
0 -
I also got front closing sports bras for immediately after surgery. They are thin with light support. I did accelerated radiation, and by the third day, I found myself lightly holding my breast as I walked, because any bouncing was very uncomfortable, bordering on painful. So I bought 2 high support front zip sports bras ($29 each from Target), and got them tight. That took care of the problem, and I no longer looked like an idiot... (I work in a clinic, so I would hold on to end of my stethoscope so my arm would be under and supporting the breast, as opposed to grabbing it!😨)
0 -
I am taking it easy, sometimes it’s hard 😁 because I’m so use to doing things around the house. My boob 😂 is bruised and red and kinda itchy and I’m trying not to take the pain medicine the Dr gave me. I am also having some aching in/around my right armpit. They did not take any lymph nodes I’m assuming it’s may be related to the position they had my arm in during surgery.
The worst part is the wait. It’s driving me nuts. ADH is what the core needle biopsy showed. Now I’m wondering what this Lumpectomy will show. Very nervous
0 -
Aprila1, No need to be a hero on painkillers. You will feel better and heal better if you are comfortable. If you don't want or need the prescription ones, use Tylenol or your OTC of choice.
BTW, it is really helpful if you fill out your profile and then click on the SETTINGS tab and make each and every item PUBLIC. Then we know all about your, your diagnosis and even where you live! We can't remember everyone's particulars and this helps immensely.
Waiting is awful. Hopefully you will get the path report soon (make sure to get a hard copy for your records - not only that but EVERYTHING!).
HUGS!
0 -
pontiacpegg,
Added as much info as I have.
Busy time in my life. Father passing and this Lumpectomy for ADH.
Some of the questions don’t apply to me at this time, so I’m not sure how helpful it will be for people on this site.
0 -
Aprila1, You did just fine. Do put in your surgery date, too when you get around to it. I certainly understand how overwhelming just BC is let alone the passing of your father. While not nearly as traumatic as your father's demise, I was caring fulltime for my very disabled husband by my self. You barely have time to do what needs to be done and BC seems to take a back seat - except when waiting for reports. Hope the reports are good and you get them soon!
HUGS!
0 -
Hi April1a,
I’m so sorry—that’s a lot on your plate. I agree with everyone—rest, take meds as directed, and heal. Being in pain messes with a lot of things—obviously don’t take more than instructed, but lowered pain means better rest. If you want, try a half dose—it might be a good “happy medium“ for you, enough to help with pain and not so many side effects. My doctor who did my complete hysterectomy was scant with pain meds, and it really made for an awful recovery. By contrast, my lumpectomy had pain well addressed, and I was up and about soon. The waiting too is hard.
Hugs,
Dee
0 -
LouisaEllingham, I take it you're a Doc Martin fan?
Sports bras, especially the stretchy "leisure" front-hook kind, are a great idea. Before my lumpectomy I was a 38 I. (Yes, that's the letter "I"). Yet I woke up in the recovery room stuffed like a sausage into a hospital-issue Velcro-front "surgical" bra...size XL, the largest they had. I wore leisure bras at night for the first year, to hold in the Swell Spot pad I was given to help shrink my seroma; I still occasionally wear them so "Thelma & Louise" don't hang at my waist and make me look like "Horny Granny" in those old Buck Brown Playboy cartoons. Especially if I'm traveling and order room service breakfast (or go down to the motel breakfast bar in my muumuu). I also notice that when I wear a bra to sleep I don't get sweaty and develop candida under my breast from skin-on-skin contact. (The alternative is to wear paper towels underneath, anchored by "the girls").
My surgeon told me that lumpectomy + radiation carried nearly the same risk of local recurrence as mastectomy would have. And though there was a slightly higher risk of a contralateral (other breast) primary if I didn't opt for a bmx, the risk is still in the low single digits. And it's a myth that a tumor "spreads to the other breast." A contralateral tumor happens because of the same risk factors (not all of them known) that caused the original. I figured that a bmx for a jellybean-sized Stage IA Luminal A tumor was like using a flamethrower to kill a cockroach. I am a surgery wuss--I don't want to deal with drains, infection risk or reconstruction unless absolutely necessary. I put off my knee replacements for five years, I am procrastinating about getting my other breast reduced (giving me DDs--I've not been that small since the early 1990s), and I waited so long before getting a facelift that now it's too late for one even if I wanted it.
Surgical and medical treatments for bc have changed dramatically in less than a generation. When my MIL discovered an inverted nipple at age 63, the surgeon (general) to whom her gyne sent her told her that she would get general anesthesia--and the only way to find out if she had cancer would be to wake up with or without a breast. Back then all bc was considered so aggressive and virulent that time was of the essence--the delay occasioned by opting for a biopsy first was considered too risky! And if you needed a mastectomy, the best you could hope for was a "modified radical:" breast, all levels of axillary lymph nodes (biopsied after the fact), and most of the pectoral muscle. Everyone got radiation--six weeks of external whole-breast, far less precise; and there was no such thing as Oncotype or Mammaprint--all women with even a single positive node got chemo. Tamoxifen was still new, AIs as yet undiscovered. (Not only was the concept of hormone receptors new, HER2 hadn't yet been discovered. Treatment was truly one size fits all. And insurance & Medicare didn't cover reconstruction.
0 -
Oh, and stay ahead of the pain. If you need meds, you need meds. It is much harder--and takes higher doses--to bring your pain down from, say, 8 on the 0-10 scale than it is to keep it steady at 3 or below.
0 -
Pains been pretty good. Just aches and soreness. My husband makes fun of me. Im a nurse and give meds to PT’s but I’m the complete opposite of most my PT’s and hate taking pills 😁 lol.
As long as I’m aware of my movements and wear my sports bra I’m usually ok. I have been taking ibuprofen during the day and doing ice and my Tramadol at night.
I’m hoping I’ll hear something tomorrow about the findings.
I just wonder how often ADH is upgraded????
0 -
ChiSandy, you make me smile in recognition. My boobs are large and have that matronly, downward slope that ages me and I'm sure they're pulling my face down too, which also ages me. I keep thinking I want a reduction but the thought of ever being in that amount of pain again - on purpose! - I am having a really hard time working up the courage. In fact I have NOT worked up the courage!
My lumpectomy boob swells every night and when I wake up in the morning I actually could wear it under a muumuu to breakfast. Mind you, it might poke someone's eye out. So with the breast being prone to this level of swelling a year after surgery I wonder how it will freak out from reduction surgery? I think I have some form of PTSD because now just walking into a hospital gives me anxiety. The thought of rolling back in there where people have scalpels.....blah!
0 -
If I opt for a reduction, I'm only getting the left--non-cancer--breast reduced. It's the one that hangs low, at this point a good 2 or 3 cup sizes larger than my perky right one, which is about a DD and looks like it's "normal" but for the faint scar on the outside.
0 -
Hi all, I haven't been on here for about a year, time flies. But it was a great place to hang out at the diagnosis and surgery stage, I don't know if I ever said thank you at the time. So thank you ladies all, it's nice to be back!
runor and ChiSandy
I've had two breast reductions to my good side and it was fine, not really painful at all. The first one still didn't leave me anywhere near symmetrical, so they went back to try again. There is still not a perfect match, I had a lot of shrinkage after rads which seems to have perplexed my surgeon. But it has been a real joy not to have to wear a partial prosthetic any more, and my slightly wrinkled and definitely droopy boobs now look a lot younger than the rest of me. I really hated the way that lump of silicone gel made me feel.
The downside to surgery is it seems to give me three months of anxiety/depression. But now with no more surgery scheduled it's good to be back to normal and with it all behind me. I can't believe my second year mammo is due in a couple of months.
0 -
August282014....havent posted in a while but decided to hop on today. I noticed your post and it struck a cord. Just recently out of the blue I've been getting a very sharp pain in my shoulder blade on my lumpectomy side and some in my armpit and breast but not as severe. Glad to hear it's considered normal....I guess. Anyway, massage helps.
0 -
My MO says the aches in my shoulder blade, down my side and sometimes in my arm pit are totally normal. It's so nice to know you aren't in imminent danger!
HUGS!
0 -
I thought I'd pop in to say, I've experienced the opposite effect. My lumpectomy/radiated breast did not shrink, it's actually larger than the other one, and usually after i exercise can be quite sore to the touch. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the pending spring (North America that is) :-)
0 -
My R breast's tumor-cavity seroma did swell from the rads to the point where for nearly a year it was the larger of the two (albeit differently-shaped), but two years later it's down below "original size" yet looks perfectly normal (never even considered a partial prosthesis). The disparity isn't too apparent if I'm clothed, except the L cup hangs lower and its bra strap slips more often. But you can tell under clothing if you know what you're looking for; and I'm getting tired of upper back strain and imbalance.
0 -
My problem with the difference in size was either one cup of my bra was half empty and the puckers and gathers showed up under anything other than big sweaters. But if I wore a padded bra, the cup on that side stood away and left a ridge. So not only was it noticeable that my breasts were different sizes but my outline in clothes was drawing attention to it. Plus the operated side wasn't being properly supported by a too-large cup. The partial prosthetic filled in the gap and meant in a bra you'd never know anything was in there, and I could still wear ordinary bras. But it didn't do a lot for my self image, and the silicone was hot and sticky in summer, my body confidence is so much better now.
Now I just need to lose the weight I've put on in the last year, to finish the job...
0 -
molliefish
I was really hoping for some swelling from rads, I have a friend who came out nicely even after radiation. I think my shrinkage was down to rads, although they did say that after surgery you can get fat necrosis which results in a bit of shrinkage, I'm still hoping for that on my good side.
The thing I found interesting, they also said the radiated boob would never gain weight like the other one if you put weight on. Maybe the radiation stops you from creating new fat cells, I don't know.
0 -
Wouldn't surprise me at all about the fat cells - I've stopped growing hair, nor do I sweat on the rad side so I can only imagine what's going on below the surface of my breast where the beam was targeted. It's just devastating to the tissues.....healthy or not.
0 -
I'm on the flat chested side, my rads breast looks perkier - like its had a lift. My under arm doesn't sweat either, and I have maybe 4 hairs left, high in that armpit. I was unaware about the weight gain not affecting that boob....what next.
0 -
Plunging in with a question because I don't have time right now to search for quick answers.
I'm scheduled for lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy on May 7 (a Monday). Between now and then I'll be out of state for a week, so little time to prepare "stuff" once I fly off for my trip.
QUESTION: What kind of bra - do I need to have available to me once I'm recovered enough to need/want/be required to use such support? I don't know of course how much tissue the surgeon will be taking, so I don't know how much of a hunk or divot will be missing from my breast but my original tumor is/was 6mm x 7mm so very small.
This will be outpatient surgery, but at a facility 2 hours from home I'm in Sedona AZ, the surgery is in Phoenix. If we were to leave PHX when I'm released, I face a 2 hour car trip. Will I be comfortable enough to make that trip in order to sleep in my own bed? Or should are stay overnight? (We'll be staying overnight the night before surgery.)
Anything else I should bather together BEFORE I leave for my trip next week?
Thank you all!
0 -
Patsy, I had just over an hour drive each way for my surgery; we did not spend the night. I would have a cotton, fasten-in-front sports bra to wear that is slightly larger than your normal size. The velcro contraption (surgical bra) from the hospital *hurt* and aggravated me terribly until I got home and put on the cotton one. The support was good. My tumor size was similar to yours, and I also had sentinel node biopsy (that incision was much more painful/annoying and took quite a bit longer to heal). I stuffed clean gauze around the incisions to help "pad" them, and that helped.
If you can get your Rx filled before surgery or first thing after, to have them with you, that would be good. Make sure before you leave the hospital that you take pain meds (they made me take them there; I couldn't take them with me 'just in case') and that you have something for nausea in your system (Zofran works for me, but it can cause a headache). If you can eat lightly before leaving (i.e. ginger ale and crackers), that may help. I always struggle with nausea, so this was a concern they addressed aggressively.
I prepared a "bedside basket" for myself at home--cough drops, clean gauze, a metal thermos of cold water, lip balm, and plain lotion (not scented), plus some plain crackers and peanut butter ones in a ziploc). For the car, you may want to look into small pillows that "velcro" around the seat belt and/or a U-shaped pillow for under your breasts. Both helped a lot. I still use the seat belt pillow since I now have a port. Pillows are your friends.
If you do travel all the way home, make sure you have a clean change of clothes ready to hand if needed. The hospital sent me home with a small plastic bag for sickness (kind of like you get on an airplane, just in case). I'd say if you are in severe pain or have major nausea, stay near the hospital and don't go home. I felt pretty good and was glad to be in my own bed, but that's because (for once) the nausea and pain concerns were treated seriously--they kept me over 2 hours to monitor me before discharge. I had no problems (and this is like 1 in 10 surgeries over the past 18 years). I had my surgery on a Wednesday, took off Thursday, telecommuted Friday, and was back at the office on Monday.
Good luck with everything!
Dee
0 -
I second the suggestion to book a hotel room near the hospital for post-op, and head home the next day when you will probably be feeling better. My lumpectomy was same-day surgery, but I live only 1/2 hr from my hospital. You didn't mention whether you will be getting a prescription for pain, but ask for one (I didn't, and was given only Tylenol afterward). Take note of the closest pharmacy to the hospital, and if need be, fill it there on the trip home. My surgeon's NP gave me some bull-pucky warning not to fill a prescription because "if you don't need it, you have to return it to the pharmacy for disposal and fill out a police form." Opiods are generally bad stuff...except when used very short-term for their intended purpose. Unless you have someone at home likely to abuse your unused pills (in which case, do have the pharmacy dispose of whatever you haven't taken) there is no harm in having one prescription's worth on hand. These days, prescriptions tend to be for very small amounts anyway. I didn't need it (my husband had part of a prescription remaining after his surgeries--it was nice to know it was there). But if it turns out that OTC painkillers like Tylenol or NSAIDs don't cut it, getting and filling a prescription after the fact is much, much harder these days.
Don't panic if by the evening of the second day post-op your upper body feels like you'd suddenly started a weightlifting program with 100-lb. barbells. It's called "scoline syndrome:" just after you "go under" your general anesthetic but before the first incision is made, you might be given an injection in your IV of succinylcholine, an extremely powerful muscle relaxant that is a temporary paralytic. (If you're watching a medical drama set in an ER and the doctor barks "...milligrams of sux," that's what that is). It's given to make sure you stay perfectly still on the operating table and don't reflexively flinch. But for a nanosecond before it kicks in, it causes your muscles to contract violently, as if you'd had a sudden too-rigorous workout. It is harmless but annoying--and anything that works on sore muscles (like an NSAID and some topical arnica gel or Bio-Freeze) will help. It should be gone by day 4 post-op if not before.
Also, for the first few days, be prepared to not be able to pull stuff on or off over your head. (I was able to, but I'm told that's unusualt). Make sure you have button-front nightwear and tops to wear. (Men's shirts if necessary).
0 -
Hi I am new here. But I am scheduled for surgery in 2 weeks. I thought after I had gotten the all clear from the biopsy that I was good. But the breast cancer doctor they sent me to said she is very concerned about the shadowing behind the tumor as well as the irregular lines and shape it has. So now I am freaking out about the cancer scare once again
0 -
Patsy, you've had good suggestions here.
I would add, for the car ride home, a pillow from your bed, maybe to hug against you to keep your boobs from bouncing and extra support, if you are large chested. And if you drive a horribly stiff mid 80s model pickup truck that is going to make you cry over every bump.
I wish I had planned my wardrobe choices better because moving my arm up was a no go. I had a front fasten night bra, that Hub helped me get on and I kept it on for the next 4 days until I got in the tub. Note: do NOT get in the tub unless there is someone home to help pry you out. I got in the tub okay but realized I could not get out and laid there and cried for a while until with great grit and a whole lot of pain, heaved myself out. Like a whale on the beach.
Get pain meds. You might not need them, but have them. I had a bad lumpectomy and had no pain meds other than plain Tylenol. I have never gagged from pain but I did with this lumpectomy. I still feel extreme anger when I think of how much I hurt, how extensive the bruising was and no pain meds. So get some and you most likely won't need them. But better safe than sore. (you thought I was going to say sorry, didn't you?)
This is a miserable place to be but good luck to you and speedy healing.
0
