Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
Comments
-
Alice, good to hear from you. So relieved you have your kidney surgery in your rear view mirror. Take time to recoup. Rads will probably be easy compared to what you have been through already.
Sending gentle hugs for healing.
0 -
Alice, here's to speedy & uneventful healing. "Sidney" was trying to kill you, so good riddance to "him."
0 -
2018 is not my favorite year either but Alice you are the champ of having a nasty year! Please do take your pain meds, rest up and take care of yourself. You've earned some, make that a lot of, pampering so pamper yourself! ((( Gentle hugs)))
0 -
Thanks to all of you for the kind responses! This is such a great place. I've either turned a corner or found a better sleeping position, but today I'm just very sore instead of feeling freshly stabbed. Yay! And the best bonus is that my lower back pain and hot spot have disappeared, so Sidney must have been the cause of at least some of that. It's hard to tell what the pain pills are masking right now, though. Now to tackle the cement-gut side affect from the pain pills, ickypoo (literally! 💥💩💥)
0 -
Prunes, prunes & more prunes. (And a double dose of Colace).
0 -
Third A/C is Thursday. I have been lucky with SE,s, just plunging blood test results every time. Neulasta seems to kick in slowly. Original plan was 3 months A/C, 3 months taxol, surgery, radiation, hormone treatment 5 years. New plan if enough shrinkage surgery in middle of chemo. I don’t know how much shrinkage is enough or how they can tell. Hopefully enough to do lumpectomy. My concern is the lymph nodes, apparently many, 3 mentioned on PET scan one over 3 cm, two over 2 cm and a possible mammary one. Will these have an affect on lumpectomy vs mastectomy and can they shrink that much? Sometimes I feel the breast lump is smaller but not what I feel under my arm. I feel great except for this unknown hanging over me. I am a very healthy almost 70. 100% ER. I have had way too much time to think about the surgery.
0 -
I just had my first 3D Mammo & ultrasound since dx last year. So in honesty, it was painful - it brought tears to my eyes. Regular mammo is a quick hold your breath and done; 3D mammo seemed to tick on & on, and keep breathing. Then 2 more maganified pics of the LX breast.
Ultrasound went fine, not painful. Best was getting the all clear! I'm glad this is behind me...for another 6 months or a year.
Keep on keeping on. Good thoughts & gentle HUGS to all.
0 -
CindyNY, and why did I just assume 3D mammo would be easier? Oh no! I have mine the end of this month. Regular mammos never really bothered me, except the morning of the wire insertion for lumpectomy. It took them about a million tries to get good pics of it and placement for the surgeon. I seriously thought I was going to throw up or pass out! Turns out my hemoglobin was super low that day (so low in fact that surgery was almost delayed and I had a blood transfusion a few days post op...), so that might have been it, too.
0 -
MJB1018- it's not as bad as wire placement! No where near, as I almost passed out then too - I broke out in a cold sweat.Its not horrifying, just be glad its over when its over.
0 -
Whew! Thank you!
0 -
My 2nd post Lx mammogram was awful. I was sore for over a week! But nothing was worse than my first wire locator in 2002. The guy doing it had no clue what he was doing and apparently believed in a stiff upper lip, not lidocaine. I almost ran the other way when I heard I needed one this time. But it was so much easier. My mammograms & 3D mammograms since that one bad one have been easy to do. Thanks heavens. CindyNY, I'm sorry yours was so bad
HUGS!
0 -
I didn't have wire insertion, just radioactive seed placement--and I was numbed pretty well for that. The tracer shots into the nipple for sentinel nodes? Oy. Longest 15 seconds of my life.
0 -
My wire insertion was easy...not painful at all, just took a while. It was the mammo immediately after that left me super queasy. 🤢
0 -
Oh my, I have wire local this week and they will not allow me to use lidocaine. I thought the biopsy were bad.. now I'm scared with a brave face!
0 -
Urdrago71...Certainly they’ll numb you up, no? Hang in there
0 -
Yes, the hospital stuff are suppose to numb me up. But I've got some anxiety going in to this procedure. A bit surprised that theres nothing else that medical teams cld come up with so they can find cancer. I have a marker in there already. Am I the only one that can feel and find my lump > 1 cm ?
0 -
urdrago, they need to find the exact location (including depth) in order to know where to cut, how much to take including a large enough margin, and leave your breast as otherwise intact as possible. That enables them to make the incision as precise as possible (and as small as necessary), The clip tells them where to thread the wire (or in my case, implant the seed).
Ask for EMLA cream. Better yet, get a prescription for it now. My friend had a bilateral mastectomy, but sentinel node biopsy and precise tumor location for biopsy were still necessary. She had a wire insertion, but they applied EMLA 30 min. before and she didn't feel a thing.
0 -
chisandy, thanks for explaining the wire even more so I understood. I cannot apply any creams to skin bcuz of surgery. Per my orders from pre-op, and only use dial soap that morning.I asked and got an answer of "No"
0 -
Hi everyone - I just joined this forum, had a lumpectomy on 9-19 and awaiting news on next steps, I meet with the oncologist and a geneticist and the surgeon for a follow up this week, and have bone scans and CT scans scheduled because they took out a couple lymph nodes and found cancer there too :-[ ... VERY anxious but trying to stay positive. I've heard a big part of this journey is being a "patient patient" but it doesn't stop my mind from wandering to the 'what ifs'...
@urdrago71 - If I can help reassure you, I had NEVER had surgery in my life before this and I too was really nervous. It all went smoothly for me and the surgery itself was like one moment I was in the pre-op room telling the anesthegiolists that they probably couldn't put me to sleep, the next moment that were waking me up telling me the surgery was complete! The tougher part is the wire thing before, and also if you're doing a sentinel lymph node removal, there's also a shot that injects you with a dye before surgery so they can see the lymph nodes. Happy to answer any questions you might have... it's a process before the surgery and my advice is to be vocal, I actually felt the wire and needed a bit more numbing and I would have been in a lot of discomfort if I didn't let them know.
Post-op recovery has been remarkably smooth. First thing I did when I woke up was ask for my glasses and take a peek at my breasts and I was so relieved to see the right one still there and looking good enough. It's these next steps I'm more worried about as I will probably require chemo and I'm not looking forward to that...
0 -
pebbles, Thank for helping. I also have nodes positive so the surgeon will be removing them. I dont believe they will inject dye bcuz of biopsy result at beginning of the process.
Additional info about me.. I've been thru chemo. I'm almost 6 week out. It was a little bumpy but the staff was good and resources here helped so much. Suggestion, Join a group for chemo or start one. I'm in April group. Also another suggestion update ur profile others can see ur dx and helps as well. My profile tells u when I was diagnosed (dx) and I'm triple neg. With axially node involvement, also chemo's I've completed hope that helps u..
0 -
Hello. I'm new to this group (and don't even know if this Forum is the best one to post this in), and what brings me is chronic neck pain that radiates up to the back of my head. It started nearly two years ago, which was one year and nine months after my right-breast lumpectomy and removal of about 22 lymph nodes. (I also did chemo before surgery and had a one-month course of radiation therapy. The cancer was HER 2+.) The pain is only on the right side of my neck and head. I've seen multiple doctors (pain doctors, neurologists, neck surgeons, my oncologist), had two MRI's (one year apart), seen seven different physical therapists (regular PT, plus craniotomy sacral therapy and myofacial release therapy), tried acupuncture, seen a chiropractor, had cupping and massage, and have tried nearly every pain medication (the only one that worked being a course of steroids for 11 days [which one can't safely repeat or rely on]). I take ibuprofen at night. MRI shows "normal degenerative changes" such as arthritis, stenosis, and bone spurs. Several physical therapists feel the chronic, intense pain (which wakes me up at night and hurts even more when I lie down than when I'm up) could very well be caused by the cancer treatment and fascia that has ever been able to heal, what with the onslaught of chemo, surgery, and then radiation. This makes sense to me. I am wondering if anyone else has developed neck pain radiating up into the back of the head after having had breast cancer treatment. Thank you.
0 -
I hope someone sees this.....I had lumpectomy yesterday with sentinel node excision. The sentinel node was clean, thank God!! What now worries me is I was told by the surgeon and biopsy report that my DCIS, grade 3, was about 6 mm. The size of a pea, they said. So, the surgeon told my husband yesterday after I was in recovery that he actually took out a golf ball size lump, using MarginProbe to get clean margins. I was/am horrified. Why was that not seen on 3D mammogram or the MRI with dye that I did. Obviously the biopsy is not that big but it even stated that they thought they removed virtually all the calcifications.
I just spoke to the surgeon on the phone, and he said DCIS IS calcifications, that he removed all the calcifications. OK........ but I am still stunned. I am very small breasted and surprised I even seem to have a breast left. Now I am worried about the path report. I will go back to see the surgeon this Friday afternoon.
Can anyone shed any light? Now I'm worried about the path report. Am I worrying for nothing? The Dr did say he was pretty confident it was all DCIS. But how on earth does not all of that show on mammogram or MRI or???
0 -
First of all, take a deep breath. 6mm is tiny.
A lumpectomy--especially for DCIS, which can "snake" through the ducts--never removes only the tumor. They always take out a much bigger chunk to try and ensure clean margins--and depending on tumor location some of that chunk can include the sentinel nodes. It doesn't show up on your pre-op imaging because most of it is healthy tissue. My tumor was invasive ductal,1.3 cm, smaller than my fingernail--but they took out a chunk that was about 9cm all around, somewhere between a ping-pong and a tennis ball. Imaging alone can't tell whether a tumor is DCIS, invasive ductal or lobular. or most other common varieties--that's why biopsy (both pre-op and surgical pathology) is necessary.
I wouldn't worry much about the path report. Highly unlikely you had anything but DCIS. They don't do chemo for DCIS, even though a plurality of DCIS is Grade 3, hormone-receptor-negative, and HER2+ (the latter so common in DCIS it isn't usually even tested). In that case, you would get radiation (unless they need to go back in for clean margins and your breast is so small that another lumpectomy would take most of it, so they'd advocate mastectomy, which usually doesn't require radiation). After that, no endocrine therapy (anti-estrogen pills), just regular mammos & exams. If your tumor was hormone-receptor-positive/HER2-negative (aka "Luminal A"), you might have an OncotypeDX done on a sample of it--unlike with IDC, in DCIS patients it's done not to see if they can avoid chemo (all of them can), but rather to see if they can avoid radiation after lumpectomy. Then all you'd need is endocrine therapy.
0 -
Thank you, ChiSandy, that helps. I was just shocked they needed to take that much, but glad it's gone. The biopsy was estrogen/progesterone positive. I will definitely be having radiation. I meet with them next week. I know I am fortunate to only have DCIS........but still.........it is worrisome, as is all this s$it. Hope you're doing well!!!
P.S. Would've been nice if they'd have mentioned how much they'd be taking!!! Well. I guess they don't know till they're in there..but it should been mentioned that it was a possibility.
0 -
@urdrago - thx for the advice on the chemo support! I’m very very nervous about that and side effects but I’ll face it as well if needed. Glad you got through it and wishing you the best on next steps. I don’t know my Oncotype Dx score yet but I was able to ask for the test to be done thx to these forums!
@kksmom3 - I agree with @chisandy - they need to remove enough margin to ensure the cancer is clear. But I would ask for and check your post-op pathology report because that will tell you how far from the cancer the margin was and you can then post to the forums to see if yours is the normal amount or actually more.
@sugil330 - I’m only a couple weeks out of surgery so sorry I don’t have any advice on your case, but re-bumping so hopefully someone else does. Good luck
0 -
I had a .5 centimeter removed from my breast last year. My Oncotype DX was 15. The surgeon said he took out 5cm of clear margins (there were less than 20 "atypical" cells from the biopsy so I'm assuming they removed the cancer during the biopsy. Anyway, I tried looking up my pathology report and it's all Greek to me. Have been on Anastrozol and am now on Exemestane (bad side effects for me). Radiologist did 7 weeks of radiation in 3-1/2 weeks and I was doing fine except after my last mammogram back in April, my breast swelled up, got hot and tender and they were treating me for cellulitis. Had to have surgery this past May to determine what was going on. They drained the seroma (didn't know I had it) and took a skin punch biopsy as well as some scar tissue out. I try to research as much as I can and I still get confused. Am in the process of taking a week off from the Extemestane as the side effects were really bad. (Didn't tell my onc. though). They found nothing and determined I had chronic dermatitis. Hang in there as it will get better. I am grateful that they caught it early and am still dealing with the dark cloud over my head. My daughter is a 5 year survivor as well (different type of bc). The postings have helped me tremendously as the doctors really don't take the time to listen or answer any of my concerns. I just happen to have a lot of scar tissue and my breast still hurts a little. Thank God for this forum!!!
0 -
Hi everyone,
New here. I've been reading the last few pages of posts and boy I have a lot to learn! I was diagnosed a few weeks ago. DCIS, grade 2. I feel lucky they caught it early. Doctors are suggesting a lumpectomy, reduction (umm, I have a lot of material for them to work with if you know what I mean) followed by radiation. Unlucky me was also diagnosed with Lymphoma a week later, SLL to be exact. It's a slow growing, chronic blood cancer that they often watch for your numbers to get bad and then give you chemo. As my grandma would say, that will be a long row to hoe. I also have an autoimmune deficiency which possibly why I'm getting hit with two cancers at once. I'm getting a CT scan soon and praying for no more cancers to be found. It's so hard to sleep right now so I'm up late saying hello!
@sugil330 - I'm sorry about your pain. I don't have an answer but that's much too long to be suffering. Have you thought about a nerve block?
@ChiSandy - great info from your last post. Helped me a lot as well. Thanks
0 -
DAmy, wow, have you been hit with a ton of bricks! It's no wonder you aren't sleeping well--so many decisions and unknown territory ahead of you. Please keep in touch and feel free to ask questions, although your decisions are up to you and your healthcare team. HUGS
0 -
D'Amy, good that you won't need more extensive surgery. Bummer about the SLL, though. But if anything, it'd be an immunodeficiency, not its opposite--autoimmune disease, that might cause or increase the risk for cancers.
As to reduction, that's probably on my plate for this spring. I had thought that my BS' about-face on it last Dec. (early in my journey, she thought it might cause more seromas and granulomas but last Dec. she actually gave me a plastic surgery referral) was an approval, not a recommendation. Besides, just before I was going to book that consult I fell and started the whole cascade of crap that led to this having been the "summer of surgery" not on my boobs but on my arm, hand, & wrist, But my PT today suggested a reduction because she thinks "Thelma & Louise"s size are accelerating the development of my kyphosis (budding dowager's hump) and causing upper back & neck strain.
0 -
Hello, friends. I had a lumpectomy 17 days ago, with no complication exception for a few huge hematomas, which the doctor had me ice and heat. The ugly black and red has all but disappeared, leaving just a small band at the bottom of the breast, which is also now only red (no black). The PA seemed pleased with the results when I went in on MOnday for checkup, and the incision site itself is actually pretty nice, though I wish they could have hid it by going around the areola (the tumor was too high). However, since Monday, the left over bruising sites have grown, while fading, leaving me with 2/3 of a breast that is brown and yellow. The bottom is soft, but the top (where the tumor was excised) is quite firm still--not painful. (The surgeon did take out a considerable amount to get clear margins in my 2 cm tumor--about 5.5 by 6.5 by 3!, so I guess I should expect swelling for a while). My concern is, should this hematoma have spread to be so large, while fading? The PA didn't warn me that the bruising could spread?
Added by hand so you know more about me: I am 64, a grandma of 17, teaching at a college, diagnosed with IIA, grade 2 (but at the very highest end), Estrogen and Pr postiive, HR2 negative, and awaiting my consultation with the oncologist.0
