September 2024 Surgery Support Thread
Please gather here to get and give support. Feel free to share your type of surgery, date, and let us know how you're preparing and how you're doing post-surgery. We're all here for you!
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Hello, my lumpectomy along with reconstructive surgery and sentinel node biopsy was 3 weeks ago. Lumpectomy was done on my right breast. I still have swelling and some pain, especially in the area of the sentinel node biopsy. I have been doing the recommended stretches everyday and scheduled in 2 weeks for PT for Lymphademia prevention. Taking time off from work to rest and restore. Follow up with reconstructive surgeon & oncology surgeon state everything is healing well. Incision on the right is taking a little longer to heal than left. Seems like everyone I have spoken with who have had the same surgery, didn't experience much pain or swelling. My surgeon and reconstructive surgeon assure me it can take 6 weeks for swelling to go down or even up to 3 months. I was wondering if anyone has or currently experienced this long swelling and pain after lumpectomy?
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Hi , @mmerlina71 and welcome to our community ❤️. It's not unusual for the swelling to take awhile to go down, as the body needs time to heal, but hopefully it all continues to go smoothly for you! And so wonderful that you didn't have much pain. Glad you found us here, and glad you're taking some healing time from work. We're all here for you.
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hello,
I had a left breast mastectomy on august 26. I had neoadjuvant chemo AC. I was told that they will be removing some lymph nodes as well. After I woke up from the surgery they treated me like I had the lymph nodes removed. However later I found out that none of my nodes were removed at all! And I have not heard of this before. Anyone had this happen?
Thank you in advance.
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@dori0307, welcome to the community!
It must have been so confusing and frustrating to wake up expecting one outcome and learn it was different. We hope that someone in the community who has gone through a similar situation can share their experience and thoughts. Again, welcome! We're glad you found us. Please, let us know if there's something we can do for you.
SIncerely,
The Mods
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Wouldn’t even know if I haven’t seen the pathology report myself and googled everything in it…
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@dori0307 You should have had several follow-up visits with your surgeon by now - have you asked about the nodes at those visits? The local hospital where I was treated provides a way through MyChart to communicate with my care team including my surgeon. They also provide a care coordinator so I can ask questions if need be and she would facilitate getting the answers. I hope you have a way to ask your surgeon. How is the mastectomy pain? I had a bilateral simple mastectomy (no nodes) 3 weeks ago and I still have a burning sensation along my scar line - like someone painted acid on me. It's better but still present. I see my surgeon on Friday for my 2nd follow-up.
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Thank you for answering.
The surgeon isn’t native speaking, and I had to switch oncologist because my group insurance isn’t working with them anymore. And my new one is trying to figure out the whole thing that’s going on with me. So anyways when I asked the surgeon, he said “there wasn’t any” and I have no clue how to interpret that.
My new oncologist seems really great though so hopefully I will get to figure everything out soon.
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Hope you are feeling better though!
I have a tissue expander, and it does feel weird. But not in pain at all. After I got home from the hospital only took Tylenol for a week. And they offered Norco in the hospital but that wasn’t really working well for me so after they took the pump out it was just Tylenol for me basically.
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@dori0307 Boy that's rough switching care teams midstream - but it sounds like you're on a better path! Wishing you the best during your treatment and open communication channels!!! ❤️
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