Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!

HappyHammer

MLP- YES- our canine friends get it! Glad they are there with you. Sending healing mercies your way!

simsoka

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum but have been following along over the past week or so. I have DCIS, kinda big, and had lumpectomy surgery scheduled which I have since cancelled. I'm still exploring options and haven't settled on a certain course yet in my mind. I'm hoping for neoadjuvant hormone therapy as trials have shown its success with DCIS, though now I'm reading about all the side effects of AIs! I guess there's just no easy way out of this.

Minnesota, you mentioned that you had neoadjuvant hormone therapy. I'm wondering: since you say the tumor is virtually gone, what will they be removing when they do the lumpectomy? And how large of an area?

Sunnyone22

Just had my f/u surgery appt. Pathology report looks pretty good. Tumor is stage one and the one sentinel lymph node that was removed and examined was negative. My surgeon said this is just typical "middle-aged lady breast cancer" (her words). I'm 62 and if that's middle-aged, I guess I'll live to 124 !!!

PontiacPeggy

SunnyOne, GREAT NEWS!!! Very glad to hear it. You can now breathe!

HUGS!

Molly50

Greatnews, Sunnyone!!

Molly50

simsoka not everyone gets SE's from the AI's. It's definitely worth trying and can't be worse than chemo.

Sunnyone22

Thanks Molly and Pontiac -. It's 10:45 in my time zone and although early for me, I'm headed for bed. This might be the first decent night's sleep I've had in quite a while.

LovesToFly

wonderful sunny. Have a great sleep.

Day 3 of cycle three here, doing okay

PontiacPeggy

LTF, FANTASTIC!!

HUGS!

MLP3

congrats Sunny!

Great job LTF!

I'm am not doing so great. My upper stomach area under my ribs is soooo sore. Has anyone had that on AC? Couldn't sleep last night because of it and hurts to take a deep breath. I'm still so dizzy n yucky. But not true nausea.

Chemo sucks!

LovesToFly

mlp are you in Neulasta. So I have heard that can cause a lot of bone and muscle pain, and my friend said it bothered her the most in her chest. If you're doing the Neulasta, I would recommend you take Claritin with that. Obviously check with your pharmacist, but a lot of people say it helps. I am taking Claritin with my Neulasta, and have had none of the bone pain.

I'm really sorry you're struggling so much, and hope you start feeling better soon. Please remember no better how bad it feels right now, by 5 to 7 days after your infusion, you should be feeling a lot better!

LovesToFly

thank you everyone, I honestly feel so lucky that chemotherapy has not been too bad for me. Obviously my first week isn't easy, I get tired and depressed easily and don't like the wired feeling from the steroids, but compared to what other people go through I know it's nothing. I met up with a new friend yesterday, she finished radiation recently. She was amazed that I was going out for lunch the day after infusion! But really I was fine and even able to go for a half hour walk around the mall afterwards. Then of course I came home and watched two hours of Netflix!

MLP3

no neulasta. It feels more GI/stomach but up high.

Giving my mo a call now. It's pretty debilitating at this point.

Ltf- I envy you!!

LovesToFly

(((hugs)))

blamoms

First Chemo for me today at 11:30. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I was more nervous yesterday with having the PICC line inserted.

Welcome to all the new members. This forum has been great source of info for me.

PontiacPeggy

Blamoms Good luck today!!

HUGS!

LovesToFly

good luck blamoms!!!

HappyHammer

Yay, Sunny- that's great!

MLP- I was told to take claritin and alleve starting the first day of each chemo treatment for 4 days. (I was also taking Nuelasta.) By the 3rd or 4th treatment- I took them each for about 7 days. Only once did I have bone/muscle pain and it was because I forgot to take them. If you continue to have that pain- maybe call the MO and see what they say. Hugs to you!

Edit: Jut saw you are calling MO. Please keep us posted.

LTF- hope you continue to feel ok...you've got this!

Blamoms- In your pocket!

Sloan15

Thanks for checking in with me ladies! I'm stressed, but ok.

Moondust and Mel - I told my MO everything I read about no evidence that 40 mg of Tam is better and how I don't want scans. He promised me bed send me links to read articles, but he hasn't send anything yet. Seriously, I'm like, "Give me one shred of evidence on Tam dosage, markers, scans..." but nothing yet. I'm getting a 2nd opinion on the 29th.

MLP - awww, I'm sorry you're feeling poorly. I'm guessing that if it is flu or GI, you might be feeling it 10-fold because though have no immune system. Darn. Well, it it okay to say I hope it passes quickly? ;

Welcome new people. I hope you find answers to your questions and camaraderie in the answers here.

Chisandy - I'm glad you're going on your trip! When will you be in Paris? Perhaps we can meet there! THAT would be pretty neat! I'll be in France Mid April through the end of May, but in and near Paris mostly at the beginning of the trip. You are such a foodie that it would be extra fun to go on an adventure with you! Let me know!

1Step - I'm in Texas. It's, uh, flat. Haha. Want to meet up? I'd love to talk with you about LE, too. My arm was fine on the flight. Whew.

Sunnyone22

blamoms, LTF and MLP - ((((hugs))))

I admire your bravery and good attitudes. Please keep us posted. I can't speak for others, but I check back here frequently during the day. Would love to hear how each treatment affects you - IF you feel like posting................

Sloan15

Fitbitters - I didn't take my Firbit, but as I'm sitting here having coffee and a waffle -gasp! A waffle! But, I am in Texas... - I'm really wishing I had that constant reminder of all of you getting healthy.

Moondust - You didn't see that comment about the waffle...

Molly50

Sloan! Glad to see you are enjoying your self. MLP, extra hugs coming to you. Blamoms, in your pocket today. Poodles, how are you doing today? Everyone else that I may have missed *hugs*

1step

Sloan- where are you in this great big, mostly very flat state?

Welcome to the newbies.

MLP- sorry to hear that chemo is going so poorly for you.

Sandy- your upcoming trip sounds so fantastic

I went to a second support group meeting last night. It was mostly great. Very good speaker and there was a woman there that talked to me briefly about her LE. Then at the end, there was the one woman who hogged the floor. After, she even made a comment about how she's so much further along in her journey, so she has all kinds of advice for the rest of us. *facepalm. Nobody else had a chance to share because she didn't give them the chance, and she doesn't even stop to think that people might ask for specific advice rather than just receive the advice she doles out as she sees fit. Oh, well. There were some nice women there and I got some good info

I saw my BS today for my final post-op appointment, next visit is in August after chemo is done. She was more positive about me returning to normal activities despite the LE than the therapist was, so I'll just have to take things step by step and day by day. I got the all clear to start ramping up my exercise program. Yay!!

mustlovepoodles

Great googa-mooga. Bad news today. If you are squeamish you may want to duck out right now..

I'll give you another minute...

Okay, I'm 2 weeks post-op. I saw the NP at 4 days post-op and the PS at 1 week post-op. Since then I've seen NP about every 3 days, due to the drain issues and some healing issues. Today I saw the PS and holy God! She was NOT happy with the way things looked. For one thing, the incisions on the right (the zombie breast side) have not healed They are dark, leathery, and they began leaking some dark burgundy fluid this week; it's gotten a lot worse in the last 2-3 days. The one on the left is leaking orange-y fluid, but not as much.

OMG, she went at them like a beast, mashing and squishing all this horrible fluid out. It took almost 30 minutes. And THEN she went at the dead tissue with her mighty scissors. She cut out an area in what would be the nipple area that's 3.5" long x3"wide x2"deep--it looks ghastly. Thankfully it was totally painless because the tissue was dead. I have to poke wet gauze down into this horrible hole twice a day. I'm a nurse and I can hardly look at this thing. DH would pass out if he saw it (he kept his head turned away during all this stuff.)

The PS wants to look at it again next Tues. There was murmuring between her and the NP about going to surgery for a thorough debridement (aggressive clean up) if these incisions don't look better. I asked her why this happened and she said it is probably related to the original problems that I had with the lumpectomy and re-excision (huge hematoma and huge seroma.)

I just thank God I didn't have TEs placed or DIEP reconstruction. If I did, I would be in the hospital right now.

Oh, and the numbness on my left thigh? Getting worse. Saw the PCP yesterday and she is concerned. She ordered a bunch of blood tests and an MRI of the spine to see if there's anything going on there that could cause it.

PontiacPeggy

Poodles, that's awful! Sounds like your NP wasn't worried enough about all these problems. You sure were. Hope that all the mishing, mashing and snipping took care of everything. (My DH would have been long gone before the PS even touched my breast!). Hope it gets better ASAP!!!

HUGS!

mustlovepoodles

I think the NP was taking it seriously enough. It's just that it has gotten so much worse this week. It was really icky looking this morning. I won't describe, but I changed the dressing after my shower this a.m. and by my 12:30 appt it was all messy and nasty again. Once the tissue has died there's no reviving it. It has to come out so the healthy skin under it can heal.

Molly50

Oh heck Poodles, I can't believe you just can't get a break! Thank God you don't have a TE in. You would be removing them anyway due to infection.

ChiSandy

Ouch, poodles! Takes a helluva lot to gross out a nurse. Hope you heal well. This reinforces my decision to leave Thelma & Louise alone rather than get them reduced--I had my own leaking (gushing) axillary-seroma adventures, and my mammary seroma alone is the size of most women’s breasts. Even had a grape-size seroma from the core-needle biopsy site. Seeing as how I blister at the drop of a hat--er, shoe--I am most definitely a human seroma factory, so I am disinclined to get any kind of elective surgery except perhaps cataracts.

Sloan, my timing sucks--I’ll be in Paris 3/31-4/3. Oh well--maybe if you come to Chicago or I to your part of California, we can do a foodie-crawl (and you can be my Fitbit coach).

MLP, hope you feel better. Did you have any dry heaves, or do you have a mild virus? Could be costochondritis, an inflammation of where your ribs join your sternum. Does it feel structural (muscles, ligaments, etc) or more internal? You don’t have a tendency to form gallstones, do you? That’s exactly where the pain of gallstones or gall bladder inflammation is usually felt. (I had pain there so bad once that Bob called 911 because he thought I was having a heart attack. In the ambulance, the EMT palpated me in that spot and I screamed--If I could have punched his lights out w/o consequence, I would have. Had an u.s. that afternoon and three days later my gall bladder & I parted company).

Blamoms, in your pocket for chemo today. Jill, hang in there--halfway through!

1step, I’m lucky to have my support group moderated by one of the nurse-navigators. Nobody monopolizes the conversation, and she’s the main source of medical information. Too bad I have to miss the March meeting, since it’s the night before my friend’s surgery and we’re planning a nice, distracting girls’ night out before checking into the Oak Lawn Hilton down the street from Advocate Christ Hospital.

Didn’t get online until about an hour ago, because no internet. We had a little excitement just past noon. Good news is that it's in the low 60s here by the lake. Bad news is that we've been getting wind gusts...in the low 60s too (MPH). About 12:30 we lost power...not just our block but most of the N. Side from n. of Evanston to a couple of miles west. Heard a crash in front and there on the grassy "parkway" between the street & sidewalk lay about a third of our big-leaf maple tree. Fortunately, nobody was parked there! My housekeeper (because I'm not supposed to lift stuff) wrestled with the garage door and managed to get my car out and parked outside so in case my cell phones ran out of juice (our landline is hooked to a battery-op modem from the cable company) I could charge them--my car doesn't power the ports unless the engine is running, and you don't want to do that in a closed garage. Bob made a room res at the Oak Lawn Hilton in case the power didn't come back, but we have a fridge repair guy coming tomorrow--there was a slow leak around where the icemaker/water dispenser is set into the door, though it's dry now (just like when your toothache goes away when you walk into the dentist's office or your car stops making that unnerving noise just before you drive into the repair shop). Power finally came back about 2:30. Sky is really cloudy, though--saw ominous-looking cumulonimbus rolling in. Hope we don't get tornadoes.

Since I couldn’t go online (cellular iPad low on juice) or watch TV, I washed, did my MLD and put on compression. I was hankering for a low-carb oatmeal cookie, but the downside to those “Alyssa’s Healthy Vegan Bites” is that they go stale really quickly and need to be dunked so you don’t break a tooth. Because my coffeemakers are electric, as is my grinder, I had to go all Pioneer Woman to make some joe. Have espresso pods and a little manual pneumatic espresso maker that looks (and works) like a bicycle pump. Used a match to light the stove to boil water. Took a helluva lotta elbow grease to pump up enough pressure to make a shot, but it was surprisingly good. Decided we needed more coffee, so I ground some beans manually (in what looks like a large plastic peppermill) and brewed a pour-over pot my housekeeper & I shared. Between the manual espresso maker and the manual grinder, I did as much resistance exercise as if I’d used the bands or hand weights (which I still need to to nonetheless). Glanced at my Fitbit--and it said I had climbed 12 floors! I think I may be on to something......

LovesToFly

poodles, I'm so sorry your recovery is hard. I'm hoping things start turning around for you now!

HappyHammer

Wow, Poodles, just wow! You have had the worst luck. Am sending more healing mercies your way for sure- and, hugs!

Sandy- think that description of your day could go into a sit-com- especially like that the FitBit recorded 12 floors of stairs! Am thinking you and Sloan are being very creative in getting the FitBit steps, etc. Remember, Sloan thought about putting hers in the paint shaker? haha.