Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!

tbalding

Hi, Grazy, so glad to hear from you and that you're doing well. Sorry your mom's health is declining.

KDTheater, so sorry you are having such serious se. I don't have any advice, but praying you get information to make the best decision. I came home Friday afternoon from Farmington hills. Our office is off Halstead between 10 Mile & 12 Mile road. May be up that way again in the spring.

Judy, so glad you don't have to go through chemo. Now you can move on and get rads done. Get a calendar so you can mark off the days. It'll be over before you know it.

Leslie, hang in there. You're moving forward one step at a time.

Beebazboob

Peggy, great photo of you and the other ladies! So glad your visit was nice! Hope everyone has a good week

Molly50

(((KDTheatre))))

PontiacPeggy

Beeb, thanks! We had such fun. You have a good week, too!

HUGS!

ChiSandy

Peggy, so glad you gals had such a great get-together! Meeting fellow BCO’ers is a joyous experience indeed! You all look marvelous, too. (And was that a Riesling in the center of the foreground? Yum).

PontiacPeggy

Sandy, it was joyous! I don't think that was Reisling. It was a red Rhone. We had all sorts of wine - a lot of Washington wines. I don't know anything about wines so bought local wines. Katzpjays and Sloan definitely know wines. We kept opening bottles and bringing out clean glasses!

HUGS!

ChiSandy

Hmm….I thought I saw a tall bottle, long neck, on the plate in front of and between Katzpjays and Marion. That's usually reserved for German wines in general, or for American or Canadian Rieslings.

PontiacPeggy

You did see that style of bottle. I have no clue what it actually is. Here's the bottle. We couldn't figure it out. Maybe you can. So you could well be right.

ChiSandy

It’s a French blend of Colombard and Viognier. Colombard (sometimes called ugni blanc) is a southwestern French varietal also grown in California (where it’s called “French Colombard”) and is best known as the base wine that gets distilled into Cognac. (I learned that when I visited Courvoisier in Jarnac). Viognier is grown in France mostly in the northern Rhone and is the sole grape in the much-sought-after Condrieu—Condrieu is extremely complex with aromas of rose petals, tropical fruits and even litchi and is best enjoyed on its own. In the U.S., Viognier is grown in WA (Maryhill’s is especially luscious), OR, northern MI, the Blue Ridge area of VA (West Wind Farms), and the N. Fork of L.I. (I like Paumanok and Bedell).

PontiacPeggy

Dang, Sandy, you are one smart cookie! Thank you. Appreciate the information and background. Now I'm educated.

HUGS!

ChiSandy

Well, Dr. Google does have some accurate info. But I went online only to find out about that particular wine. I learned about wines, grapes, and spirits by years of tasting!!! (A most pleasant education).

PontiacPeggy

Sandy, And I benefited from your years of pleasurable research

HUGS!

Snowflake67

I just got a call from surgeon saying my lymph nodes were good after lumpectomy. Margins are clear but close. He meets with me in morning to go over results and to decide whether we do another surgery. Ugh I am so confused. Wouldn't radiation fix this? I mean margins are clear just close. My husband is upset says find another doctor.

DaraB

Snowflake, congratulations on the clear node dx. It's my understanding that to be really clear, the margins need to be clear for a certain measurement around the tumor. They want to make sure there are no stray cells that may have migrated into surrounding tissue. Some doctors do the excision at the same time as the first surgery while others wait for pathology and go back in. It's actually very common. My BS was able to check during the first surgery but actually had to go back in 3 times to take more tissue in order to get enough margin to say it was clear. Several ladies on this site have had experiences like yours where a second surgery is required. The most important thing is to make sure you get a much as possible and then follow up with recommended treatments. Good luck, focus on the positive which is that your nodes were clear! Keep us posted.

Molly50

Snowflake, I can understand your DH's frustration but this is quite common with lumpectomy because they don't want to chance leaving cancer cells behind if at all possible. Yes, radiation will help but surgery is always your first line of defense.

Michelle_in_cornland

Snowflake, just meet with your doctor and find out how close. You don't need another doctor, you need information. Also put up your diagnosis.

1step

KD, I had a similar issue with hospital staff, though, luckily, I was quite lucid. I went in to have my port inserted and the nurse wanted to put my iv catheter in my bad arm. It is typical to place iv's on the opposite side from the surgeon, but the port goes opposite of the lumpectomy side. By the time I had the port placed, I already had mild LE, and was wearing a sleeve. When I told him he would have to go on the right side, he tried to say he couldn't because the surgeon wouldn't want that. I knew better since it was my BS who would be putting in the port. I asked if he could put it in my foot, and he said no to that as well. He "threatened" a jugular cath, until I told him to do what he had to do. His partner told him they couldn't do that, though. I told him if I needed to wait until the surgeon came in to get it done in the right arm that's what I would do. He came back a few minutes later and put it in my right hand. Unfortunately, knowing my DH, he would have a hard time being that insistent.

Molly50

I actually had my IV in my foot for my right side prophy mx.

1step

Molly, I knew it could be done. I really do feel like left arm was this guy's preference, and he was just throwing a fit since I wouldn't let him touch my left. I was surprised when he was the one to finally place it. I figured he would find someone else to do it.

Molly50

The nurses who did my IV in my foot were really sweet. They totally understood why I was standing my ground. The anesthesiologists I find are not very understanding. When I woke up from my emergency surgery to evacuate the blood from the hematoma I was quite upset to see the BP cuff on my bad arm. The nurse told me it was the anesthesiologist who insisted it was fine. Grrr

PontiacPeggy

Snowflake, welcome! I don't recall seeing you here in the Lumpy Lounge. So very glad that your nodes were clear! That's wonderful. As the other ladies have said, it is quite common for the surgeons to want to get as wide a clear margin as possible. Don't want any stray cancer cells lingering if it can be avoided. Of course, it's discouraging to know you have to go through another surgery but it is also a good sign that your surgeon is really looking out for you and wants everything to be as perfect as possible before you move onto your next treatment phase.

Please do help us by filling out your profile and making it public. We have an awful time remembering everyone's diagnosis and treatments. We also would love to know where you are located. There may be a BCO sister nearby!

Keep asking questions! We're here to answer.

HUGS!

Snowflake67

thanks everyone- i apologizeI put in information not realizing it was private so I did change to public hoping it works

Will know more tomorrow on HE????? And if it's stage 1A or 1B. I truly don't want more surgery nor chemo. Having a hard time with this-really depressed

PontiacPeggy

Snowflake, the settings on this site can be confusing. You did just fine. Now where ARE you?

HUGS!

Snowflake67

upstate New York

PontiacPeggy

I'm not sure who lives there but I'm sure someone will chime in. Nice area.

HUGS!

ChiSandy

Bonnets lives in the Catskills/upper Hudson Valley area.

Michelle_in_cornland

snowflake, the treatment does not vary that much between stage 1 or 2. If your lymph nodes are clear and your HER2 is negative, maybe expect radiation and a drug to regulate your estrogen. You can read through other diagnosis on this board and find very similar ones to yours. Also, being node neg and early finding you might qualify for a test called Oncotype which helps determine the best treatment for your early stage situation. This test is ran based upon tissue removed from your breast during lumpectomy.

IHGJAnn49

Hi everyone... I got a new MO.. and she wants to see me before doing anything with the rads right now, so no simulation yet... but soon hopefully.. I still need to heal anyway..

ChiSandy

My MO told me that in node-negative grade 1 or 2 hormone+/HER2- IDC tumors smaller than 1cm, OncotypeDX is usually not even ordered because it is extremely unlikely that adding chemo would add confer any meaningful benefit over rads+endocrine therapy alone—and its risks would outweigh such a slim benefit.

Judy, you might ask your MO about getting a MammaPrint test. In patients with low-intermediate OncotypeDX scores (i.e., 18-25), it can determine whether they are at low or high risk for recurrence (MammaPrint and Prosigna have no “gray areas”). Low risk means no chemo, go directly to radiation, do not pass “GO,” do not collect $200… High risk—get your port installed. We have one sister here whose ODX score was 20 but whose Prosigna test found her to be “high risk,” so she got chemo. Another, who had an ODX score of 23, scored “low risk” on MammaPrint. As BarredOwl posted, latest studies have shown that in patients whose tumors’ favorable clinical features are discordant with their intermediate ODX score, MammaPrint can be definitive in the decision whether to do or skip chemo.

Dizzybee

Snowflake, I'm 12 days out from re excision for close margins.The margins were only 1 millimetre on two sides. My surgeon warned that this operation may be more painful than the first, because he was cutting into tissue that wasn't healed from the first op. He said I might be slower to recoverfrom the second anaesthetic so I was a bit concerned. The second operation was four weeks after the first, but the incision still hadn't fully healed.

So instead this has been much easier than first time round, the incision has healed really quickly and I've felt fine. I still haven't had the follow up appointment so I don't know what the path results are, but I'm hoping for clear margins. I have a large area of DCIS and if the margins are still a concern I will probably have a mx.

The oddest thing about this operation is hearing the seroma fluid slosh when I turn over in bed! But I've had 7cm excision, and tissue weighing six ounces removed, and I feel good, and really my breast still looks fine. I wish I'd known that was even possible two months ago when I was losing sleep over all of this.