November 2016 Surgeries

caroline372

I meet with both surgeons this Wednesday for pre-op. Any advice or suggestions of questions to ask? Surgery is 2 weeks from today. Ready to get it over with but also nervous!

Logang

Caroline: They usually go through from before surgery through after surgery care. Make sure you are clear on which meds to hold and for how long. Verify your post surgery restrictions and drain care.

binky36736

Hi, been lurking for awhile so here goes first post! I got my official diagnosis September 27 of this year after lumpectomy w/ wire localization on Sept 20. At the moment I am 2a, only one node biopsies and its positive......Left 1.5 cm IDC, wide margins were not clear . Soooooo bilateral mastectomy with left lymph node dissection is scheduled for November 15, wish it was sooner!! SO wants to do a biopsy on my right breast(goodie) 10/31 when we do pre open because of suspicious mass detected by MRI. I am 47, premenopausal, 3 grown sons......and still in an utter state of shock and numbness.

Logang

Welcome binky. Sorry you have to be here. We can all support each other!

OrcaPorkka

Hi all!

I am excited for my upcoming Nov 17 tissue expanders to implant surgery. I am tired of the TEs and just looking forward to another step on the path...

Binky - sorry you are dealing with this. The shock comes and goes...

Tunegrrl

StayMom and TechTeacher, i have a young son, too (seven years old). I was diagnosed in July and he still has no idea. Life is continuing as normal, thank dog. I am doing neoadjuvant chemo with a Paxman scalp-cooling machine to keep my hair, so i look essentially unchanged. My son spends a week at his dad's house after each of my chemo infusions.

I'm not sure yet about telling him about the lumpectomy, but i'm glad to have kept life as normal as possible so far.

Best of luck

Seedsally

Welcome binky, orca and tunegrrl. Sorry you are in the situation you are in. We will help encourage you or just be a shoulder to cry on. Please keep posting and updating us.

Logang

Finished up all of my preop stuff today with an appointment with the breast surgeon, an EKG, and chest x-ray. Now I just have to hurry up and wait!

Donnab13

Hello. I am having a double mastectomy on November 29th, 2016. Very nervous. Hoping I am making the right decision.

caroline372

hi Donnab13, I'm having mine Nov 7th. I'm also nervous but feel it's the right decision.

For those who have already had a mastectomy, how do you prepare yourself to see how you look after surgery? I'm so afraid of seeing my new body. Any advice?

Logang

Caroline: some ladies have a farewell boob party. I didn't have a problem looking at my self after and luckily neither did my husband. Knowing I would have the recon helped too. Some are completely happy with going flat! Just remember, healing is a process and things will get better day by day, week by week....

Moderators

Welcome, Donnab13 and Caroline372! We want to wish you both luck on your surgeries, and hope you find the support here you need leading up to and after the procedure. We're here for you!

The Mods

binky36736

Thanks so much for the warm welcome! I have no doubts really about surgery, it's the stuff afterwards.........Oncotype of 19 and lymph node involvement , not sure where that's going to put me. I hate hearing the worry in my boys voices

Seedsally

Welcome donnab and all the newbies. I chose bilateral MX because of a fairly large tumor in one side and ADH in the other side. I'm not sorry about my choice but there have been times when I catch myself thinking Did this really happen? Am I really dealing with cancer? I guess it's the shock. But you do deal with it and you find yourself surprised sometimes with your inner strength.

Caroline I didn't have nearly as hard a time looking in the mirror as I thought I would but I had reconstruction done and I believe that has helped my mental status (maybe I had a little Valium in there too ha ha). Really after 6 months I am so ready for my next surgery because after all the swelling goes down and the fills are done, and the healing is complete-I need some more tissue and skin removed. It will be done when I get my exchange. I am so used to looking in the mirror and feeling the scars that I'm pretty unemotional about it now. I know my scars are going to be wider because of the extra surgery but it doesn't bother me because they will mean better overall structure. It would have been the same if I had gone flat. Finally I am not repulsed by my image like I thought I would be.

Logang. Good luck. Warm thoughts. We will both be having surgery soon!

RitaR551

Home from the MRI. Upgraded to Stage 1. No longer DCIS.Surgeon will likely take a lymph node out to test.

Logang

Sorry to hear that Rita!

OG56

SeedSally I have a question for you I am wondering what are the first two weeks like after mastectomy with reconstruction I'm doing bilateral? I also have larger breasts 38D and am having skin sparing so I'm guessing I will have a lot of extra skin too did your tissue expanders look square or are they more of a round shape?

4bearz

Hello all! I was diagnosed on September 27th and a bit frustrated with the amount of time it is taking to get this monster out of my body while it continues to grow. I am scheduled for surgery November 8th and it cannot get here soon enough. I had a normal mammogram in March and now have a 2.7cm tumor that is aggressively growing.

Trying to stay positive and keep my sense of humor. Good luck to all of the other ladies having surgery in November as well.

lgreene33

I am new and think posted in Oct surgeries, apologies. Getting more nervous as it approaches. Praying non stop.

Just diagnosed and think still in shock. IDC/3 small DCIS 1.6 cm Left Breast. ER+/PR+. HER2 negative. Stage 1 at this point. Grade 3.

Treating with MD Anderson which is helping calm my nerves. Segmental mastectomy/reconstruction 11/16/16. So far scans are all negative for nodes but know true definitive answer will be post op. Praying hard they stay clear. Praying hard for low oncotype score so do not want Chemo. Radiation will follow 5 days per week for 5 weeks. Feeling scared and blessed 3 D Mammogram caught it.

Logang

Welcome 4bearz and lgreene! Sorry you have to join us!

Had one last hoorah with friends last night before my Thursday surgery. One of our friends daughters came up with the decor idea herself...

4bearz

That's awesome! Best of luck to you on Thursday!

Seedsally

sorry Og I just now saw this post. My TEs were in fact a little squarish but rounded out when I had a fill and my pecs softened some. I slept a lot the first week and was a little addled from the Valium and pain meds but I was able to take short walks outside often. I got a little depressed but I always do after a surgery. I had some pain in my right area that felt like a bee sting sometimes. I think the node incision was causing that. The most annoying problem had been feeling like a tight bra has slid up over my boobs. That's the best description I can give you. But I had nowhere near as much pain as I thought I would have.

Welcome 4bearz and Igreene. (Hope I spelled them right). There is definitely a shock and fear problem we all faced and had to work through. You are not alone.

Logang! What decorations!!

Tereschn

Hi, Was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma on 9/1. Had a mastectomy reconstruction on 10/25. Initially I dI'd not want reconstruction for the same reason, however; both my surgeons said it is important to my healing process. I shared my apprehension with my primary doctor and she said they have not lost a patient in surgery. Am glad at the decision i made. Point is there are no wrong decisions. Do your research & go with your gut feeling.

HKflower

I am an expat living in Hong Kong. I have DCIS and IDC in the left breast diagnosed after core biopsy 11 October. I have a full mastectomy with a lymph node biopsy scheduled. I am struggling to make a decision. Perhaps someone can advice. As I don't have medical insurance I have gone public but I have to wait for Nov 15th for my surgery. I did get two private specialists opinions as well. After the biopsy my lymph nodes have become swollen and painful, and I feel very tired. I am concerned that the cancer may have spread. The doctors did say that this may be from the biopsy. But I am worried and am thinking it may be better to get the surgery done in privately (quite costly) rather than wait. I have no idea what to do.

Moderators

Tereschn and HKflower, welcome the community and thank you for posting. We're sure our very kind and knowledgeable members here will help you make the best decisions. In the mean time, we would recommend you the following pages of our main site where you can find out more about different types of mastectomy and learn what to expect during and after surgery.

Hope this helps!

The Mods

Kat104

Hi all, first post here. I'm 35 and dx with multifocal/multicentric IDC on 10/6. Currently scheduled for unilateral mastectomy and SNB on 11/22, so HKflower, I understand the anxiety about waiting to take action. Biopsy showed 2 of my 3 tumors as grade 2 (3rd tumor wasn't biopsied), so the feeling is that it's not terribly fast-growing, and it's been there for years, so one month will not make too much of a difference while we study what's going on to make informed decisions. Hard to deal with the anxiety though of course, and I'm sorry you're dealing with this too.

I've been struggling with the uni vs bilateral decision, especially since MRI found a "suspicious enhancement" on the non-cancer side. I was very close to saying "just take both", but I had an MRI-guided biopsy of that spot, and preliminary word is that it's benign. So for now I'm going with unilateral surgery with reconstruction and something on the non-cancer side for symmetry. My real breasts are very very small and I'm too thin for non-implant options, so I'm also struggling with reconstruction decisions.

This has all been a shock. Having amenorrhea for much of my pre-kid life and breastfeeding for years made me think I was so low risk, and when I showed my lumps to my dr, I was just as worried about being viewed as a hypochondriac as I was about positive results. But as more and more things become settled, I'm feeling more mentally settled too. Even having a surgery date on my calendar is good, and I can't say I'm happy to join you guys, but I'm happy to find a place where we can all understand. Many thoughts to you all as our surgery month starts tomorrow. Prayers for strength are going out.

Wicked

Kat104, I was also amenorrheic until I reached my mid-30s. Been getting them fairly regularly since then. I'm now almost 50. Never had kids so I never breast fed. I have wondered about any link between amenorrhea and BC, though.

Moderators

Kat104, welcome here, though sorry you are joining. Has your treatment team ever recommended genetic testing? Perhaps it could help in guiding a decision. As for amenorrhea, that is an interesting question to ask the oncologist! We're all here for you !

Kat104

Thank you, mods!

I did have genetic testing for BRCA1/2 and also the BreastNext panel, which covers 15 more genes. There is nothing there that pushes me towards a definite bilateral surgery: just one variant of unknown significance in one of the other genes.

I think these decisions are some of the hardest I've ever had to make. I've been intensely lurking here reading the uni-vs-bilateral relevant posts over the years (among others), and it's clear how personal and individualized it all is.

wicked, interesting that you are similar with regard to fewer cycles. I've always thought that the fewer lifetime cycles a woman has, the lower her risk of breast cancer, but I guess there are so many other factors involved.

Moderators

Yes, this is a VERY difficult decision!! We really wish you well as you make your decision.