Diagnosed Yesterday 1/2/18

EastcoastTS

Veeder:

I have tracer injections two days before surgery. I applied Emla cream that I made (!) the doctor give me, via prescription. Applied and covered with Saranwrap as told to do here. Under clothing. Wore this to appt.

Felt nothing! I may have also taken a little happy pill because I was nervous.

Some facilities will apply the Emla before the appt but you must ask in advance because it takes more time. Emla is numbing cream. Pretty basic but effective I thought.

Lovelife44

hi Veeder

In my skin sparing surgery I seem to have a little pouches of skin on each side left from my breasts, which will help hold implants if I do recon. The plastic surgeon I was recommended doesn't do expanders and implants behind the muscle, he has the surgeon who does the mastectomy leave sufficient skin and put implants in front of the muscle. I don't know how it works, I a man trusting them to work thier magic. My docs do many of these every month (sadly).

Veeder14

Hi Lovelife44,

I guess there's more than one way to do the reconstruction. I could never tolerate the expanders due to my back problems.

So you recently had surgery. Did your surgeon make recommendations for further treatment? Just wondering when patients find out what treatment besides surgery is recommended.

Momine

The way my surgeon deals with the nodes is to inject the mapping dye in the OR AFTER the patient is put under. It increases the OR time a little, but is more comfortable for the patient. Then the first node, the sentinel, is removed, tested quickly and if found to have cancer, the first tier of nodes is removed. There are three tiers of nodes in the armpit. It varies a fair bit how many lymph nodes a person has, so the first tier could be 15 nodes or it could be 30. In my case it was 22 (I also had the sentinel removed on the other side, making the total 23).

grandma3X

They numbed the injection area in my breast with lidocaine before the sentinel node injection. I didn't feel a thing. For my first MX, it was done same day as surgery. For the second one, it was the day before. It's good to hash this out with the surgeon before surgery so you will know what to expect.

Catsme

Vedeer, I had a double mastectomy no recon in Jan 2017. My first consult with my amazing BS lasted about 90 minutes. She review everything from imaging to path report and discussed all options. I chose mastectomy and no recon because I I've had about 11 cyst aspirations over the years and just didn' want that hanging around. I had 4 nodes removed during the surgery. I too was up and moving the same day and was in hospital overnight. Yoga has always been a part of everyday, and my BS arranged a PT consult b4 I left the hospital so I knew how to safely increase range of motion. Was doing the exercises the day got home. She also gave the name of a oncology massage specialist. He works with cancer patients of all types and stages. This has been a real blessing. I love being flat, and have and have found some great clothes tha I feel good in.

You know you better than anyone, and this is a time to be selfish, have compassion for yourself and give yourself some grace.

Hugs!

Snickersmom

I had 4 lymph nodes removed during my BMX surgery. One was the Sentinel node, one was the Axillary, and the other two were kind of like random to make sure there was nothing anywhere. That was left side only, since that's where the cancer was. No nodes were taken out of my ride side. During your surgery, as soon as they take the nodes, they send the specimen(s) to pathology and wait for the results. In my case, there was nothing in the specimens so they continued and took both breasts.

The day before my surgery, I went to radiology and had a dye injection into the tumor. That enables the surgeon to follow the dye from the tumor to the lymph nodes, if there are any that have cancer cells in them. In my case, the dye stayed in the actual tumor and there were no cells anywhere else. I thought that injection was going to really hurt, since they don't give any anesthetic for that other than topical Lidocaine. As soon as I got into the room, I started crying, and the radiologist who did it held me and talked to me about it until I was able to calm down. then she did the injection. I am being honest when I tell you I hardly felt a thing, just a little pressure and pinprick. It was one of those times when you say "is that it???". I'm not sure if that's the same kind of injection you are talking about but if it is, stop worrying!

You will be totally knocked out for your surgery so you don't really have to even think about what will be going on. You won't be in on the conversation in the OR!

I really had no pain at all after the surgery. I was a little uncomfortable and light-headed but that was it. I could have gone home the same day but chose the night in the hospital since it was offered and paid for. I was glad I stayed because it forced me to lay there and do nothing. I was easily able to walk out of the hospital on my own and truthfully never needed my husband for anything but help with the drains. My husband and I stopped for lunch on the way home the next day and when I got home, I put my pajamas on and sat in my recliner watching television. My golf group all provided us dinners for the 30 days after my surgery and I have to say that I began to feel extremely guilty after the first week. I was easily able to cook, etc. The only thing I couldn't do was clean, and that was fine with me! I milked that one as long as I could!!

My advice to you is stay off the internet and Drs. Bing and Google! I know that's hard to do but sometimes there is such a thing as being too informed. I get that you are trying to be as proactive as possible, but you really can't read any of our experiences and assume that's how you will feel.

Veeder14

Thanks Snickersmom and Catsme , and grandma3x for posting about your experiences. It helps me a lot. I know I will have back/neck pain so I'll talk with the surgeon about it. No matter what procedure/scan/surgery I have it always irritates my back/neck. Some surgeries I can have a Toradol injection after, which is a NSAID, and helps me the most. Other surgeries they won't let me.One more thing. How was it decided whether you needed to have further treatment besides hormonal?

grandma3X

Veeder - Your surgeon or MO will likely send a piece of the tumor to have genetic testing done, either Oncotype DX or Mammaprint, and the results will indicate whether you would benefit from chemotherapy. The Oncotype DX test is prognostic - tells you if you are at risk for metastasis - and also predictive - tells if chemo will help. If you have a lot of positive nodes, the doctor may decide that chemo is necessary anyway.

Whether you have rads depends on a lot of things - how many positive nodes you have, how large the tumor is and how close the margins are (how much normal tissue was removed around the tumor). If the tumor is indeed as small as they think and you are having a mastectomy, you probably won't need rads, but you may want to see a radiation oncologist anyway just to get their opinion.

Veeder14

Thanks grandma3x, I appreciate the information.

Fembot

Hi, I read a warning against use of Linezolid or Methylene Blue tracer / mapping injection on people taking Cymbalta (duloxetine), that an alternative should be used if possible.

Has anyone here had experience or heard of this?

Thanks