December 2011 Surgeries - want to wait together?

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  • mamabearto2
    mamabearto2 Member Posts: 11
    edited November 2011

    I'm having a UMX with a TE and implant on the other side on December 9th.  I've never had surgery before... I'm totally scared!

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  • fitzdc
    fitzdc Member Posts: 1,467
    edited November 2011

    Jennifer,  I am scared too. BUT We can get through this!  This is not my first surgery (3 years ago not related to BC) ,however  am still nervous. I am taking each day slowly and focusing on the positives, or at least trying to.

    Teresa

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  • CookieMonster
    CookieMonster Member Posts: 1,035
    edited November 2011

    Margi - Sorry you had to postpone. After lumpectomy #2 I had a stitch that tried to escape too, but since I was having surgery #3 in about a week and it was the same incision site, I just ignored it (with the surgeon's approval) and they took it out when they did the surgery. I hope surgery in the new year goes smoothly!!

    Teresa -  I'm glad everything got figured out and that your surgery is a go. I found the latissimus dorsi surgery interesting to read about. I hope it goes well for you.

    Mamabear - Welcome! I'm sorry you're with us, but we'll all stand strong together (or recline strong together?). Before my first BC surgery in August the only ones I had had were wisdom teeth removal 20+ years ago with a BAD reaction to general and C-section for DS when I wasn't asleep. So in August I was VERY nervous about the surgery. Now that I've had three, I'm not as nervous about them, but every time I think about being under for 8-10 hours (I'm having MX with DIEP), it makes me nervous all over again. Luckily there are lots of people there to watch over us and to make sure that we stay safe. The procedures that they're doing are all well researched and safe, so hopefully we'll all come through with flying colors. Hang in there and if you have questions, ask as many of us have been through surgery before and some even through your particular surgery.

    -Judy

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  • karirn
    karirn Member Posts: 13
    edited November 2011

    December 16th bilateral mx and scared stiff. No lumps or bumps, just a pagets diagnosis. I just recovered from a tummy tuck last year at this time, so I guess I will have something to compare this to.

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  • LoveLee
    LoveLee Member Posts: 13
    edited November 2011

           Cookiemonster, thanks for recommending this!!!

    I will be having DIEP surgery December 19th.  Merry Christmas to me in a strange way lol. I have always wanted to get my shopping done early, I'm just about done, should finish up on Black Friday (wrapped and all).  It seems like i have been waiting for such a long time for this, and now its here. I must be nesting or something because all i want to do is clean and grocery shop and cook!!! I already cleaned my car for the 100 mile ride home. I pray the roads will be good!!! I have more energy now than i have had in a long time. I guess i need to enjoy it while I can.  

    Karirn--How was the healing on the tummy tuck around the holidays? I will have my grandbabies home and its going to be so hard not to hold them!!!!  I'm sooo nervous---at the same time sooo ready!! 

    Happy Thanksgiving to all

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  • CookieMonster
    CookieMonster Member Posts: 1,035
    edited November 2011

    VickyAnn - Welcome!! I WISH I wanted to clean my house, but right now, I'm trying to get caught up on work stuff. I'm a teacher and have a huge pile of grading to do. We don't have school today so DH and DS are off to the LA Auto show, and I stayed home to work. I've gotten three sets of lab reports graded so far, but there's still lots left to do. I'm on break right now and figured I'd check in here.

    I guess I'm lucky, we have a 10 mile ride home once I'm released from the hospital. Plus, both my BIL and MIL/FIL live within a mile of the hospital. We're currently planning to stay with one of them the night before surgery so that we don't have to wake up DS at 4:30 am to take me to the hospital at 5:30. I don't know how much sleep I'll get the night before the surgery anyway.

    I've done next to no shopping, we need to shop for DS, but really that's about it.

    Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US! Happy Holidays to everyone!!

    -Judy 

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  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 597
    edited November 2011

    Me Please!! ... December 9 - Lumpectomy and sentinal nodes with double breast reduction (oh yes!)

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  • jstunme
    jstunme Member Posts: 47
    edited November 2011

    Add me if you wish - BMX (delayed recon next year) Surgery December 20th ! Merry Christmas .......?

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  • CookieMonster
    CookieMonster Member Posts: 1,035
    edited November 2011

    Welcome AussieKate and jstunme! (sorry you've had to join us) Happy Holidays to us all indeed!  Here's to a BC free 2012! I'll be happy to kick he 2nd half of 2011 to the curb.

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  • Ginger48
    Ginger48 Member Posts: 1,978
    edited November 2011

    Cookie- I will kick it to the curb with you!

    Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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  • QuinnCat
    QuinnCat Member Posts: 3,456
    edited November 2011

    I don't have my exact date yet, but same procedure as AussieKate....waiting for the Nurse Coordinator to call me back!!  (Better be December)

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  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 597
    edited November 2011

    Hi all you gorgeous girls.

    I'm not sure where to post my reply, so it's on my own link but I hope you see it (I am getting a little lost with so many links here).  I have a query. I have my pathology report but it doens't say anything about the ER/PR or HER status at all. Would this have been done at the biopsy or is it found out after surgery? My report does say basically that it is Malignant and started off as DCIS but has infiltrated into the periductal fat. There are comedo  'nests' and plemorphic large cells and Mitotic activity is brisk.  All of which is just plain old goobledegook to me, but it doesn't sound particulary good I feel.

    Does anyone know what the heck this all means?

    Still can't believe I have this - and I guess I'm not alone there. I feel just fine so how can I be sick? I really don't think I'm in denial, I just can't relate to it at all, so I'm just being very pragmatic about it at this stage. Bye for now, Kate 

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  • QuinnCat
    QuinnCat Member Posts: 3,456
    edited November 2011

    Hi AussieKate - My ER/PR and HER2 resulted from the pathology of my biopsy.  The same report that diagnosed me with CA.  I have not directly read the report myself, but 2 different people have mentioned something about high mitotic activity.  Mitosis (cell division) is one of the 3 subtypes that determine the Grade. I know one of the other subtypes has the word "tubular" in it...but I may have remembered wrong.  Each subtype gets a 1,2 or 3 score.  A 3,3,3 or 3,3,2 would yield a Grade 3, for example.  You mentioned "Level 3"...perhaps they call Grade "Level" in Australia?  I have Grade 3 too.

     btw, we are having the exact same treatment.  I'm still waiting for my surgery date in December. 

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  • KeepingFaith69
    KeepingFaith69 Member Posts: 508
    edited November 2011

    Hi,

    I'm having surgery to remove a recurrnce lon the 29th November. 

    Cannot find a November thread : (

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  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 597
    edited November 2011

    Hi Kam170. Thanks for that info. Yes they have called it 'grade' 3, I don't know why I say 'level'. Hey fancy having exactly the same, well If I go before you (for surgery) I can give you a first hand account and vise versa if you have yours before mine. I work in a hospital (admin) and the Theatre Manager came to see me when she saw my name on the list, and she said that breasts don't have many nerves and most patients don't even require pain meds during their stay- hard to believe isn't it? so I'm holding her to that! I must say I am looking forward to being a C cup. I have always been a G and they have always just got in my way and made me look unnecessarily top heavy. I'm not petite by any standards, but they are out of proportion to the rest of me. BS said I should have had it done years ago :(  Keep me posted on how you are doing OK? Kate

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  • CookieMonster
    CookieMonster Member Posts: 1,035
    edited November 2011

    KeepingFaith69 - Congrats, you get to head up our list. I know there's a Nov. Mastectomy group, but I don't know if you're having that or some other surgery to deal with the recurrence. Hoping it goes well regardless.

    Kam170 - I remember reading some people saying that thier cancer wasn't checked for Her2neu, ER, or PR before their lumpectomy. Mine was not, but it was also staged as DCIS only back then.

    AussieKate - I had lumpectomy with SNB for my second surgery, the pain wasn't bad, the armpit was worse than the breast incision. Have ice packs handy if you can. We ended up buying a case of them online and have gone through more than half of them (then again I've had 3 surgeries already). But I figure with an 8 year old, having ice packs around isn't a bad thing anyway. I am also currently a G cup (well on the unaffected side - the surgery side is now smaller) and am going with a C+ or maybe a D with my reconstruction and then will have the other side reduced and lifted in stage 2. I've never really been bugged by my breasts but they are large and I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll be like after the surgeries.

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  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 597
    edited November 2011
    Hi Keepin Faith69, I see you and I are in the same hemisphere Smile. All the very best to you for your surgery. Hugs, Kate
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  • Blessings2011
    Blessings2011 Member Posts: 4,276
    edited November 2011

    Checking things off my "To Do Before Surgery" list....and believe me, it's a mile long! Laughing

    Spent Thanksgiving at home with just DH - I made the decision not to leave the house until I check into the hospital. Can't risk getting sick and postponing surgery again! And man - there's a lot of sick people out there! Why is it that some people are sniffling buckets and coughing uncontrollably and then say "Oh, I'm not contagious!" SERIOUSLY? Yell

    It's been so good to read all the accounts of ladies who are home from their surgeries. I know the reality has got to be much better than my imagination!

    Six more days til our December surgeries start! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and is staying healthy (and stress-free) til then.

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  • anafoefana
    anafoefana Member Posts: 164
    edited November 2011

    Hello,

    I am having a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy on November 29th. I had neo-adjuvant chemo and my 7 cm tumor is gone.  Praying for clear nodes and margins, but prepared to go back if needed.

    Keepingthefaith, I did not find a November group either. 

    Wishing all of you the best as we go through these procedures. 

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  • tfee
    tfee Member Posts: 20
    edited November 2011

    BMX scheduled December 8 with tissue expanders. I don't know what I would do without the support of my family and friends.

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  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 597
    edited November 2011

    Hi everyone.

    Well I''m not starting to feel as brave as I thought I was Frown. I'm either doing too much research and getting overloaded (probably) or I just don't have the knowledge (yet) to understand what I am reading.

    As I don't have my final results yet and I am having my lumpectomy and SNB done next Friday, what should I be hopeing for? I know no lymph node involvement means it hasn't spread and  clean margins is the gold star to aim for, but what I'm really confused about and need to know is apart from that, what other things are the best indicators that show that I have a good fighting chance.Not that I won't fight regardless, but I read somewhere that being HER+ is a good thing, but elsewhere that it means it is more aggresive. Confused too about the hormones ER/PR. I am menapausal now so is it less common to have hormone receptor cancer if you are in menapause?

    I think the not knowing is just the worst. I'm sure I'll deal with whatever hand I'm dealt with but at the moment my imagination is in overdrive. I know I'm far from being alone with these feelings.

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  • Janie-bug
    Janie-bug Member Posts: 181
    edited November 2011

    My Surgery date is Dec-9th BMX with SNB and expanders

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  • fitzdc
    fitzdc Member Posts: 1,467
    edited November 2011

    Aussie Kate---I know it is hard to be brave,  I am so tired of being the "cancer person" that for a few days  I just didn't answer my phone (even to my family).  It is overwhelming, scary, and at times information overload.  Plus, everything happened so fast - one day fine and the what seemed like a week later discussing a mastectomy.  And not knowing was difficult.  Dec 1 will be the next step in the process and I know all will be fine.

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  • vamom
    vamom Member Posts: 56
    edited November 2011

    add me for december 8th. NSPBMX w/ TE's. i am sooooo anxious to get this process started. hugs, prayers & best wishes to all the ladies here

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  • CookieMonster
    CookieMonster Member Posts: 1,035
    edited November 2011

    Welcome vamom & Janie-bug - sorry you're here, but we're happy to have you here.

    Toni- What's a NSPBMX? Best wishes to you as well - we'll all get through this together.

     AussieKate - Some cancers are driven by exposure to estrogen and/or progesterone. They are said to have Estrogen Receptors (ER+) and/ror Progesterone Receptors (PR+). It seems like cancer that is ER+ & PR+ but HER2- is the easiest (?) to treat. The worse ones are what's called triple negative (ER, PR, and Her2 all negative), and Her2+ with ER/PR positive as well. I'm assuming that's why what you've read has been confusing.I don't know anything about cancer during menopause so I can't answer that part of your question, sorry.

    Not knowing what's coming yet is the hardest part, hang in there and hopefully you'll know soon and hopefully it'll all be good news (as good as BC news can be). Hang in there.

    -Judy

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  • chrissilini
    chrissilini Member Posts: 313
    edited November 2011

    Hi. I'm scheduled for a bmx and SNB on Dec 8th with tissue expanders. It's all moved pretty quickly. I was diagnosed on Nov. 10th. I'll be happy when this is done. I am so looking forward to being free of this ugly monster. Good luck to all. Prayers and hugs.

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  • wrennest
    wrennest Member Posts: 7
    edited November 2011

    Hello, I am 39 years old and ready to get this BC the heck out of my body.  I can't believe almost a month has gone by since I found out.  I have DCIS and IDC in my left breast.  Not sure what stage yet until they go in but my other organs look clear on my scans.   

    It looks like I will join another BMX with immediate reconstruction on Dec 5th.  Best Wishes to all who are having surgery!  Best wishes to all who have to go through BC of any kind.  I am sending warm thoughts and positive energy to you all.=) 

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  • laurie2005
    laurie2005 Member Posts: 19
    edited November 2011

    Hi everyone, getting ready for my December surgery also. Had a simple left MX in July which was benign, but full of atypia cells. Have no desire to go back on Aromasin, so I have opted to have the right one removed as well. So, December 8th, I will have left-sided completion MX and right-sided prophylactic MX with bi-lateral DIEP reconstruction. I really am not looking forward to the surgery or recovery, but will be thrilled to be done with this once and for all! So tired of being called back for follow up Mammos and biopsies. I'm so glad to have so many people to go through this with. Thank you all for taking time to participate in these discussion boards!!! 

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  • CookieMonster
    CookieMonster Member Posts: 1,035
    edited November 2011

    Wow, our numbers just continue to grow and grow. Given that we're coming up on the holidays, has anyone had any concerns about seeing your docs for follow up during that time? It sounds like my BS and PS both are here for Christmas week but are then leaving town for New Year's or something similar. I hope I'll just be ready to heal by then and not need a bunch of doctor help by then.

    I can't believe my surgery is in less than three weeks and some of you are even this week. Time to start up those positive vibes and keep 'em going for the month.

    When you have surgery, please, when you're up to it, hop on and let us know how you're doing, we'll all be pulling for each other.

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  • mskassie
    mskassie Member Posts: 33
    edited November 2011

    Hi Ladies!  Though I don't have a definitive day set yet, I know it's coming in December.  I was diagnosed Oct 28, 2011 with Invasive Lobular carcinoma ER+/PR+, HER2- and was told I had two very small masses.  Once was supposedly 5mm and the other 3mm.  Well went for a second open last week who did an MRI and found out that the cancerous area is more like 4 CM in area instead and also has ductal variants.  I'm waiting for the results from the genetic testing they did [BRCA 1/2]

    I keep going back and forth on surgery/treatment.  I'm going to ask my primary doc tomorrow if she will order a PET scan for me to see if it picks up any metastatic areas hoping that will help me make a decision.  If the genetic testing comes back positive, the BS said she would recommend a BMX.  I have a strong family history of cancer.  I don't want radiation, so that rules out the lumpectomy.  Do I got for the single mastectomy or the BMX?  Should I do BMX even if genetic test is negative so as to not worry as much later?  What's the likelihood that I will have to have chemo?

    I feel like I need some of these answers before I can make a decision, but it seems like I can't get the answers until after it's already done.  Someone help me unravel my mind please!!! :)

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