January 2013 surgery

As for pain management, they have me on Celebrex (2x/day) and 1/2 Percocet every 3-4 hours and Tylenol 500mg in between. This combo seems to be working well. I was trying to stay away from the Percocet but NOW IS NOT THE TIME! Take those meds! My stomach is doing well with this mix. My husband is a doctor and keeps telling me I'm less than a week out and I'm doing well. Everyday is better. Also get as much rest as possible. So far my major outings have consisted of doctor appointment and short walks. The walks do take a lot out of me and I think of myself as pretty fit. Finally, I also recommend getting those frozen gel packs to place on your chest. They are helpful. Best of luck!

Thanks for the site recommendation! I'll check it out. I'll look and see if we have one of those stores too! I'm an over-prepper...and since I had such a bad experience as a teenager I'm scared I'll have a repeat!

Yeah You Destina!  I'm looking to you, Mary and all the other ladies for inspiration today.  Maybe tomorrow, i can inspire someone else.  Its all we can do...right?  Fighting a war is hard...and you're one up on me...Private Enemy #1 is DEAD!  I can't WAIT for that feeling.  My theory is that once lumpie and the nodes are toast, I DO NOT HAVE bc!!!  I may have rogue cellular insurgents who must be targeted and eliminated but that's what my miltary stike team of chemo and rads are for...FIND AND DESTROY!!!  This is not insumountable...its TOTALLY and 100% doable...fightable...manageable and beatable!  Thanks to all for your continued kind words and support...it really does help.  I'm gonna go smoosh me some play doh sized lumpies now.  I may even craft up a few nodes to squish for good measure...

Mary - thanks for your reassurance. I did feel guilty, and then I felt angry that I was being made to feel guilty. The hospital has a feedback form in the room, so I'll mention it then.  I don't want to get her into trouble. I think they are using volunteers who may be a bit developmentally delayed or something, but I really don't think it's a good role for them.

I absolutely love your warrior princess analogy.  You and Smethol should both write books, or poetry or something.  Your imagery is brilliant, both of you.  Very different, but so evocative.

Smethol - I really feel for you. I was a wreck going into surgery because I didn't know my node status.  I was convinced the damn thing had spread and and waking up after surgery to find it hadn't was the just about the best day of my life.  I'm sorry you won't experience that, but hopefully your node is like Mary's warrior princess and has given her all for your body.  Hugs and hope.

I'm now about 36 hours post surgery and feeling pretty good.  It's 3am here and, as I can't sleep, I'm doing the arm exercises the physio has given me and I'm walking round the corridors and up and down stairs and posting.  As I said somewhere else, I think having just a BMX with no reconstruction makes for a much easier surgery and recovery.

Love and hugs to everyone facing surgery today.

Warrior Princess panties!!!  Onwards and upwards!

Firstly, Destiny Trailer, and Cookie, thinking of you all, and wishing you all the very best for your day!

Smethot, you are such a fighter, with a great sense of humour, I too had a great laugh at your Play Doh model. I am sorry that you have this uncertainty. It's so unfair, I have nothing but admiration for your feisty nature, and I am positive that will get you through this.

Brandie, all the best to you too. You've had to do it tough on your own before with a Husband deployed. I am sure this surgery will be quite different. Wishing yo u an easy, swift recovery this time around.

Tami, great to hear you are doing so well too. I can't believe it is 6 days since your operation. The time flies after the event, but boy does it drag in the lead up. Won't be long till you can have a lovely long hot shower. Take care and keep healing well!

Lmimp, so gtlad to hear you've had your surgery and you are doing well after not being so good when you couldn't keep the water down  . Also, glad to hear of another that had no problem with the tracer for the SNB. That was my biggest fear, and it turned out the same for me, and the bonus of a negative result to o! I had numbness from the centre of my chest all the way around to my bck too. It has been three weeks now and although I have a lot of feeling back there are still some numb spots and a bit of burning sensation that the Surgeon said was the nerves trying to reconnect. It feels a lot like your mouth feels after a dental injection starts to wear off. You take care, it will get so much better soon!

Robinlee so glad to hear you are on the mend too. I hope your Son is OK. Hard to be away when they aren't well, but you need to take care not to catch anything now.

Four drains, that's a juggling act for you. I had enough trouble with one! I wore my bag stiched by the lady volunteers all the time that I had that awful appendage. I was so glad to see the end of it.  Take care!

Hopex3, and Rm Lullu, I see you still have a wait. I hope it isn't too bad for you. It would have to be heartening for you to see how well everyone is doing. It takes the edge off knowing you'll be on this side of the Surgery soon. You girls take care!

Welcome Suzilla! Breast cancer has made friends of us all here on this site, I cannot believe it happened to me once, much less twice. I am having surgery on January 15 and yesterday I had a lot of blood drawn for pre op testing, and like others have said on here, the pre op tests make things seem very real. I got weepy near the end of the workday today. I'm not sad to say goodbye to my breasts, and I'm not scared yet of what the pathology and nodes will show. I don't know what to call what I am feeling except I am relieved to finally be moving forward to get rid of this sneaky cancer that keeps trying to get a foothold in my breasts. Maybe the tears mean I am ready to do anything it takes to win this battle over breast cancer that is attacking me and so many women of all ages all over the world.

Runner, glad to hear you're doing well today. And you're right, by this time tomorrow, everything will look and feel different...in a beautiful way! Hope you have a restful night and look forward to hearing your update.

Kkuziel, your life will change but in such a positive way. I know it was tough to have to make two attempts to get your surgery done, but you persisted. I am having Jan 15 surgery and I feel like the roller coaster has gone clunky klunck to the top of the first rise, and this is the moment when the waiting is about to end and my medical team, and my loved ones, and I are about to take action to win this battle against breast cancer on a very personal level. I sought a diagnosis for a year and a half and now, finally, I have gotten a team together who is removing the cancer at my bidding. Oh yes, life is going to change, for me and for you, because we have become, as another lady said so well here, warriors!

Karen, really glad I could help you! I actually find that the anxiety fades as I get closer to the surgery. It reminds me of a book I loved as a kid, where the characters would run into obstacles and say: Can't go over it, can't go under it, can't go around it...gotta go through it! This is a very important step that we need to take to stay healthy. Although the surgery is scary it is also life-saving. Whenever I feel scared, I remember how lucky I am to live in a time when I have this option and how much it will allow me to do in my future.

Thank you all for the encouragement. I'd never thought about the injection for the sentinel node hurting. Glad it doesn't seem too. I'm having a wire put in before surgery (which is kind of freaking me out) so I never asked too much about the sentinel node injection. I guess I just hope they numb everything up or put me out for anything they can't numb up. My first surgery ever so I'm very naive about things. Kind of wish I could have started out with something less traumatic - like a hernia or something. But as someone said to me today, it's not a matter of "if" you get something, it's all about how you deal with it "when" you get get something. If wish I was dealing with it better. I still seem to be near the edge.

No surgery date yet as MRI results came back with another "suspicious" spot in the same breast. Ultrasound and possible biopsy tomorrow. At this point I feel like I should forgo the ultrasound/biopsy and just have a MX. I'm frustrated that its been over a month since dx and still no date. I want it out and I'm afraid the longer the wait, the more likely it has spread.



How do people have things done so quickly?! I want to make the right decision but the waiting is getting to be too much. Sorry for the ranting!

Runner1987 what a great analogy to our situation and it is so much easier to go through it together. Love and prayers for you tomorrow and we will be thinking of you and sending healing thoughts. Thanks for listing your blog. I want to check it out.

I am someone who has a basic belief that the words breast and needle should never appear in the same sentence together so chicken that I am I got a prescription for numbing cream for the SNB injection. I am encouraged that so many people seem to have found it to be a non event but I thought I would die when I got the lidocaine injection for my breast biopsy and that kind of spooked me. The hospital called today and ordered me off of all vitamins and supplements until after surgery and I feel a bit naked in the midst of a major flu epidemic. At least I got my flu shot a while back. Guess I'll just try to avoid crowds for the last week and wash my hands a lot. Love to everyone, Susan

Hello ladies.

I'm 37 and the mom of 2 amazing boys 4 & 7. I was dx w/ DCIS on 11/7 and had a lumpectomy on 11/30. I recovered well from the lumpectomy. It was pathology report I got the next week that I was not prepared for at all. It showed no clear margins, an excessive amount of DCIS and invasive cancer. I knew this was a possible outcome but was shocked. I was sent for a MRI which showed another area of concern. Had an ultrasound and another biopsy - luckily the other area of concern turned out to fibroadenoma. Given my age and the amount of disease my surgeon recommends a mx w/ recon. I've met with one ps already and meet with one more tomorrow. My bs already has me scheduled for surgery on 1/31 - which I thought was odd since I haven't yet decided on which ps I was going with. She assured me it was fine. As much as I wish we weren't all here under these circumstances - I'm glad to have found this board. Just reading some of the previous posts has been very helpful and reassuring.