Lumpectomy area decision for DCIS

Honestly, I think at some point you just have to trust that your surgeon knows what she's doing. And if you can't feel confident doing that, then maybe it's an indication that you need to find someone you're more comfortable with. ((HUGS))

Having been through it, I can tell you that it really isn't that bad. The incision from the sentinel node biopsy (since they already knew I had a microinvasion) was much more painful than the one from the lumpectomy itself. I had a bad reaction to pain killers they gave me afterwards, but other than that it was an uneventful recovery. I'd say within 24 hours I was itching to be up and moving and back to normal life, although I still had to be careful of how I moved my arm for a few days. I even went back to running a week later (although I had the girls strapped in TIGHT).

The waiting and anticipating was by far worse than the reality, so you are in the worst part of it now ... it WILL get better! Oh, and I know what you mean about needing a good cry - I didn't take one though until about 5 months after finishing radiation. I was just too busy because along with my own cancer, my mother had been diagnosed 6 weeks prior and had a mastectomy, then a couple of weeks before I was diagnosed my then 12 year old daughter shattered two of her fingers and needed surgery and months of rehab. We were planning her Bat Mitzvah at the same time as all of this was going on, which was held 3 weeks after I finished radiation. Looking back, I have no idea how I held it together, but I did, and I am fine now (fingers crossed as I have a mammo on Wednesday) and in a few months you will be looking at it all through the rearview mirror too!

Percy, there are many here who will say that your daughter is just scared and that's why she's acting the way she is. Maybe that's true, and maybe that is the reason, but the way I see it, sometimes you just have to step up to the plate. I'm sorry that your daughter is not being more supportive. You deserve better from her.

I'm assuming your surgery is day surgery? How are you planning to get home? My hospital wouldn't release me without someone being there to pick me up, and they also had me sign off that I would not be spending that first night alone. That's not the rule everywhere, but whenever I've been put under general anesthesia for day surgery, that's always been the rule around here. The concern, I believe, is the possibility of a bad reaction to the anesthesia and an inability to call for help. You should find out what the rules are at your hospital before you go in for the surgery.

Hi Percy, I'll just make a couple of comments about the surgery situation, and pardon me if I sound a little incoherent (quite tired from all the Thanksgiving festivities). I believe that with DCIS, they do wire localization surgery using the calcifications and the clip as a guide. They know the original location of the clip because, after all, this is a digital mammogram, so the exact coordinates are available. They can tell if the clip has migrated or not. In my case, they did determine that the clip had migrated, so they ignored the clip, found the calcifications on the old and new mammograms (new one done that day), and then did a wire localization surgery based on those coordinates. The clip is still in me, after the original lumpectomy and two re-excisions. In your case, since the MRI was clear (right?), I can't imagine that the surgeon would be using the MRI to guide her. I would think that she would be using the mammogram. I could certainly be wrong, but you should ask about this. Now, if you had such a tiny area of calcs, that they were totally removed during the biopsy (it sometimes happens), then they do go by the clip and/or by the original location of the calcs alone, if the clip has migrated. Usually it doesn't migrate, but it sometimes does.

My comments on the daughter situation. I don't know why your daughter forgot the surgery date. It could be she was frightened, or it could be that she didn't quite get the gravity of the situation. I think that others don't always fully grasp our situation unless they attend the medical appointments with us.

I'm glad that your son will be with you the first night. Usually lumpectomies go pretty well, and the anticipation is worse that the actual event. I hope that is true for you, as well.

Percy, I think it's great that you voiced your concerns to your surgeon. If she was not aware of the possible clip movement before, she is now and you can rest easy that you said something. We have to advocate for ourselves, and I felt more confident about my treatment when I did my own research and discussed issues with my surgeons. Best wishes!