March 2014 Surgery
Comments
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Good for you Linda!!!!!
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linda - yay!
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Scary, I didn't have steri strips. How funny that they smell like cinnamon. Frostecat, anxiety is the worst! I've had to ask my doctor for help because I either couldn't sleep or if I did, I had nightmares. He gave me Ambien (which worked) but was to take only 3 in the week before surgery. Wynne50, you said your nerves were getting to you also so maybe that would work for you. Glad to have another San Antonio girl here. My medical team is at BAMC on Ft. Sam. Where will you have surgery? I haven't found a support group in town, have you?
Lake, can you have a PICC Line instead of a port? At my hospital, many chemo patients have PICC's, which routinely stay in for up to a year with no issues. The advantage is that it goes on the inside of your right upper arm and you only have tiny marks where the two sutures were. It is not painful to get (they do lidocaine first) and although it's a sterile procedure with masks and draping, it doesn't take long, you don't have to get anesthesia, have no pain while it is in, don't feel a thing when it's taken out and don't end up with a two inch scar on your chest. I've had them three times and am getting another one tomorrow morning. I love that I have two lumens, one for blood draws and one for IV's, so I never have to get stuck for anything in the hospital. AND since I always have to have IV antibiotics after I leave the hospital, the PICC goes with me. The disadvantage is that it has to remain sterile, the dressing has to be changed every week, the line needs to be flushed twice a day or before and after each use, and you can't get it wet. I wear a plastic shower sleeve and my husband is checked out in flushing the line and hooking up the antibiotics twice a day.
Sonjahester, I never heard back from you about when your surgery is scheduled. Did they move it to April? Goldlining, did you have surgery last week? I knew the date but not what kind of surgery you had.
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Great news, Linda! I'm happy to hear all went well.
Thanks, SpecialK. I'll email my new Onc about the test.
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Julie - excellent! That way if they order it asap on your surgical path sample you might even have results by the time you have your appt.
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Julie I hope I can do as good as you. After last night I am not so sure
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My oncologist came in yesterday as I was having my herceptin infusion & told me the pathology from surgeon was ALL CLEAR! Yay!
She then is all smiles, says it's a good day but she knows I am wondering WHY? still the herceptin infusion til December & 6 weeks of radiation. I told her I wasn't wondering that at all. I knew I had a very long journey, a long treatment plan & have had every intention of *doing it all*. I know herceptin is the only way for the HER2 cancer I have, I know because of the 2 positive lymph nodes (last Aug) that I need rads.
I think back & say to myself "I made it through 5 months of chemo, bald, sick, anemic, body ravaged by poison, the rest of this is easily doable!
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Vintage, you GO girl! You are a fighter and YES, you can do this. Look at what you've been through already. Go ahead, kick cancer's butt. With a good path report, you've got a leg up.
KLJ, a bad night? I think all of us who've been through this before can say we've been there. It's not a continuous uphill experience. I got so discouraged because it was the old "one step forward, two steps back" during the last recovery. Everybody else was reporting no pain and said the exchange from TE's to implants was so easy. It took me 4 weeks to turn the corner from that surgery. Maybe because it was the third one and my body was worn out. I don't know. Just guessing. But I've heard many, many women on this forum talk about their uneven recuperation. Sometimes the pain gets to you, even though it's not awful. Your body is just so tired of it, that even a small amount of discomfort is hard to deal with. It's easy to get depressed. I've been there many times. BUT it never lasts long. By the next day or two I'm feeling better and eager to move on. How are you today?
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Sandy, I think you are right. One step forward two steps back. Feeling better now. Supported to see a home healthcare nurse today. Will see how that goes.
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Hi March girls, I'm 5 days out from my surgery. I feel fine, actually I am bored. I also took 4 weeks off from work but will probably go back before that. I'm doing my exercises with my left arm, which feels numb above the elbow, sometimes it has a tingling feeling, which is aggravating. BS said that is normal because I had axillary lymph removal. Still waiting on path report. I have had a temporary implant put in L side until I finish rads. It is still pretty swollen, did any of you have swelling for a while after surgery? I have 2 drains which I hope will be removed tomorrow. Hope everyone recovers with no problems! I'll check back soon.
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hi gramof2boys
I am 2 days outbid surgery and am bored too waiting for my home care nurse to home vi had all lymph nodes removed and have some numbness above elbow too. Doing exercises. I even did crunches today. How go I know ur stage? I was told that I won't know any of this until after my tumour can be analysed. Had a bone and ct scan last week now just waiting. Glad to hear that ure doing ok
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For those of you with numbness from SNB or ALND the tingling and numb feeling does usually subside, but it is a slow process. After my ALND I was numb from shoulder to elbow all the way around the arm, and numb in the underarm and shoulder blade. It took a few months before I noticed any improvement but I have all feeling back except for the underarm itself. I have gotten used to that and only notice it when I shave.
gram and football - are all of your drains out? If not I would caution you on exercise - activity increases drain output and it may cause you to have them longer. Also, for lymph node removal keep that arm quiet for a little while unless your physician has instructed you otherwise - you may be increasing your vulnerability for lymphedema.
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My surgeon called this morning with fantastic news! No other cancer was found anywhere else and my margins were wide and clear. Also, my tumor turned out to be 1 cm instead of 1.4 like the core biopsy said. I'm very happy! I think I might be done with all of this except maybe the hormone therapy.
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Footballnut- I had fine needle aspiration of 1 lymph node with my original biopsy back in August. Also I had 3 nodes light up on my pet scan,so going with original path report they said probably stage 2b and it was grade 2. So I guess I may never know the real stage because I did chemo first. My BS said he didn't see anything at surgery so I'm anxiously waiting for final pathology report.
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Should know stage after the path report. I went from stage 0 dcis, to stage 2a ilc and tubular. Back to surgery 10 days after lx for a bmx.
It is all 1 step forward, at least 2 steps back! Physically from surgery Im good, but psychologically and some se is hard.
The one excercise I was told NOT to do was crunches, fyi.
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just had one drain removed which Eason the right dude where my implant was. Yay!! 2 to go which are on the left side. At least I can sleep on my right side now. My neck is still swollen but feels less than this morning. The nurse wouldn't even discuss this with me. I am actually more fearful of what is to come. The sad thing is that my hone care nurse said that she can see that breast cancer is on the rise and especially in younger people. Soon breast cancer will be like the common cold
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That is a horrible thing for a visiting nurse to say. I realize the number of new cases fluctuates each time period, but no where near the common cold. BC is not a contagious disease.
Is this another attempt to trivialize this horrible disease?
I think you should report this comment so her boss can help her understand proper conversation material.
Sorry for the rant but I am extra sensitive today.
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Want to say a special THANKS to melisden for your kind response to my last post. Made me feel like I'm normal and not the only one who has bad moments. Talking about those times when you think that you're actually having a pretty good day and you're sitting on the couch watching tv and for no reason at all you get anxious and panicky and need a good cry. But I'm now post-op day 12, feeling stronger and no true pain on motrin and muscle relaxer but always mild discomfort from tissue expander. Still have my one drain so no shower for 12 days now. Oh what I'd give for a shower!!! But nurse at PS office says it has to be below 15ml output for 2 days in a row otherwise I can expect to have for the full 3 weeks. They removed my steri-strips post-op day 5. Since then they've had me putting Bacitracin ointment on all incisions and covering with the yellow Vaseline gauze then thick gauze pads. Been wearing surgi-bra 24hr/day since that first lumpectomy Jan 28th. So interesting how every PS does things differently. They expanded me 350cc at time of surgery and will do my first fill next week. Happy continued healing to all & best of luck to those still awaiting surgery. Franny
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Just had my second surgery today to remove stray DCIS left over from my first lumpectomy. I've been reading the other posts and just wanted to comment on what extraordinary women I see here. Thank you for sharing your courage and giving strength to others.
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I hope they got it all this time. Looking for a perfect path report. Rest and heal. Hugs.
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Hi All, I am having a really hard day today. I am 9 days post bmx and had a follow up with the PS. He removed 2 of 4 drains which was great. I found the removal painful, but it was like funny painful, kind of like I can't believe that just hurt so much. And when it was over, it was over, so my husband and I laughed. My bad news is my cancer side is no longer healing well. The skin is too thin, it seems, to continue to get enough oxygen. My PS wants to watch it for another week, and then decide if I'll need surgery to remove the bad skin. He removed 100 ccs from the expander in hopes of relieving pressure and promoting better circulation. The muscle spasms from the removal were awful. The skin looks bad (it was fine but bruised just a day ago) and I'm afraid to wait for surgery because I will be starting chemo at the beginning of april and I don't want it to get delayed. I'm scared and sad and feel like I have done something wrong.
Julicc- my BS called my oncologist to order the oncotype dx from my original biopsy tissue. It was still frozen in the lab. It only took 10 days for mine to come back.
I am sending warm wishes for gentle healing to all.
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Hello all,..
I am recovering well after my left mastectomy on Friday. Still mild pain when the percocet wears off, but what really annoys me is the nerve issue in my left arm. My funny bone nerve gets triggered with movement of my fingers. I really hope this heals. It feels terrible. Anyone else ever experience this?
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Sandra4611 I am going to North Central Baptist. No I haven't really thought about a support group yet. I'm just trying to get through the surgery at this point. What kind of reconstruction are you having now. Glad to know someone else in SA too.
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Blueberry, I'm so sorry to hear that things are not going well. Do they have you on antibiotics? I'm crossing my fingers for you. Lots of women have had to have necrotic tissue removed and ended up with a successful outcome. Will they proceed with chemo if you are still having healing issues?
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blueberry - not your fault on the thin skin, so don't feel bad. I have that issue too. Hopefully relieving the pressure will do the trick. Try to eat 100g of protein daily if you can - helps promote healing, Greek yogurt is a good source, smoothies with protein powder, and eggs, beef, chicken, salmon, leafy greens. Don't worry too much about delaying chemo - you would still be well inside the time period that is the optimal window. The last thing you need is to have chemo-induced healing inhibition.
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It's been a great past few days. Antibiotics have been doing its job. Feeling stronger every day. Best news is I am breast cancer free! All good margins and nothing new found. Cut back on the pain meds and it's a great feeling to be thinking clearer every day. I went for a walk the last couple of days. Tulips and new spring growth is starting to peek out of the ground. What a great sight to see after such along winter. I've also been increasing my intake in protein to help the healing along. I think it really does help. My next PS appt is 3/24. I wonder how soon they begin to fill? Appt with mastectomy surgeon on 3/28 and lastly need to make my oncologist follow up. I'm curious if she will still plan to put me on Tamoxifen being er+ pr-.
Wishing all you lovelies warm, gentle hugs and courage to keep taking those steps forward. -
SO encouraging to hear all of the March surgery sisters doing SO well! I just want to put out there that not everyone does so well after surgery. 4 weeks after my BMX, I was still taking narcotics around the clock, couldn't sleep anywhere but a recliner for a couple of months, and STILL (5 months later) have almost unbearable tightness in my chest....as well as pain (although nothing like those first few weeks). The reason I say this isn't to scare anybody, but to say that my understanding is that this, too, is normal. My PS promised me that someday, I won't remember this stage....kind of like labor. It will be a distant memory. I sure hope he is right!
As far as the pre-mastectomy nipple injection...I had NO IDEA that was coming! Nobody told me to expect that! They made my husband leave the room (they said some husbands pass out...WHAT?). I think I had the isotopes, based on how they explained it. I didn't have any kind of numbing cream. BUT....although it wasn't pleasant, it was very quick, and hardly worth any hype at all. It probably helped that I had no time to worry about it in advance. But, we are all just SO different on how we react to things. For some, a procedure or recovery can be the worst thing ever....for others, it's a walk in the park!
Before my BMX, I was a wreck. The nurse came in and said she would like to ask the anesthesiologist to give me something to help me calm down, but in order to do that, she was going to have to tell him I was literally on the ledge! I told her to tell him whatever she needed to.....I WAS feeling like I was about to lose it....and I just wanted to run away! LOL! They gave me something, and I'm sure it probably helped...but, I didn't think so at the time! I couldn't help but think of my mom....who was so terrified while in pre-op, waiting for her mastectomy, DID leave. She didn't come back for years. She was absolutely frozen with fear (this was in the 70s). She died when I was 16. It was her strength that kept me glued to that bed...but, I sure could understand how she must have felt at the time.
My exchange surgery is 4 weeks from tomorrow (Mar 27...the thread has my date wrong). I am getting nervous, as I always do. I despise surgery. But, this time it's not only the surgery, but it's hope.....I am banking everything that this surgery will finally make me feel better, and I am starting to worry about how I will deal with it if it doesn't. Ugh.....too much worry.......I need to stop!!! I have much to be thankful for! I am very thankful for all of the women here....especially the ones who have gone before, and keep coming back to lift up those who are coming behind you. You are all angel!!
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Julie congrats on the great news!!!
Sandra...funny you mention the PICC line. I am back in the hospital with a nasty infection in prophylactic side. My drain output over night was 130ml of nasty stuff. Checked it and the redness was well outside the margins drawn by PS.
I have a vancomycin IV and PS is talking about going back in Friday to "clean it out" and check to be sure all is ok.. I will likely get 2 new drains then. He is waiting until Friday to get as much antibiotic in as possible.
He indicated I would need the PICC line when I go home for the antibiotics. My veins are not good and apparently the vancomycin is hard on your veins. Today they called anesthesia to come put it in. It is small, but working with what we have for now.
If it is in your arm for a period of time, how do you shower? You have no idea what I would give for a shower about now!!!
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Lakegirl, you are in the best place and getting the best antibiotic with IV Vancomycin. It worked for me and stopped my infection after two other kinds of IV antibiotic failed to do so. It's not hard on your veins at all. They will do blood draws after every third infusion however to make sure your liver is handling the drug ok. I've been on it three times and will be back on it Friday morning before my next surgery. The longest I was on it was a month before my liver enzyme numbers started rising and I had to stop. The next two times on Vanc I had no problems with the numbers rising. I don't expect to have any issues this time either. I LOVE Vancomycin because it saved me!
My infection was on what we thought was my prophy side too. (Pathology showed it had cancer too so it's a good thing I had the BMX.) It started within hours of getting to my room and I started running a fever. The culture showed it was a gram-positive bacterial infection, not MRSA thank goodness, but a type of staph. My PS kept me in the hospital 7 days, each day thinking he would take me back to the OR, but he said the Vanc was helping some of the tissue survive after all, so he kept waiting one more day. On day 7 I went home with the PICC line. The home health care company sent a box of funny looking balls with tubing attached that had to be refrigerated. it was the Vancomycin and came in a softball size clear ball. The infusion took about an hour and a half, twice a day. They showed my husband what to do so he did the line flushes and hooked me up to the Vanc. The nurse only did the blood draws. Some of the nurses they sent were terrible at getting the blood sample, so don't be surprised. Some of them didn't do a good job of staying sterile when doing the dressing changes each week, so I ended up just going back to my hospital to have the PICC Team do the dressing changes. Sometimes your skin will start objecting to the dressing by turning red around the edges, but they have this clear film they can paint on that forms a barrier and lets your skin get back to normal. Moving the dressing a bit each week helps to let parts of your skin rest. I had an occlusion once, but the PICC Team put in a medication called TPA that broke up the clot. My PICC had two lumens - one for the IV Vanc and one for blood draws. By the way, you won't feel a thing when they take it out. There won't be any scars really, just tiny dots where the two sutures were, but they fade quickly.
I was home on the IV Vanc for another 7 days but then went back to the OR to have everything cleaned up and was in the hospital another 4 days. The implant was taken out because their wasn't enough good skin left to cover it and the area needed to rest and heal. An empty TE was put in. I lost the soft tissue under my arm and on the side on the implant plus parts of three muscles. Hopefully they have gotten your infection under control earlier so you won't have as much damage - maybe only a bit of skin. Fingers crossed! Make sure the doctor has ordered some muscle relaxants for you to have after your upcoming surgery. Although I didn't have any problems after the BMX, the second surgery caused that side to go into spasms. Valium worked fine and got rid of them.
The PICC Team should have given you a shower sleeve. If not, ask for it. I had a blue vinyl one with drawstrings at the top and bottom. It covered me from elbow to shoulder. It wasn't perfect at keeping every drop of water out so I learned to wrap my arm in Glad Press N Seal before I put on the shower sleeve. Worked fine.
Keep in touch. Good luck!
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Still doing well here - left drain is hardly producing anything but right is doing alot - also a little pain in the right side - especially under the arm . was supposed to have home health care nurse come in every day to change dressing but it will cost me 60 a day in copay - I cannot afford that for a week or more - so I have to go to my surgeons today and learn how to do it myself.
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