March 2014 Surgery

Yes Frostecat, most of my pain is in my armpits.  I feel swelling and rubbing and achiness.  When I look at where it hurts, it is not where there are any incisions for the SNB or anything.  When I raise my arms over my head. the armpits feel very tight.   Across my chest there is more of a raw prickly feeling.  I see my PS in the morning and I'm going to ask if I can start lubing up my dry, tight chest with unscented lotion or something.  I might get my first fill :-)

Julie, I don't know what is causing it, at first I thought the bra rubbing, but I wear a bra anyways, then I thought maybe if I put a soft rubbery type cosmetic sponge that might help?  Please let me know what your PS says, I asked the nurse today, and she wasn't much help, she skipped to numbness, but that isn't the problem it's rawness.  I almost feel like if I could get one of those things where my arm is lifted from my body, like in a shoulder surgery, that would help.

I made it through the entire day without taking any painkillers! Which is great because I was in a Percocet haze most of yesterday. I had an appointment with my medical oncologist this afternoon and we have a treatment plan - TCH (Taxotere, carboplatin, and Herceptin). I insisted on taking some time to go to California to visit my family first, so I'll probably start chemo the week after Easter. Mom will fly back with me to be here for my first chemo cocktail. I'll be joining the port of the month club, too! 

Glad to see good news from so many of you. I can't imagine what kind of head space I'd be in if I hadn't found this discussion board.

Vlnmama...I got an electric razor and have shaved.   I couldn't stand myself!!  

Vinmama, I also have hard lumps in my armpit on the SNB side.  My onco did an exam and said it was normal and will resolve.  She said it takes up to a year to fully heal!  My bilateral with tissue expander was estimated to be 4 hours but was 6.  I asked the surgeon about it taking 2 hours longer.  I asked, "Did anything interesting happen?"  He said nope! 

sesrn... The waiting was so much worse than the actual surgery for me. I'm 6 days post surgery and doing well, but the week before I was a mess.  Just remember how many of us have gone before you and did fine.  You will too!

Glad to hear everyone for the most part is doing well after our BIG month.  I'm sorry that many of you beauties are either facing or might be facing chemo.  I know that you are strong and will fight hard and kick this to the curb and down the sewer drain where it belongs. 

Julie, I was in a similar situation as you after my lumpectomy.  No nodes involved but my Oncologist was initally concerned about margins (thus my choice for the mastectomy) as well age and the invasive size being right at 5mm.  My Onco DX test came back at 13, fairly low.   HER2 was tested twice and both times came back equivocal.  Oncologist still wasn't sure if she wanted to take chemo completely off the table, she felt I was fairly borderline for chemo treatment. With that said, she decided to take my case to a BC KU medical conference to get several other opinions.  They concluded that Chemo won't be necessary.  It's an uncomfortable feeling to be somewhat boderline and it would be nice to have a more cut and dry pathology report.  I have my next appointment with Onco 4/15 to discuss pathlology report from Mastectomy, which didn't seem to show anything more concerning based on BS.  But I'll let the Oncologist decide.  I think she will still recommend Tamoxifan as we originally discussed.  My personal opinion is to get at least a couple of opinions if at all possible.  I had two opinions from the get go after my initial biopsy and ended up going with my 2nd opinion.  Both were great and highly valued each other as doctors, it just came down to who I felt had most experience and who I was most comfortable with.

Tissue expaners are starting to feel more palable and squishy.  Anyone else feeling that or is it just me?  Gravity pulling the saline down?  They are SO annoying.  I'm curious if I will hate them more squishy and moving around (aliens in me) or when they are completely filled.  My next fill is on Monday.

On a lighter note, got out today, went to the salon and got beautified.  Goodbye gray hairs for now!

Thanks for sharing, Iwannaseeyoubebrave.  It's frustrating that just as soon as you have things figured out, things change and you're back to researching.

Sesm, it's great you found this site and these boards.  It's a wealth of information.   My surgery and recovery was much easier than I expected in my mind.  This March thread and earlier monthly threads aill give you an idea of what to expect.  I also found it helpful watching "mastectomy recovery" videos on youtube beforehand.  Seeing women smiling and walking around the next day was comforting.  Best of luck to you.

FrosteCat

 yes that is what bugs me the most. Even with no clothing on that front arm pit area feels raw, chafed, irritated. Every day by late afternoon I don't think I can stand it anymore! I have used ice packs (over fabric) & that helps some. I am 3 weeks post bmx.

football - what tests are ordered prior to chemo depend on whether your MO feels the need to do any scans - such as a CT or PET, and what chemo regimen is chosen.  Prior to Adriamycin or Herceptin, you usually have a MUGA or echo to check your cardiac function and get a baseline.  Both of these drugs are cardiotoxic so they need to know whether your heart is healthy prior to starting chemo. Also, if you are going to have a port, that procedure would need to be scheduled.  I would recommend doing that as early as possible because once you begin chemo you may have inhibited healing at that site.

For those with the numbness/burning thing - if you have had a number of nodes removed it will be quite a while until that sensation goes away.  For those with complete axillary dissection, it may be the better part of a year, and may not completely go away.  During the healing process you should find that the feeling slowly dissipates. 

Linda

 that is how I put my Genie & the other little stretchy bras on.Step in, pull up LOL 

 I first bought one after my lumpectomy last Aug & promptly threw away all my other bras! Right now, 3 weeks post bmx, I am wearing camis & the No Boundaries bras from WalMart (cheap $5-6) They, like the genie, have the open slit on the side to remove the thin foam liner, & I can actually insert the light weight fiberfill foobs into them.

Oh thanks Vintagegal - I will check out my walmart - I like that price much better!!

linda505 glad to hear that you like football too!!  As I live in mississauga Ontario we have no nfl team. The closest are the buffalo bills and I gave up on them after they treated Doug flutie so poorly. My boy is PEYTON manning followed by Drew Brees. The saints will be playing near us this season in Cleveland and Detroit so I hope to get to those games. The broncos will be playing the bills in Denver this year as well so that would be nice to go to seeing as my hubby is still a bills fan!  Poor thing!!  Lol

Hello Friends! Went to my PS on Tuesday hoping to get my first fill since surgery (she put in 350cc at time of surgery cause she wanted me to "wake up with a breast") but she said my breast is "still too beat up" and needs to heal for at least a few months.  I thought it was looking good but to her it's still too tight, mildly red and indurated.  So, my plan is to go back to work starting April 16th.  I work 3 days/week as a PT in an acute care setting.  A little nervous about lifting/transferring patients but I've been off 6 weeks and hopefully will be fine.  Once I've accrued some more time off from work, I plan to take the month of November off to finish my reconstruction.  With the last week of that spent resting/healing oceanfront on the Outer Banks of NC!  We go there every other year for Thanksgiving.  One thing I was disappointed to hear is that my PS said that I will have a drain again with my exchange surgery.  But hopefully not for 3 weeks again.

Franny, 350 cc during surgery is alot!

I'm having a good day so far :-)  Today I had my first fill!  I had 200 cc put in on each side during surgery and today she added 100 cc on each side.  I still have funny flat spots where the incisions are and where my nipples used to be but I'm very happy.  I return to work FT Monday and I'll actually look nearly the same as prematectomies (except for the damn 5 pounds I gained from all the comfort food I ate.)  Also, I asked her about all the scabbiness I had along my incisions.  She said they were there because of all the dermabond glue that is on there still.  She said I could peel it off wherever I saw it was lifting off the skin.  So I did that when I got home and all the scabs peeled right off with it revealing nice thin incisions underneath.  I peeled a lot of it off.  Whew!  I was worried about my bumpy scabby incisions.  Here is a picture of my profile at 300 cc.  You can see my flat area where my nipple would be.  There is a point at the bottom of it and it looks similar on both.  Maybe in a fill or 2, it will become more rounded.  My next fill is in 12 days.  She said after the last fill, she waits 3 months.  Yikes that's a long time.  My Onc commented that my PS is "a perfectionist, almost anal."  I like that!