SLNB on both sides

hi elilacs -  no advice other than not to feel guilty.  I'm in the same spot, with one node removed on the right side and two on the left side.  I feel I made the best decision I could at the time, and I'm sure you did too.  I haven't had to have a blood draw or blood pressure done since my last surgery where they removed the node on the right side, so I'm not sure what I will do.  I have read to avoid using the machine for taking blood pressure.  

I will be back to read what others advise.

Ridley

PS - found my cancer as a result of bloody discharge as well.  Had a mammo and ultrasound callback 8 months earlier that didn't find the invasive cancer on the discharge side or the DCIS on the other,

I don't have a link from Mayo Clinic regarding foot elevation because I heard it directly from the person who drew my blood. Due to time constraints and the fact that my Pulmonologist from Mayo would have to be contacted for a foot draw order, I let them take blood from my left hand.

The per on who drew my blood told me that Mayo requires all patients who get foot blood draws have their foot elevated for 2 hours afterwards.She told me that if I had gotten a foot draw, I would have had to stay in a wheelchair for 2 hours and that they have people who would wheel me from appointment to appointment.

I told her that my local clinics never mentioned that and her direct quote was,"I'm not surprised." 

I assume it is for blood clots, but I had other things on my mind like hurrying up and getting to my next test in time that day.

Ridley (and others)....

You can always get your blood pressure taken on your lower leg!

I also highly recommend going through the whole website called http://www.stepup-speakout.org/

That is not true. Those with "only" sentinel nodes are also at risk for LE. I had sentinel nodes removed and have LE on both hands and arms and trunk.

Letting blood draws and blood pressures on arms where sentinel nodes were removed puts a person at risk. I say it is like play russian roulette if someone with sentinel and/or axillary nodes are removed lets blood draws or bps on the arms or hands. You very well may not get LE, but then again you might. There are many of us on here that have LE from sentinel node removal.

I am not a doctor, but from what I have learned, your medical clinic gave you less than accurate information.

I think it is easier to prevent LE than it is to live with it. I wish I would have been informed and taken LE preventative precautions right from the start and I may not have gotten LE and it stinks that I COULD have prevented it had my medical team explained LE precautions.

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/ is an excellent website for LE.

I am glad you went through chemo without gettting LE. You got lucky . But like I said, one never knows what blood draw or bp will bring on LE.

elilacs - that is the estimate I was told too. I was told that my chance of LE is 5% but since I have my axilla radiated too it rises to 15%-25%.

cinnamonsmiles - so sorry that you have LE. Your chance of getting it was small but you are proof that it can happen. Do you know specifically if yours was brought on by blood draw or BP? My grandmother also has LE, she's a 4 year BC survivor and says that she will continue working until she's 82.

I read that starting a very gradual weight training could help prevent LE. So that's what I plan to do since rads raises my risk of LE. I already lug a 25lb baby around all day so I wonder if that counts as weight training?

elilacs - that's too funny, I'm 37 as well and have a 2 year old and a 13 year old. My PS told me to hold off of any upper body exercises until I get to have the exchange too. My range of motion is perfect, I just did the exercises at home, they wanted me to go to PT but it's so hard with a little one at home and so many doctors appointments already. It's good to know about the rowing machine being OK, but I'll check with my PS just in case, some of the upper body things feel so weird now that I have the TE under the muscle. I used to hate any upper body exercises at the gym and my arms have always been like spaghetti. I hope your exchange surgery goes well and that you avoid the LE!

I will have to let my skin heal at least 3 months after radiation and then I can have a exchange surgery. I'll probably have the oophorectomy while I wait for the exchange surgery. There was a large Canadian study published in February about BRCA mutation and the timing of oophorectomy and the recommendation for BRCA2 was to have it at age 40, since only 1 woman in the study with BRCA2 had ovarian cancer before age 50. It sure is a lot of important decisions in a very short time.

I got my exercises from the breast surgeon, they are just the regular ones found everywhere. But he told me to do them in the shower or right after shower when everything is still warm. I am sure your LE specialist will set you on the right track.