July 2014 Surgery Sisters

Welcome Mel, Hyphecolie, Jeaniebeani - I am sorry to hear about your delays .. I was very lucky to not have one as the night after my surgery there was a big storm and rain and part of surgery dep. was flooded and.... all scheduled surgeries were cancelled! Should I be a day or two later I may be waiting for new date..

Today my 2 drains were removed! Such a pleasure, maybe I can cuddle my kids again as we are not afraid about them pulling them out 

Ladies I still cannot figure out should I dring protein shakes or is it enough to have protein from food. My doctor did not recommend any and I red somewhere not to start it by myself, can I overdose?

have a good night everyone!

thank you  kimig for the welcome, I did use protein bars and some shakes with ice cream, a lot if chicken and vegetables, I didn't at MX cause I did not know about the protein stuff, but it did notice that I had better healing  with the protein,my PS stated that it helps a lot , enjoy the hugz from your children and keep us posted, hate the waiting part,,,,

Hi everyone,

I am also having surgery this month on 7/17 so let me join the club.  They found more loose calcification (beside tumor) with mammo when they were trying to find location of clips from biopsy. Calcification could be cancer and I asked doctor if I should do Mustectomy and she said I am still a candidate of lumpectomy.  But how can she be sure? What if it's cancer and left in a breast? But I decided to do lumpectomy, see pathology result and be cautious for screening.  I find this community very helpful and everyone is talking to and caring each other like sisters so I'm really glad to find it.

Good luck to everyone!

Nao

I feel very good but can't wait to get rid of these drains from my 7/2 bmx surgery and lat dorsi/TE reconstruction, hopefully on Monday at my PS appointment! Gosh these drains are a pain in the neck. I'm wondering if they might also do a fill that day. I remember her telling me they put in some fill the day of surgery but not how much. I am not wearing any bra, just a light bandage covering. By the way, all those comments about constipation following surgery are 100% on target! Ladies with upcoming surgeries, keep it in mind no joke!

I did finally get the pathology report last week.The right breast showed no cancer (yay!) but the size of the cancer on the left (3 cm) was double what they had thought from the biopsy and MRI. There was also involvement of the lymph nodes which my BS had not expected. So my staging I think is now IIB. I will meet with the oncologist this coming week. While I was apprehensive about surgery, it was the possibility of chemo that really scared me. Being triple negative with lymph node involvement I assume they will recommend chemo. I've started looking at the chemo threads and I am more nervous than ever.I hope and pray that none of my July surgery sisters will have to go down this particular road but if you do, know that I will be there to assist and support you. With big hugs to all.

kimag - Thanks for the welcome!  Congrats on getting your drains out!  Hope that wound will heal up quickly for you.

Becky63 - Sorry to hear about the swelling - I hope it goes down soon!

Welcome Straitlover and Nao!

Purplegurll - hope you are able to get those drains out on Monday!  Sorry to hear about the lymph node involvement.  I hope you have a good appointment with the oncologist and they are able to answer all your questions for you to help put your mind at ease.  Take care!

Mel147-  Wishing you the best on the 16th!  Know we are with you in spirit and will be waiting to hear how you are doing.

Jess1965-  Thinking of you for tomorrow!!  It will go great and let us know how you are doing!!  You have done all you can so now it is time to let others do their jobs.  

kimag-  So glad you got the drains out.  I had to put neosporin on two of the entry points for about a week after the removal.  Two months later, that area is still sore so it is a long slow recovery I guess.

Hugs to all the July Surgery Sisters!!

Ally

Hi all! First time posting on this thread, but it definitely applies to me.  I did neoadjuvant Taxol, Adromycin and Cytoxin for 20 weeks.  On July 1,2014  I had a skin and nipple conserving BMX  with expanders. The sentinel node and 2 additional nodes were removed.  I spent 2 nights in the hospital and was sent home with 2 drains.  I returned a week later to have the drains removed... Anticipation was much worse than the removal!  I experienced more soreness than actual pain and was able to get off the pain meds and switch to Tylenol after 5 days.  So, now it's been 2 weeks... I'm still sore and very tired, especially in the evening.  I was originally diagnosed as TNBC, but they re-stained the tissue sample that they had from my needle biopsy and it came back 30% positive for progesterone. (My pathology results from my 7/1/14 surgery came back clear... Yeah!)  My oncologist wants me to start on anastrozole... Does anyone have any thoughts on that? I know there can be side effects. Thanks for listening and here's hoping we all get through these chapters with a little bit of pain and a lot of grace!

Barbed, Mel, Nao and brac35 - good luck and fast recovery

I got the results today and it say : pT1a as there were 2 points of invasion 2.5 and 0.5 mm
grade 2/3 other then that it is 7 cm DCIS grade 2/3- 3/3 with clean margins , surgeon said it
is considered microinvasion but the number there 1a suggests it is
not.... have not heard yet anything if ER/PR positive , they have not
testes for HER2 I am not sure what next, have to wait for oncologist. I am scared of possible chemo, not sure I can go through it again... no rads for me as I got life time amount already.

barbed, brac35, Mel and Nao-  Wishing you the best and know that we are thinking about you!!  Post when you can and here's to a great recovery!!

Ally

hirisk-  Welcome!  It is so hard to make the decision but, I found, once I decided on a course of action, it felt good.  You are going to do great and the 29th will be here before you know it.  This community is a great place to ask questions, any questions.  Also, there are some great tips for items to have before your surgery and things to do (like get your prescriptions filled) now.  There are several that have been on the same path and are only to happy to help.  Good luck with all this as I know it is a lot to process and deal with.  

Ally

Hi hirisk and welcome to Breastcancer.org!

You may also want to visit the BRCA1 or BRCA2 Positive forum to meet others going through what you are.

We hope this helps!

--The Mods

Hi: I had surgery on July 9, a lumpectomy and two lymph nodes. I've already been told that because I am Triple Negative, Grade 3, I will need 4 months of chemo, and a month of radiation afterwards. The chemo is called ACTG or (BRAJACTG) and includes Adriamycin, Cyclophosphamide, Paclitaxel (Taxol) and Filgrastim/Neupogen (GCSF). I don't have a clue what any of them are, I only know I had to have an adequate score on the MUGA heart test in order to be able to take them, since one of them can damage the heart. As I write this, I realize, within myself, I will go ahead with the chemo and hope for the best. I don't have to start it until early September, so hopefully will be able to enjoy August, with a lot of swimming. I just came across some work by a man named Stephen Jenkinson. He talks about a "grief that loves life" and "grief and love soaked ties". There is a documentary about him called Griefwalker, which I haven't seen yet but looks very good. He is giving a talk in Vancouver BC this Saturday evening which I am going to attend. It's at SFU downtown, if there are any vancouverites on this Forum. Cheers, pjc

Straitlover-  Sounds very similar to my procedure (PBMX/alloderm and TEs).  I was back at work (computer) the following week. Really tired by the end of the day but it was not awful.  I remember showering with the drains hooked on a shoestring tied around my neck so I know I did not have to wait for them to come out before showering.  I posted pics in the pic forum (something about TEs and exchange in August) if you want to see the incision and how it looked.  These pics were after the fills so about a month past the actual surgery.  You will do great!  To be on the "safe" side, if you can, take 2 weeks or at least 1.5 weeks.  Even better if they are willing to let you come back when you can without a set date. Good luck!  

Ally

Hi everyone,  

I had my BMX with TE's in December.  Been down the chemo road since then, currently in rads, and hysterectomy / oophorectomy coming up in the fall.  

Any questions about your surgery or recovery, I'm happy to share anything that would help.  

Peaceful thoughts to you. 

P.S. - I did not end up having to quit my demanding job or even go on disability leave.  It CAN be done! 

jess1965-  So glad your path report was good!!  Sounds like you are doing as well as can be expected.  Take care of yourself and remember:  just because you can, doesn't mean you should!

Heal well and quickly!

Ally