October 2014 Surgery Sisters
Comments
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Welcome, Fuelgirl, and best wishes to you and FrannyM424 for tomorrow's surgery!
I'm hoping to have both drains pulled tomorrow. The nurse told me I could take some pain killer ahead of time, and if I want, I could also take my anti-anxiety meds. I might, just in case, but it sounds like most here haven't any real pain with theirs. Will report how it goes
davida, glad your friends pushed you! Hope you're in a good place.
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Re: drain pulling -- I had 3 pulled by a visiting nurse -- 2 didn't hurt at all (just felt weird) and the 3rd one stung for a minute or two. The third one was an abdominal one (from DIEP). The last one was also an abdo one and was pulled at the surgeon's office at a post-op appointment. I was nervous about that one and a resident pulled it. I was just about to ask him why he wasn't opening the drain before pulling it (which the visiting nurse had told me made it less painful) and by the time I asked the question, it was out -- really didn't feel a thing!So, I've concluded, that like most things in the cancer world, it's a crap shoot!
I do know that I felt much better just knowing they were all out and I wasn't tethered to anything anymore!
Good luck to all those having surgery this week! (My Mom had a lumpectomy on Halloween 11 years ago this Friday. When we first had a chance to see her in recovery, her skin had a bluish tinge to it from the blue dye they use to find the sentinel node. I'm not sure why it affected her so much, but she really had a blue tinge to her, so we joked about her being a Smurf for Halloween. Thankfully, she is doing great!)
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Okay now I'm feeling a bit silly. I meant to type Mastectomy (left) lymph node removal. It must have been the lack of coffee speaking out. Thanks everyone for your encouraging words.
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Swoobs, check out this link for information about the picture site. BCO link about photo site
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No blue dye for me, my dr says he is colorblind anyways but won't need it in addition to the nuclear med dye. I will be prepared with stuff to keep me occupied and hope for relaxing medication asap! :-) I feel like a wimp when I read about most of your big surgeries!
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Swoobs, I have posted some photos on this site before and usually it is fine. Once the Mods removed one even though there was nothing to it. They said this is a public website and some people could see it. (If somebody gets off on seeing a photo of a torso with surgical scars and drains, I am speechless!) The other times I'd posted I didn't get any message so while some views might be discouraged, apparently not all are.
The photo site some people mention is a separate website altogether. Galsal posted some info above. You have to have posted enough times on this website for the Mods over there to be able to tell you are not a weirdo. I found the instructions difficult to follow to establish my membership there but finally did get it. (Tip: when you click on something, the screen doesn't change so I thought it was not responding. Little did I know you have to scroll down to the screen below to see where that click led you.)
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in my Percocet haze I'm a bit confused about whom has surgeries up next...to those of you I pray for successful surgeries and speedy recoveries. I truly believe that the time leading up to surgery, be it days or weeks from the day you get your schedule, is the worst part of everything. Everything is uphill once surgery is complete.
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ForHisGlory, since the radioactive injection is NOT a dye, you won't turn blue!
The doc finds the sentinel node with a medical Geiger counter device.Drains: The last one I had fell out by itself. It was only in three or four inches this time. I always thought the suture kept it in but found out the suture only tightens the skin around the tube. (That should have been obvious to me when I looked at the suture after the drain fell out and saw the suture loop was still intact.) All my other drains had long parts of it inside my body...8-10". You can watch it when they take it out...looks weird moving under the skin. My nurse says most of the discomfort is around the sutured part and after a week or two it's pretty darn painful where the drain goes into your body. You can feel the snipping of the suture if the scissors pull on the sore skin so the nurse needs to take care to use very sharp scissors. My nurse says she never stops while drawing the drain out. It's not a pull, it's a gentle glide and shouldn't be a yank. She says she doesn't allow the drain tube to drag over the sore sutured area because that's what hurts. Like everyone else, I was apprehensive the first time. She said she would take it out on the count of 3. I looked away and we counted 1..2..but before we could say 3, she held up the drain! I didn't feel a thing. I never felt any of the drains I ever had so that may be a combination of good technique by the person doing it and luck.
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Sandra ty for the tips.
Galsal ty for the link
Scmom how you feeling?
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Swoobs, sorry you are having so much trouble with bras but I'm glad to have someone else who understands how bad it feels. Thanks. I'll let you know if my PS comes up with any ideas when I see him Thursday.
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hi Swoobs, I'm actually doing ok, pain-wise at least. Right after surgery the pain was only beneath my breasts, my incisions are in the creases and I feel that my bra is rubbing on them. But now the pain goes from one armpit, across my chest to the other armpit. But it's really more annoying than anything else, I take two Morton's when I wake up and one Percocet before bed. I sleep a lot during the day, and still feel shaky and light headed when I walk around...that's probably the most discouraging thing for me.
What concerns me the most is my squeamishness...I'm still not able to look at my breasts and I'm afraid that if I get an infection or some other type of problem I won't pick up on it if I don't see it. I see my BS tomorrow and my PS on Thursday. I'm not in any rush to get my drains out, it's gross to me to have to empty them but I'm managing. How do the surgeons determine when to take the drains out?
I hope everyone is doing well, thank you to all of my October Surgery Sisters for helping me get through this...I really couldn't do it without y'all. My oldest son flew back to Oregon today and I had a good cry tonight...going through this cancer crap alone sucks
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Yay! Had my drains pulled today. 2 weeks post surgery. No pain and felt so much better once out. I hope everyone is feeling good today
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Fuelgirl, your info is being edited
hummingbird, I'm getting your date revised
MaggieCat--welcome aboard!
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There are now 47 October Surgery Sisters (including Hopeful and NineTwelve who've been delayed), so we needed a bigger bus! Five surgeries to go between today and Friday, so the other 42 of us will be on the bus, ready with comfy cushions, ginger ale, and soothing music for you
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Lilith thank you for that
I'll be on it later this morning. Wanted to share that after my surgery for the double mastectomy Monday a week ago I had a surgically installed pain management system. It was the best pain management I've experienced after a major surgery. It does not use narcotics. http://myon-q.com/
Amazing relief from pain. Think of a water sprinkling hose with lots of little holes in it. It goes under the breasts from side to side. I wore a small pump and it worked just like a sprinkling hose by spraying a local anesthetic beneath what was breast tissue 24/7 for 4 and a half days. It's removed in the doctors office after.
The plastic surgeon won't be using it today for my immediate implants, but it was a great experience. You might want to ask your surgeon about it.
Swoobs, are we the only Oct ladies who are going the immediate implant route? My plastic surgeon does them a week to 10 days after the mastectomy. Hoping to compare notes with you later! Do you know what brand implants you had and how many cc's?
The biggest problem I've experienced with the double mastectomy is extreme nipple pain. Feels like tabasco sauce and is extremely painful. It started after the pain pump with anesthetic stopped. Everything was numbed til then. I was told the pain has to do with blood flow issues and nerve endings. Has anyone else experienced this? Crazy neon cool aide red that exceeds the nipple area yet my surgeon said 'perfectly normal' Uggg.
Wishing everyone well and godspeed on the healing process.
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OceanSky, good luck today. I had immediate implants after my mastectomy 6 days ago...so far so good. Did your PS tell you the reasoning for the 10 days in between your BMX and implants? I've never heard of that before.
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Yes, his name is Dr Richard Klein...Well known nationally for his breast reconstruction. He has people come to him from all over the country for lymphedema. He's one of the few surgeons (only surgeon?) who has successfully transplanted lymph nodes in women with lymphedema to give them extraordinary relief. He's been in the news quite a bit for that.
When I first communicated with Whippetmom, aka Deborah on her implant sizing thread she was very upset when she first heard I was having two surgeries. She asked 'Who's your surgeon?!' Told her and she of course knew exactly who he was and said...Oh! I didn't know that's how he did it.
He's an expert in micro vascular surgery and also does trauma patient reconstruction. He works with a doctor with the last name Lee. There was a thread on BC.org about them before I found him. He was with MD Anderson here before it became Orlando Health...U of Florida's cancer hospital, an integrated approach for treating cancer.
His reasoning is that he wants to see how a patient is healing before putting in implants. To learn that they don't need radiation. (No radiation is done with an implant) Two, he wants to make sure there's good blood circulation and no necrosis. In short he wants to see how the patient is healing before proceeding. People can loose an implant due to infection.
He wraps the area 'mummy-like' and one can't shower or take a bath or change the dressing for one week and then he does it. So he's very careful.
Glad you're feeling good!
My sister had a double mastectomy 18 months ago and also had immediate implants at the same time as her cancer surgery and she did absolutely beautifully! I don't heal as well or as quickly. Her breasts looked almost perfect just a few days after...No bruising even. Had to realize I'm a different person and none of us heal the same.
Am so glad you're doing well. No pain??
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No drains, great news nancybel! Congrats!
Thanks for the bigger bus Lilith! Great idea! I'm on that bus for FrannyM and Fuelgirl!
Good luck today OceanSky! Sounds like your surgery is in great hands. Speedy recovery!
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It's been interesting to me too because my BS said no to any kind of immediate reconstruction and when I asked why he said it was because he didn't know what follow up treatment (chemo, rads) I would need and they didn't want implants in there during follow up. I suppose it's just a difference of opinion but I seem to be in the minority.
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OceanSky - My recon and lymph node transplant was performed by Dr. David Chang, who is also from MD Anderson, now at U of Chicago, and is also one of the few surgeons in the country who performs lymph node transplants (and lymph node by-pass) surgeries. He has quite a few videos online, discussing these procedures. Actually, they are becoming much more prevelant, I believe there are quite a few now that do the transplants!! Great news!!
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Lilith - Great new bus!!! Thanks for picking that up for us
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SCMom - When your drains are producing less than a certain amount of fluid for usually 3 days in a row, they will remove them. All doctors are a bit different. My surgeon says once they are producing less than 30, twice a day for 3 days, they can come out. Unfortunately one of my drains insists on being as productive as "Old Faithful", and it is still in, 3 weeks post-surgery.
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Nancybel - I am so jealous!! No drains!! Congratulations, you're well on your way!
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Scmom I couldn't look either....but once I did it wasn't so bad.....hang in there. today it seems I have a wee opening in my scar area and it's been 3 weeks today.....so I've got a call in to ps to let him know and a tiny bit of green sticky stuff....I think an infection is setting in.
Sounds like pain isn't an issue for you! Every now and then I still need gravol (anti nausea)
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yesterday, day 2 after surgery, didn't take pain meds for 14 hours. Felt really good. Walking around, sitting at the table to eat...by evening the pain got bad pretty quickly. I mean PAIN.
So today and tomorrow I'm keeping on schedule with pain meds. Feel so good. Sleeping more but I think that's a good thing.
Also, kind of bummed because PS wasn't able to do direct to implants. I have TEs. Put 300 in each. Something about the way my muscle doesn't wrap enough sideways. Don't understand but a non issue at this point.
My chest looks really ugly. Makes me sad. I'm hoping the swelling is why I have such lumps , deep crevasses. Very little drainage though and skin looks healthy.
Hope this makes sense. Norco is a nice drug!
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yesterday, day 2 after surgery, didn't take pain meds for 14 hours. Felt really good. Walking around, sitting at the table to eat...by evening the pain got bad pretty quickly. I mean PAIN.
So today and tomorrow I'm keeping on schedule with pain meds. Feel so good. Sleeping more but I think that's a good thing.
Also, kind of bummed because PS wasn't able to do direct to implants. I have TEs. Put 300 in each. Something about the way my muscle doesn't wrap enough sideways. Don't understand but a non issue at this point.
My chest looks really ugly. Makes me sad. I'm hoping the swelling is why I have such lumps , deep crevasses. Very little drainage though and skin looks healthy.
Hope this makes sense. Norco is a nice drug!
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Horsemom sleeping = healing
I'm sorry you woke up with something unexpected but as you said can't change that now.
Stay on top of pain meds you'll need them......just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should be!
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Horsemom, sounds like you're doing Great!! Eating at the table is better than I'm doing.
Does anybody have very tender/sore armpits? The incision pain isn't too bad, feels like a tight band around my chest but my armpits are sore. Trying to keep small pillows under there so it's not skin on skin. I'm off pain meds except I took one at bedtime last 2 nites and I'm still taking Ibuprofen and Tylenol.
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Had my surgery on Oct 23rd...8:30 am. Had mastectomy of left breast, sentinel node removal and expander put in. Both bs and ps told my family that surgery went well and I was doing fine. I guess no more info that they can give concerning anything more on sentinel node? Stayed in the hospital until Sat afternoon. Plastic Surgeon said I was not feeling well enough to be released on Friday. Thank god. So far being home has been up and down for me.. took the pain meds for two days then didn't need them anymore...feel more discomfort. Feeling the swelling under the arm and around towards the back like a water balloon. Haven't looked at any drain incisions or anything else for that matter. Just so nervous about the pathology report ...started as just dcis, going to do lumpectomy, radiation, pill to getting mri results which showed a very small mm lesions in two different areas, which then made the decision a mastectomy instead of lumpectomy...can the biopsy results from when they did stereotactic biopsy change so dramatically to what the pathology report will say ??? I know no one can answer that but if anyone can give me what they are experiencing so I know I am not alone it would be helpful... I go from being okay to crying and not knowing if what I am feeling as far as swelling, pain and emotional is normal.
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ThinkingPositive - I had my surgery the same day as yours, everything you're feeling is normal. This is a major surgery so swelling and pain are to be expected. And losing a breast (or two) is definite cause for being emotional...I can go from fine to tears in a matter of seconds.
Hummingbirdlover - my armpits are very sore, swollen and tender. I didn't feel them the first few days after surgery and thought I was doing great, I guess they were just numb for a few days and it hadn't worn off yet.
Horsemom - I'm sorry you didn't wake up with your implants, I know I would have been extremely disappointed if that had happened to me...
Laurie - thanks for the info on the drains. I'm ok with keeping mine in as long as they need to be, I can't imagine where the fluid would go without the tubes...does your body just reabsorb it?
OceanSky - thanks for explaining your doctor's methodology - it sounds like you're lucky enough to have the best of the best to care for you! The concept of two separate surgeries makes even more sense to me after having seen my BS this morning.
My pathology results were in, there was absolutely no trace of the tumors in my breast, so the chemo did its job there, yay! However, instead of having three lymph nodes removed my surgeon took fifteen. One and a half (???) of them had cancer in them. I have an appt to see the radiologist on November 10th so it looks like radiation is in my future and I'm not sure what that means to my new implants. I don't know what the impact of living without fifteen nodes will be. I feel really sad today
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