First Breast Surgery Now Ovary Removal 2015

I had the surgery almost two years ago. I am not officially BRCA2 positive but they did find a "mutation of unknown significance" so some of my doctors liked to treat that as if I was positive. I was getting ultrasounds every 6 months after my breast cancer and when they saw something suspicious on one of my ovaries, we decided to go ahead and take everything. (It actually turned out to be nothing...but I have no regrets).

As far as the surgery... recovery was pretty easy for me. I took one week off of work and then went back part time for a couple of weeks. It really helped to have a soft ice pack with me ..just because it felt good and helped with any swelling. I am a runner and went right back to running when I got the "ok" at 6 weeks. I have had zero complications. I stayed on tamoxifen instead of switching to AI's because I have a little bit of osteopenia..it was my idea and my MO gave me the okay. I was 46 and nowhere near menopause. But since my BC was highly estrogen positive... I figured it would help to get rid of the ovaries in the end. I didn't notice a huge increase in menopausal symptoms. I do get kind of flushes of hotness...but not full blown hot flashes where I'm sweating or anything.

Hystersister.com was a good resource ...however, realize that these are usually women that have had complications for years and have harder recoveries because their surgeries might involve more than just a "simple" removal.

Best of luck to you!!

Hi enlm!

I had the surgery in 2012 at the age of 46 after being on Tamoxifen and having a side effect from the drug that gave me over 20 ovarian cysts. For me, the worst pain is in the first 12 hours and it is only because of the trapped gas when they do things with the lapo scope. I had a hernia repair surgery years before I was DXed and had the same kind of pain. Imagine bad gas pain you can't expel when you have had a stomache in the past, uncomfortable but liveable. Walking around helped me expel it by burping if that helps. After that, it was about the same discomfort from being on my monthly cycle. I took Advil for a day or two and felt fine. I then just followed doctors orders about not lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk for 3 weeks but was otherwise back to my normal routine. You are younger that I was so I am not sure if you are on a hormone surpression drug at this point. If not, I think the lack of hormones will be the most challenging thing for you, not the actually surgery. I agree that hystersisters is a good site to get info on how to deal with challenges but also agree some people seem to have lots of complaints on that site so don't let that scare you. There is a positive side to not having our cycles anymore too, no more energy rollercoaster. I used to have about 10 days of great energy on my monthly cycles, otherwise I was tired, bloating or crampy. Now everyday I have the great energy. Good luck to you!

I just wanted to add that my mastectomy was also my first real surgery and I was really nervous too! ... I had several reconstruction surgeries after that (a couple more than usual for some fat grafting)... so by the time the hysterectomy came around I was a surgery pro! The main thing I was nervous about for that one was that it was one of those Da Vinci robot's so I worried about it going rogue on me.

Had ooph about 2 years ago at this time.  It was not bad at all since it was laproscopic.  I did not require pain meds.  I was just a little sore.  Scars have gone away...can't see them. Good luck!