April & May 2015 Surgery Sisters
Comments
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Flounder, thanks for checking in and glad to hear everything went well. Clear nodes, music to our ears! Rest up, heal and take care of yourself. Hugs
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yes great news Flounder. Enjoy your stay. Order the salmon! I heard its delish!
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I moved off my pain killer yesterday and am using Tylenol now, which seems to be managing my pain OK. I'm still taking the laxative until the narcotic gets out of my system. My pharmacist recommended Senokot S, which is both a stool softener and a natural laxative. You need the laxative to encourage motility. I have to say it has worked great. In other news, since I never encountered it elsewhere in all the threads I read here, I have to say I was surprised at the size of the internal drainage component of the JP drain, in comparison to the size of the tubing. No wonder you feel it when it gets pulled. I am attaching a photo, for those who are interested. The black things around the tubing at the top are the clipped stitches. The flat white tubing is 7mm and looks like it gets cut to the required size. Enjoy your weekend, sisters!
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Best wishes to justmaximom15 tomorrow with your surgery. Sending calming thoughts and healing wishes for your recovery. You will be on the other side soon. Let us know how you are doing when you feel up to it. Hugs.
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Jackbirdie, very interesting and wonderful that you have experienced such a huge drop in your liver enzymes. My sister swears by lemon in hot water in the morning for detoxing and also to help prevent digestive issues, esp acid reflux. Apparently it alters the ph of the stomach to allow the valves to open and the food to pass into the small intestine, which prevents burping and reflux. After she had an ablation at 42, she went into early menopause and suffered from horrible symptoms. Conventional western medicine didn't help that much and caused nasty side effects, so she turned to a naturopathic doc and feels healthier than ever. She eats very clean, takes a bunch of supplements for wellness and to manage her menopausal symptoms (virtually non-existant now) and is healthier at 50 than she was 10 years ago. She does regular detoxes that have a 3 week duration. I do eat very healthily and also take some supplements, but she hasn't talked me into doing a detox yet. She eats gluten free, no white sugar, and minimal dairy, only goats' milk. I'm not prepared to give all those up. I do think I will start adding the lemon in hot water in the morning, though. My sister is such a believer in naturopathic remedies that she wanted me to consider seeing her ND for IV high dose vitamin C as an alternative to going the BMX route, but I wasn't willing to explore that at all. She also thinks I should take high dose melatonin instead of tamoxifen. For now, I'm sticking with the tamox. I do think there's a place for naturopathic treatments, but for me, they would only be complementary.
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downdog, high dose melatonin instead of tamox? I know melatonin as a sleep aid, but is it also a hormone blocker??
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Downdog- in total agreement with all. I have never been much for homeopathic stuff, and have not been the healthiest eater in the past, so this mini revolution with the lemon water is quite a surprise to me. I'm not ready to eschew science and results of trials for things that sound good but there's really no proof.
I am eating better now, and juicing, which seems to be decreasing my need/desire for processed sugar. I can sneak quite a few veggies into juice and got a type of juicer that does allow some pulp through. I know eating the veggies would be vastly better, but what I am doing is vastly better than before in terms of nutrients, vitamins, and enzymes. A lot more fresh stuff is going down the conveyer belt, haha.
Hope you are continuing to feel better and making your way back to your real life
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Cheesequake, yes. My sister went through 3 NDs before she found this guy and she really respects him and thinks he is brilliant. Apparently he is also an MD. I believe she said it is a 20mg dose of melatonin. I am not interested in pursuing it, so haven't followed up or researched it at all. What research there is would likely be limited to naturopathic journals and publications.
Jackbirdie, I am pleased to hear that you are eating more fresh and raw foods. The research is solid in indicating that they are beneficial. I was a pretty healthy eater before my dx, but have ramped it up a bit. I now eat raw vegan for breakfast and lunch. I make smoothies with raw beets, broccoli, cabbage, sweet potato and other veggies and fruit. If you add enough berries to them, the taste and colour is more palatable. Green, brown and grey tones are less appetizing. I don't grow wheat grass and juice it, but I throw a couple of frozen wheat grass packs into my smoothies. I also add vegan protein powder. I drink them even if I'm not crazy on the taste. I like desserts and eat more fruit, but still like baked goods. I make my own, so I know what is in them and use white whole wheat flour in a lot of them, so they are healthier. Dinner is normal with my family. I've never been a fan of fried food, so didn't have to give that up. I used to drink red wine, but only do on special occasions now. I do use red and white wine in sauces for dinner.
I am feeling so good that I have to consciously think, oh, I can't do that, when I'm about to do something I shouldn't. I feel almost normal, so it seems natural to use my body in ways I shouldn't for the next little while. I am going to get really antsy over the next week or two.
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Hi Everyone,
Finally going home after 5 days in hospital. I'm in a lot of pain especially under my arms and chest area. But that makes sense.
I've been getting shots of dilaudid which really helps w the pain butcan't go home w that. I'm moving around better but very tired. I think I slept for 5 days. I wasn't as scared as i thought I would. I freaked out about the radioactive dye and that was a walk in the park.
Thanks,to everyone for all your support.
Lori
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Lori- glad you're going home finally! Long stay. Make sure to have some ice/gel packs at home. I had a lot of pain too and ice became my best friend.
Rest well my friend
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Lori, I'm glad you feel ready to go home now. If you found the dilaudid shots helpful, can they send you home with an oral Rx? That's what my oral narcotic was. Even if it's just for nighttime. They're tiny pills that pack a lot of power. Best wishes for your healing.
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Glad you're getting to go home, Lori. I got to go home today and it's nice. I'm sore too, but not as bad. Percocet is working out ok for me.
Thinking of you tomorrow justmaximom15.
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best wishes for justmaximom15 tomorrow !!!
good news on your nodes flounder
limoneli - i hope you willl feel better at home and that the pain subsides quickly.
i got my drain out on thursday, it was a weird sensation but not painful., im going to the doctor tomorrow because i am still hold ing on to some fluid, i want to check its not infected, no pain or redness just "watery" under my skin.
must say im so glad to have you all to lean on and learn from during this rough journey ty
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Birdie, I'm so sorry you are having a rough time of things. I was unaware of this post-mastectomy pain syndrome until coming here. Last week at the PS's office, I asked him how long I would need to be on the pain meds. He was kind enough to start the answer to this question with, "Well, we don't judge here, because some people need them longer than others for whatever reasons. But if I were to make a guess, I'd say about a month." Which didn't settle well with me, because it was a dangerously addictive med that I'd been prescribed after leaving the hospital. Then it wasn't more than two days later, I found I didn't need them anymore. The only day I needed them was yesterday, when my lovely niece stopped by for a visit, brought me my favorite black licorice candies, and washed my hair for me. We did a lot of running up and down the stairs for this and that during her stay, so even though not using my arms, I produced a lot of drainage. I did start having pain near the end of the evening, although, I'm not quite sure why.
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Good grief! Look at the size of those drains! No wonder they hurt so much after the surgery. Those were what created the dinner plate sensation pushing on my ribcage. I thought it was the saline implant, but I finally figured out it was the drainage apparatus. This still gives me more pain than anything else from the surgery. Right now, the area under the arms is the worst of it. They had those things jammed up against my skin so hard that I thought they were part of the stretching process!
But I might be getting closer to removing these drains! Total output last night and today on all four of them was 60 ml. There was 30 out of one drain and the other 30 ml was divided among the other 3 drains. How many days do we have to have below 20 mls on a drain before it gets removed? I'm seeing the PS on Tuesday.
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Having BMX in the next 2 weeks. Really want the direct to implant but feel like my PS is pushing expanders
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dtad, my SX is this Wednesday. I wanted direct to implant also but my PS said I would have a much better outcome if I went with expanders first. My left side (cancer) would have caused a problem due to scarring from lumpectomy. Plus, I want to go bigger so expanders will hopefully give me the final outcome I want.
My BS also said I was better off going with expanders.
Maybe my dreams of becoming a pole dancer can finally come true
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dtad, I responded to your PM. Once you get a date, let us know and I will add you to the list.
Audrey, I think I recall reading somewhere that they were trying to get pole dancing declared an Olympic sport. Probably not Rio, but 2020, so you've got a few years to practice!
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Surgery nails. Kicking Cancer to the curb. F U Cancer!!!!!!!
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Hello ladies,
Just joining the May crowd. I'm scheduled for a PBMX (incl sentinel node removal) on May 21 with reconstruction (expanders). Hoping for nipple sparing but not a given as I had a breast reduction/lift in the past and when they moved the nipple for that surgery, they may have not have left all the blood supply from skin to nipple. If that is the case, once all my tissue is gone, there will no longer be a blood supply to the nipple and I'll likely develop necrosis. I'll ask my first PS if he spared any of the blood supply from the skin but I am preparing for the fact that I'll need nipple reconstruction. I didn't expect this so now need to read up on how it's done. Meantime, getting ready with preadmission testing stuff and preparing folks at work.
I'm scared but want to get it over and done with sooner rather than later.
Healing thoughts to all.
Lesley
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Welcome aboard Lesley!
You will find much support here.
Audrey
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second day home! Managed a shower this morning but still can't wash my hair. Pain is being fairly well managed with Vicodin and a muscle relaxer. I hate the drain. I'm kind of worried too. My output seems so low. 7.5 ml over the last 24 hours. It's been under 20ml a day for three days. I hope this isnt a bad thing.
Still waiting for pathology report. The longer it takes the more nervous I feel.
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marketing - when they do a nip sparing procedure they core out the nipple anyway (and separate pathology should be done on it) essentially removing the blood supply, as with the sparing of skin when the breast tissue is removed. The new blood supply comes from your skin and nipple (which is now without its inside structure) adherence to the pectoral muscle. Necrosis develop when that connection is not made well enough.
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Interesting, my plastic surgeon thought direct to implant would be fine for me, especially since I had previous implants. However, his nurse told me that you have a better outcome with expanders. She has seen a lot and is a woman, so I went with expanders. I want a little sayso in what I end up with. They are hard and uncomfortable, but tolerable. If I can get through a BMX, I can stand a little discomfort for a few more months. Have had 2 fills and am at 480 cc's. Fill did not hurt. I also found a Cobbie bra to ear, which is wonderful. With that on, no one would even know I had anything done.....just small boobs for now. I have 2 more fills before starting chemo, then see how that goes as far as timing on fills.
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SuzyQ - my drain output was low too until I learned that you have to "milk" the drains. Starting at the top, pinch the drain and really squeeze the stuff down the drain tube a little at a time. If you don't do this, the drainage can sort of clot, not allowing it to suction out. Also, make sure when you are done doing this snd have poured the bulb out, that you really squeeze it before putting it into pocket or pinning it (or whatever you do). The squeeze is what causes the suction. On my first post op visit, my PS suctioned the tubes. He said the nurse at the surgery center should have shown my sister how to do this, but she did not. Anyway, after that, we did that and all was fine.
Hope this helps.
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Welcome, marketingmama! When you had your reduction, the PS would have either done a nipple graft or transferred with a pedicle. Your nipple would have been transferred with or connected via microvascular surgery to some blood supply or it would have died. So, I would think that as long as there is some radial supply from the skin currently, your PS would think you are a candidate for NSM, if that's the only concern. Some PSs will do a 2 stage NSM on large/ptotic breasts. Stage 1 is a reduction/lift, followed by an approx 1 month interval and then the second stage NSM is performed. In all SSM/NSMs, the skill of the BS is a predictor of success in that he/she has to separate the breast from the subcutaneous fat while leaving the blood supply to the skin flap intact. If the BS doesn't carefully preserve blood vessels in the skin flap, this will lead to skin and/or nipple necrosis in particular. Other factors can lead to necrosis as well. Initially, the only blood supply the nipple will receive is from the surrounding skin flap until it re-establishes a more robust blood supply. Being scared is normal. Take a few deep breaths. We're here for you.
SuzyQ42, as my sunshine48 noted, if clots in the tube and creating proper suction aren't issues in your case, then low output is what you want and you're ready to get your drain removed. Fingers crossed for a good path report.
mysunshine48, breast size is a factor, too, as well as whether the woman wants to be smaller/same/larger than natural breast size after reconstruction. Many PSs will only do direct to implant on A, B and some Cs. Some will do Cs and Ds. Some will do direct to implant on even larger breasts following a reduction/lift with the two phased approach I mentioned above, if the patient accepts having smaller breasts as an outcome. Direct to implant experience and personal preference (direct vs TEs) of the PS are also considerations. I think it is important that women are active participants in the decision making process, so I'm glad you chose the option you felt was best for yourself. It's great that you haven't had discomfort with the fills so far. Hoping the rest are just as tolerable.
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Thanks so much for the welcome and the info ladies. So if I'm following, sounds like the PS will be the one who is mainly responsible for ensuring or trying to ensure my nipples survive.
Also having a sentinel node biopsy, which I guess is standard. Didn't know until my visit today with the BS as assumed wouldn't be needed since the procedure is prophylactic.
Still lots to learn....
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marketing - the BS may be wanting a SNB because once the breast tissue is gone one can't be done, but this is something that is worthy of discussion if you are having a prophy procedure. Removal of even one lymph node increases your risk of lymphedema. In the absence of disease I would press my surgeon to explain why it is necessary.
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audrey - Good luck on wednesday. Hope you have a smooth recovery.
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Thank you so much, mysunshine! I have been milking the tubes daily and checking for clots. I spoke to my surgeon today and she said I had so much drainage while I was in hospital hat I might just be done. I have a follow up appt tomorrow, so we shall see.
In other news, my surgeon called with my pathology report. No IDC and all 4 lymph nodes clear! The DCIS was in all 6 cm. but hadn't turned invasive
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