January 2016 Surgeries

hi, BlueHeron. I am sort of confused...is radiation recommended for DCIS with or without invasive component even when you have had a mastectomy? No one has raised this possibility with me (I did not have DCIS, just IDC). I thought radiation was only used in combination with lumpectomy or with positive nodes. Thanks

Oh, I see. Sorry I missed that. I hope you get some resolution soon and can feel confident it is the right decision for you.

I have DCIS but I will not require radiation. I pushed hard against radiation, and I won the battle, though it is not exactly clear why I ended up with a completely negative path report that reviewed a massive tissue sample and found no sign of malignancy. For DCIS, it used to be one size fits all, radiation after lumpectomy or mastectomy. The standard of care is slowly changing to treatment that is right for the specific woman.

DecisionFreak, all my best wishes for your mother. It's tough to not be there.

BlueHeron, sometimes it helps to flip a coin. Not that you have to do what the coin says, but sometimes it will reveal your feeling about each potential choice. Like, if the coin says don't do rads, you might feel unsettled and you will realize you actually want to do the rads. Or vice versa.

Grandma3x, keep getting those steps. They are so good for us. Maybe you should go to the mall more often!

Mominator, glad to see you walk so much. My friends said I should take a few weeks off work after surgery, but I said I would be far more sedentary at my desk than at home. The only place I ever sit down is at the computer.

Grandma3x & DecisionFreak - happy dance for you both - awesomely encouraging news. My new hobby is making BS crazy. Called and called until I got her on the phone to ask if the MX date could be brought forward. Of course it can't, but the dialogue raised another option in my mind - go for a 3rd re-excision to try and clear the margins. If successful, then RT and I'm done and can avoid the MX. If not, then go ahead with the MX on March 24th. If they won't hold the surgery date until the path report comes in, then I will go for the MX on the 24th. Either way, I feel better, like I'm once again the captain of my ship..or the illusion thereof. In any case, never underestimate the power of the grape!

Great news, Stellamaris!

Grandma3X, do you listen you anything while you walk? I subscribed to Audible and listen to great books that I'd never have time to read otherwise.

stellamaris, great idea on the re-excision. I wish I had known what I know sooner. I took Tamoxifen for three weeks in between my first and second lumpectomies. I was supposed to take it for two months in hopes it would shrink the tumor. I keep wondering if the Tamoxifen in those three weeks shrunk the tumor and then if my immune system got rolling and swept the malignant cells away since there was no trace of cancer in my path report. I wish you had more time to see of tamoxifen might shrink your tumor enough to get clear margins. Ask your surgeon if she or he is willing to do a cavity shave after the re-excision. I think the data is mixed on CS but it can't hurt I don't think. It involves the surgeon going in after the lumpectomy and shaving a wide margin around the tumor bed. I don't know if CS procedures are done only for specific kinds of cancer or if they can be done after lumpectomy for any kind of cancer.

P.S. I have found that movie therapy is great! Lol, I was accused of trying to hijack a thread when I added quite a few posts on movies, directors, actors, and genres that I find interesting, so I won't talk about movies here except to say that movie therapy works to get my mind off of things that are bothering me! Somebody mentioned music therapy, so I am going to get my sound system set up again because I love music. I need Get a Life Therapy. Maybe now that I am not dragging my body behind these boobs in serious pain, that will happen.

My mom has bronchitis, not pneumonia as a misguided doctor or assistant told my brother last night. I am going home tomorrow. 225 miles and I will be back in the country right down the road from the cow pasture.

Merymete- very happy for you!

DecisionFeak - have a good trip home. I hope your mother feels better!

Walked 8,400 steps yesterday! I'll try for 10,000 today

I love all the posts about walking, reading, and watching movies! I really miss my treadmill and can't wait to get rid of these drains and get back to it! I would typically walk at least a mile 5-6 days a week! I have a lot of discomfort with my remaining 2 drains and can see and palpate both. Hoping they both get removed on Tuesday!

DecisionFreak: Glad to hear you got your drains pulled even though I'm a little jealous!

I hope your posts aren't being deleted! I look forward to hearing from you! I would describe my drain removal last week as internal rope burn, but once it was out, I had no lingering pain. I'm sure some of it has to do with how we are built to. I carry my extra weight in my hips, butt, and thighs. I have been able to feel the ends of the drains and the tubing over my rib cage from the beginning and constantly feel the pressure and pull which drives me insane!

Edited to add some more stuff and fix some errors.

aw, Logang, I wonder if it is the type of surgery, location of the drains, and sensitivity of the surgeon. My two drains were held by one stitch barely inside little openings at the base of my breasts where the long incisions from the aereoles extend almost to my chest. My PS strikes me as someone who despite her relative youth that learns and masters the best techniques available with careful attention to the patient as a living, breathing human being. She seems to work with great economy and grace combined with impressive knowledge and skills. She laughs all the time, too.

I just don't know why I have lost quite a few posts. Maybe chance.

Off topic, there was a man on the bus who talked nearly non-stop for 225 miles. The bus driver asked the man every 10 or 15 minutes to stop talking on his cell phone. The running commentary had some themes, parental drug abuse of heroin and crack cocaine, controlling wife who rejected him for another man, apparent problems seeing children, sex - maybe prostitution, not sure- , urgent need to give mother the money to get off her bus and join him. Finally, a woman on the other side of the very small Greyhound Bus started moving her lips, mouthing a soundless message to me indicating that the man was not talking on a cell phone. The woman quietly suggested that I should turn around and look for myself. Indeed, the man had been engaging nearly non-stop in a monologue. Just when I turned around, the man pointed out the window and said that his wife was in a car across the street with another man. I realized the speaker was delusional, paranoid, and hallucinating. I moved up to the front of the bus and quietly told the driver that the man was not talking on a cell phone. I said I would get on the phone and call the police as the man was a danger to all of us because he was distracting the driver. I talked to police in several jurisdictions, then the bus driver saw a state patrol car and pulled into a Citgo station. The state patrol officer called a local policeman, and the ranting, raving man quietly exited the bus and calmly waited to see what life held in store next. No moral to the story or maybe there is one. I have traveled 1350 miles in three weeks through the rural South to get great cancer care. Going the distance is often difficult. Like this man, I am exiting the stage and waiting for the next act. Unlike him, I am lying on the couch forced to do nearly nothing, but I just got a surprise today! I will have to shop for workout clothes and new nightgowns for my Mom, I think, because the hospital case worker recommended another stay at a demanding rehab facility, the second since last June. The rehab hospital is a cross between a day spa and a house of torture with three hours of exercise a day for 12 days.

BTW, my doctor took some fat tissue from one place in my right breast and moved it to fill in a big space in the same breast where the cancer surgeon must have done a major excavation. I wish they would find some diamonds and emeralds and rubies while they are digging. It is good that I was out cold under general anasthesia.I would have flipped out at the idea of having any flap surgery. It looks as if the technique worked. There is a lump there I mentioned in an earlier post but PS says it will all smooth out. Sort of like a cake in the oven, maybe?

Going to sleep now.

Glad to read some good news from many the past few days.

I have had similar issues with posts from phone not from desktop as others have mentioned.

Finding it hard to find a bra/forms to wear a month after BMX.

Got an ABC Leisure Bra & the light forms (not silicone) on Friday and after a few hours felt like I had 50 pound weights on my chest. Had no idea how heavy the lightest forms are until I took the bra off with forms in them.

I think I will stick with the $9.98 (as seen on TV) Genie bras sold at Walmart recommended on the Going F;at forum. The pads in these weigh like nothing but of course do not even seem like an A cup but are at least comfortable. I have had to size up 2 sizes in these though. Time will need to pass before I am even close to ready for silicone forms.

I think I have found a new MO - at least got a name recommended by a few people locally and will call this week.

I am starting back to work tomorrow part-time and will see how I do. I am kind of scared.

Had our best friends over earlier for Super Bowl but they left after half-time.

Will stay in touch all.

Stay well!

Sure, I'd love to hear how everyone is doing as well! And I'd love to know people's fav movies etc. I'm not a big TV or movie watcher, but during my recovery watched the entirety of Broadchurch and Orange is the New Black on Netflix and loved both.

I'm heading to a second opinion from another RO tomorrow, hoping his perspective will help me with this impossible decision. And I'm seeing an OT on Thursday who specializes in mastectomy, scar mobility and lymph flow. I have a small pocket of swelling (seroma? Lymph?) in the front of my armpit that is not resolving and I want to do everything I can to help it get moving and avoid chronic issues or lymphedema. And having scar tightness and pain, especially where the drain was. I'm really looking forward to getting her help.

I still occasionally break down and take a Tramadol and I'm trying not to feel bad about that. As far as my scar and no recon, I find that showing my friends my scar helps me cuz they all ooh and ah and tell me how awesome and cool it is . I have great friends.