Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!

Dear HH:  I'm glad that you were able to go for a massage and a facial.  The Healing Youch organization is terrific.   I go to Reike sessions through Healing Touch Buddies in Florida.  My buddy is outstanding.  She is a breast cancer survivor too.

Dear Peggy:  I hope that you sell your house quickly (and for the price that you are asking) but that you are able to put a clause into the contract so that you can stay in your house until after the memorial for your DH.

Dear Iammags:  I'm glad that you are feeling well after the lx.  Good luck with the pathology and tx plan.  I hope that you feel well.

Dear Brutersmom:  I am sorry that your mom had Alzheimer's.  It is good that you were diagnosed after her passing.

Dear ChiSandy:  I would be very worried about having a manicure. LE is terrible.  I wouldn't want to tempt fate.  Good luck. 

614, I really don't have any choice about going back to work. I have used up all my sick leave and vacation time for the rest of the year. Fortunately, I work part-time. And I can do a lot of my work from home, via computer. I plan to start setting up my home visits tomorrow, with intentions to do home visits twice a week. DH has said he will drive me, which I'm grateful for (some of these homes are 75-100 miles away.) I need to have a hysterectomy, due to gene mutations, but it's just going to have to wait until I get more sick leave Oct 1. My poor boss probably thinks I'm addicted to surgery.

Sadly, we had to give up our cruise in May. But we plan to do some tent camping at the lake, which is only 20 miles away--close enough for me to go home and do some work, if I needed to. Otherwise, our vacation will consist of visiting relatives this year.

I’ve been having manicures for ages, and my tech now knows exactly why she can’t let a pair of clippers or scissors get anywhere near my right hand. I explained that any “insult” to the skin, whether or not living skin is broken or whether or not there’s any bleeding, can result in lymph fluid rushing to the area to prevent infection and cushion the area. She asked me why lymph node removal can lead to LE and I explained that can impair the system’s ability to drain unneeded lymph fluid; and I also explained about cellulitis. She understands now. Not getting manicures is not an option. I am a guitarist (steel strings), and most of my songs are fingerpicked rather than strummed using a flatpick. I never liked using fingerpicks (metal or plastic, which slide on over the fingertips) because they inhibit tactile feedback. Now I can’t wear them even if I wanted to, since they must fit tightly to make them feel “one with the finger” and keep from falling off--and something tight around the fingertip is a good way to get LE. Playing with bare--or even fortified with several coats of hardener or strengthener--nails is a non-starter: I can wear a notch into a fortified natural nail even before intermission, and the strings catch in the notch and screw up my playing.

I get what are called “true gel” enhancements. Not the acrylics, which require the nail surface to be roughened (sometimes with power tools) before a plastic epoxy made with a solvent-dampened brush is dipped into powder and the resulting little ball is smoothed out and patted and left to dry & shape before polishing. Those are thick and completely non-porous. There is a type of gel overlay by which a UV topcoat is brushed atop the acrylics before they’re fully set and then cured with UV light, making them shiny and transparent before being polished. Those overlays & acrylics have to be “filled” by coating the new growth. Many “nail mills” (the ones you see in shopping malls with 20 or more manicure stations, where the techs wear masks and use power drills and barely speak English, and charge bargain prices) call the latter “gels,” but they’re not. What I get is several coats of actual gel brushed on from a little pot or bottle--clear base, translucent pink tint, white tip (I get a classic "French manicure” but natural-looking and oval, not squared off like the Long Island Medium or the Real Housewives), clear topcoat, with each coat cured instead by blue LED, not UV. Every 2 weeks they have to be soaked off, the tips of my natural nails shaped with an emery file, and the process done anew--so that the nail beds can breathe. It makes my nails hard but just flexible enough to feel the strings without cutting notches. I get my cuticles softened with cream and pushed back, not trimmed. I keep my L nails very short--below the “quick”--so that I can cleanly fret the strings. Several male guitarists as well as some violinists come into the salon for that as well. (They don’t get the French manicure, just a couple of clear coats). All the techs are either native English-speakers or speak it perfectly as a second language, and are paid salary rather than just tips. All the clients have their own tools which get labeled, autoclaved and stored separately; instead of those massage pedicure chairs she uses stainless steel foot bowls which get sterilized between uses. I pay through the nose, but it’s worth it, knowing I’m not perpetuating the near-indentured-servitude model practiced in the nail mills.

I agreed with my tech that if as a result of not trimming dead cuticles and hangnails my right hand gels start to lift between manicures, I assume sole responsibility for that. My LE therapist----who discharged me today!--is fine with that.

614 - ohhh no that was the funny part medical team said it was fine to do my work! Inspite of those things. So weird lol

Vickie - oh my goodness thats terrible what you went through. Im most likely facing a mx later this year so bit anxious wont know til May.

Molly, I am going through much the same with my father....it really hurts. and so sorry that just when your son is doing better, you start to feel under the weather! Get some rest!

Hugs. Hugs. HUGS!

Octogirl

MLP3, LOL!! I gather some people don't even know they've had the Zika virus. Of course better to avoid the opportunity to get it if you can or take precautions. How annoying about that blue stitch sticking out. Ouch!

HUGS!

Hugs back to you, octogirl. I am sorry about your dad. Melclarity, the most difficult part of mastectomy for me has been trying to make a decision about reconstruction that works for my lifestyle and radiated tissue. The surgery recovery was uneventful except for the darn TE which initially I wanted to tear out of my chest. I have had it for six months as of today.

614- sorry to hear about your son. My 17 yo son had a concussion late fall and was out of school for a week, and then half days as tolerated for another week. It was hard to catch up on everything. But they let him keep his grades up until midterms and waived some of them. Maybe your sons teachers could do the same?

Gosh, 614, your son just can't get a break. I would definitely have him assessed for mono. It can exist concurrently with other viruses and it lasts a looooong time. Hopefully, he'll turn out negative and he can get on with recovery.

Got a prescription to see the LE specialist next week. The appointment is a ohGod:30, so that means I won't be able to take a sleeping pill the night before. I tried not taking the sleeper last night, just took a .5mg Ativan. It did nothing. Well, not exactly true. It worked for 1-1/2 hours. At 2am I was wide awake; finally I just went downstairs, got a snack, and watched TV with my dog in the recliner. Eventually, my eyes did close, but I kept waking up until 6:30am. I finally said f*ck it and just got up for good. I can hardly wait to go to bed tonight with my nice Restoril. It doesn't knock me out, but it allows me to have blissful sleep, which I desperately need for good recovery.

Speaking of recovery, its going apace. The "dog bite" side (zombie breast) is looking better. I can actually pull part of it together, making a smaller space about the size of a silver dollar. The left side has a large collection of fluid. The NP today took a Qtip, stuck it in their and waved it around. It's got to be at least 2-1/2" deep and about that wide. Geesh! No wonder there's so much coming out. It doesn't drain much at home, but when they go at it, OMG.

Sandy, good idea to travel to Jackson today. I'm hoping the weather gods will smile and all will be well. Can't wait to meet you and Suz-Q finally and catch up with the rest of my BCO friends!

HUGS!

Molly, right now the weather is looking iffy. I have about a 90 minute drive all freeway and it can be really lousy in bad weather. Sandy was smart and has driven in tonight. BCO get togethers are the best!!! Take care!

HUGS!

Just checked into my hotel in Jackson about an hour ago! See you brave snow-defying sisters 11:30 tomorrow. (They're saying no more than 1-2," at least the Lansing/Jackson NBC station).

614, keeping a good thought for your daughter so that her bag gets found, at least before she has to go home--and that she gets that Bellevue internship! (Precursor to med school in a couple of years)? She needs to be ultra-assertive next time, letting the attendants know it's her ONLY bag and has her valuables in there precisely so they wouldn't get lost. At least one a-hole businessman should have to check his monstrosity of a roll-aboard. What I do is put my purse into a tote just before boarding, along with prescription meds, change of undies, jewelry and laptop--and then stash it under the seat in front of me. That way if my carry-on bag doesn't make it into the overheads, at least I have my valuables with me.

Good idea. Has anyone had lumpectomy without clear margins and then needed a mastectomy? How are the recoveries different? Home care, pain, time of recovery, etc. Experience????

so many people have posted so many things lately, I've been hesitant to post because I know I'm going to miss so much. I guess I'm starting fresh, and I will just say I hope that anybody that is having troubles those troubles will start to get better, and that anybody is doing well things keep on going well!

I'm back in chemo Tuesday, looking at my prescriptions for way more steroids that I'm used to and narcotic painkillers is pretty scary. That said I've been reading a lot of postings in different boards from people that did my protocol, some people found the next truck a lot easier, something that a lot harder, something that about the same but different. So I have hope that I will tolerate it well just as I have tolerated my current one well.

My cold is completely gone except for runny nose, but I've had a runny nose pretty well since chemo started anyway!

I seem to be the one who keeps bringing up sex, so I guess I will again. Obviously our sex life has been impacted and we are having less ( mostly because I often fall asleep before the kids do) but still doing it. However the last time I had a hard time…finishing. Anybody else have this issue? I'm wondering if it was emotional, or the medication, or what. I seriously never have this issue!

LillianM, I had a lumpectomy that later became a mastectomy. I surprised my BS with extensive LVI and a mixture of IDC and DCIS that prevented her from getting clean margins. I later had a skin sparing umx with tissue expander placed. It was a good thing she took the nipple because there was DCIS hiding in the stem. Recovery was easier in some ways because the Axillary lymph node dissection was pretty uncomfortable. The worst part of the mx was the expander. I had pressure and Spasms in my chest until two weeks later my drain was removed and my PS started filling the expander. I felt relief from the spasming once it was filled. Since I had two back to back surgeries I had to have my fills done in three weeks to get radiation started. I am still waiting for reconstruction surgery.