May 2016 Surgeries

Bfuruseth and allaboutacure -Best wishes and speedy recovery

I'm right behind you tomorrow

Had to concentrate on some things I don't have to worry about so I'm not overly anxious that my ativan won't work :

1. Hair, just finished 5 months of chemo so only have fuzz.

2. Getting house together, since my first chemo put me in the hospital for 6 days, my house and team Val have been on alert and ready since January

3. Path report, can't be worse than the PET SCAN in January and CTs afterwards. Already know where it is , and that it's in the lymph nodes Will just find out how much the chemo killed and shrunk (clinically a lot, but surgery is the real test) then on to rads.

All my BCO sisters having surgery this week and recovering, sending hugs

Val

Exactly, Papillon. I feel the same way. They plan to take out the drains as soon as I leave the hospital. Good for them and the natural thing, but I'll be left behind with danger of infection. We'll see how it goes. I'll fight when it's the right time.

@MoreShoes - better order two or three of those sports bras. They'll need washing and there's a good chance incisions sites will at least leak or stain just on their own in the beginning. And I got hit with a pretty bad case of combined panic/denial about two or three days before my surgery. That's why I prepped in advance - I knew I'd either totally lose focus or decide it just couldn't possibly be happening! It'll come and go before you know it and then you'll be on the other side, rebuilding. You can do it and we're all here cheering you on.

Good luck to this week's surgery gals!

just hit the panic stage... After three years of planning I am just now thinking sh*t I am losing my breasts ...like losing old friends. Bags packed and all ready for tomorrow

Just came back from my therapy session. Now I can panic about tomorrow. Ugh.

Papillon, I agree with SpecialK. I look at my breast as old friends that are trying to harm/kill me. With friends like that who needs enemies? But...that's easy for me to say, I'm not there yet! I have 3 more weeks to say goodbye to my breasts. I'll be in your pocket on the 26th and I'll be praying you have a successful surgery and aspeedy recovery.

Just got back from my first MO appointment. I feel like we are a good match. I did find out my cancer is HER2 negative today and my Ki-67 scores were 3% and 6%. I was unsure what that meant at first but she explained it well.

Next steps are my post op for the lumpectomy and to discuss the upcoming BMX and SNB surgery. If nodes come back positive the Oncotype test will be done to determine if I need chemo or not.

Each day gets a little bit better. I was freaked out about chemo and now I look at it as a another tool in the toolbox to get rid of this sh#t. I credit the BCO members for the support and letting us know we can get through chemo/rads/surgery, as many have before us.

Many hugs,

Traci

welcome to our community, Floridajo! We are sorry you've had to join us, but glad you got up your nerve to write!

We mods have read often about sensitivity to the tape, if that indeed is the cause. Sounds as though you are doing the right thing though to heal!

And hugs to you, Papillon1!!!!! We're here for all of you, routing you on!!

Sending well wishes for everyone having surgery this week. Keeping you all in my pocket.

Thanks for replying Angtee15, hope one day I can be strong enough to provide support to others on this site! Today, I need it. Not sure what they used, it is a transparent tape and waterproof since I can shower. Not sure when the blisters developed, but noticed them after the first shower. The drain tube exit area still has an intact tape around it, just the areas towards my back on both drains have these open sores now. I was off any pain meds on day 2, had to take some Tylenol today to deal with the changing of the dressing after shower this morning. Incisions seem ok, just the drain areas problematic. The puzzle is that some of the tape is on my skin next the tube exit and skin there is ok with it. If it was the tape, would it cause a blister in only one, most outer area of the tape? Perhaps a combo of the tape and some body fluid or shower water, soap, dunno.

My husband took some pix and emailed it to the doc, we have 1.5 hr drive to his office and a picture worth a... hopefully he finds it and replies.

Good evening, all.

I've been lurking on this page for a while, but thought I'd join in tonight. Best wishes for all having surgery this week -that includes me! I'm having reconstruction surgery on Wednesday - expanders, since I have had two "very complete" mastectomies (according to my PS).

I've had three breast surgeries so far. First, an excision biopsy, then a modified radical mix with ALND on the right side in January 2015, and a total MX on the left side late last October. I did have some infection issues, and have diagNosed lymphedema on the right Sid, but overall I'm doing ok.

Somehow, I'm not too bothered about the surgery this time. I really like my PS, and I've been told to expect to be at the hospital for maybe 6 hours total on Wednesday. The hospital is about a two hour drive from my home, so I'll be driving up tomorrow afternoon, and will stay with my sister, who lives about 10 minutes away from the hospital. I'll likely stay until at least the first post op checkup.

Take heart. My experience with surgery has not been perfect, but overall it hasn't been that bad. I am very much looking forward to putting surgery behind me, though, and this operation gets me one step closer to that goal.

Gentle hugs to all.

Yesterday I had a very disheartening conversation with my OBGYN. I was meeting with him to talk about ovarian cancer screening. Even though I I'm BRCA negative, because there is ovarian cancer on my dads side it was recommended that I be proactive since no one else has been tested in my family. So my negative is not considered a true negative.

When he heard I was going to have a bmx on Wednesday, he looked at me like I have two heads. He kept saying, why don't you just have a lumpectomy. Then your risk goes down. He didn't understand the lifetime risk conferred by LCIS. He didn't understand that lumpectomy to remove LCIS is not an option because it's usually diffuse. He didn't understand that the risk is bilateral. I found myself having to defend my long thought out decision to a doctor that I thought would know more. Then when he found out I wasn't doing reconstruction, he looked at me like I had three heads.

When I tried to have a conversation about ovarian cancer, all he said was you don't have a first degree relative. I kept trying to explain that it's my dad's side, he can't have ovarian cancer. But he had pancreatic cancer. And that is what you see in males when you have a family history of breast and ovarian. Two of his sisters had ovarian, and two had breast. It's like he didn't grasp it.

It was very frustrating. I left feeling uncertain about everything.

Prayers and healing thoughts going out to everyone having surgery today!

Mom4four, I'm really curious what the PS is going to say about the radiated breast. Everyone is telling me that I can't get reconstruction because of the radiation.

Mom5littles, it's exactly what Raven said. It's not his field, he's only talking about what he knows.

Raven, this is the third time I'm dealing with BC. It'd be the second time round radiation and because I'm so special (har har) I'd need hyperthermia (another type of radiation). Due to that my skin would be so destroyed that it won't be possible to have recon. I'm getting so fed up with everything...