May 2016 Surgeries

I will also be having lymph nodes removed from under my arm. This sounds like a longer recovery time with a lot of possible problems included. Exactly what extra wonderful things (NOT) do I have to look forward to? Yikes!

I talked to Deb Helms at church yesterday and learned that she is the nurse that usually takes care of everyone in recovery for both my BS and PS. She had wonderful things to say about both Drs. Unfortunately she is not able to be there for me as she has some health issues going on herself. :-( Deb confirmed I'm in great hands as both Drs are the best in the area and that my PS has wonderful stitch work capabilities and my scars will end up being only very fine white lines when all is said and done. A huge load off my mind! 16 days and counting down! My pastor's wife Chrissy asked me if I was getting nervous yet? I told her "Oh no,not at all. I'm TERRIFIED!"

Wound vacs assist in healing with negative pressure to maintain proximity of the incision edges and reduce swelling. It is relatively unusual to use one right off the bat, usually they are employed when there is a healing issue. It is possible that this PS has discovered that his patients have fewer complications when one is used at the outset - if so, yay for him being proactive!

Midwest - the underarm discomfort is a slow return, don't get discouraged. I have found a lot of variation with the drain site wounds - I think they stay sore longer because they were open, with a foreign body, for a while. If they are sore you can always cover them with a small folded piece of gauze and tape so they don't get bumped. For those still with drains I found that taping the drain tubing to my skin right near the exit helped reduce the soreness afterward by minimizing the movement of the tubing.

Ah the Dutch and their pain management. Today they called me from the care center to check upon me. When I asked how long I should be taking the paracetamols, their answer was: as long as you think it's necessary. So I can experiment myself with how many pills and how often I need to take them. Oh well, I've decided to take twice today (instead of four times), we'll see how it goes.

moreshoes - it's the same here in Switzerlmad -take paracetamol, ibuprofen and Valium depending on pain. I halved the dose yesterday and hurt I will keep it up for a few more days

Hi, Val. Good wishes for your doc visit. I'm off to an outpatient appointment this morning as well. I have been hoping that the drains could come out today, and the left side drain has been decreasing its output, but over the past two days the right side drain has been way up. The right side is my lymphedema side, and is still much more swollen than the left, so maybe I'll have to put up with the right drain for a bit longer. I haven't had significant pain for a few days now, and stopped taking T3 (Tylenol with codeine) two days ago. My incisions look good, at least to me, but we will see what the PS says this morning. Compared to the staple tracks that my BS used, the thin, "paper cut" lines, so neatly glued and steri stripped, look lovely to me. I did ask my PS about my port scar, but he said that there wasn't much improvement possible there. That part of your body just isn't a great place for scars.

Hi everyone, I wanted to thank you all so much for your wonderful posts. My surgery is tomorrow and reading about your experiences has been really invaluable as I've never had a major procedure before and it's very scary. I wish all of you the best for recovery and for next steps on this journey.

WooHoo! Drains pulled. I feel so much better without them. I was down to under 20mL per day pretty quickly. And they really hurt more than anything else.

Well, it did hurt. I can't lie. But it was quick and really more of a dull pain. I think the numbing shot you get before a needle biopsy is worse. And this feels better right away. Those drains are aweful.

Valstim, great news about the PCR! Very encouraging to know it's possible for those of us with Christmas tree-like PET scans. I had one of those too, latest scans show significant shrinkage but you never really know what they will find until they get in there.

Grandma3x, glad both the drains came out at the same time!

Midwest, the drain wounds on my left side are still scabbed over, even now almost 3 weeks after having it removed on that side, but I wouldn't say that the soreness persisted for more than a day or two. Hell, I have three healing drain sites on my right side along with the one active drain site, and none of them are sore either. (I wonder if I did connect-the-dots on the marks once the last drain is removed on the right if I'll get a pretty picture of any kind.)

Lori, your Margaritas sound spectacular. Let me know what time I should be over. Heh.

Valstim52, congrats on the path report! Happy to hear it.

Momof6, congrats on getting the drains out!

Also want to add my thanks to everyone who has posted about their experiences and have provided support and advice on this thread – it's been invaluable to me. I'll probably stick around here for a while and have also started posting on the TE Troubles thread.

As for me, now that the TE has been removed on the right and the new abx specific for my infection are kicking in I feel LOADS better – the pain is completely gone. They put a new drain in again during my surgery on Saturday morning (going on SEVEN weeks with a drain on that side!) but the output on it is very low now so I'm hopeful it will come out on Thursday when I see the PS again for follow-up. I don't see the infectious disease specialist again until 6/7 but I can tell already that the abx is working and this bug should be cleared up in no time. I don't want to jinx myself or get my hopes up but I really feel like I've turned a corner and things are going to get better from here.

Maya, good luck tomorrow. We'll all be in your pocket and praying for you and your surgeons!

Awesome news Valstim!

This thread has been a godsend to me also. I joined in April hoping for an April surgery date, that didn't happen. I then went on to the May Surgeries hoping for a May surgery date and that didn't happen. So now I'm on the June Surgeries and I finally have a surgery date. Yay me! When I go back over the April and May threads I'm kinda glad it took awhile, at least now I have a much better understanding of this whole BC crap and have so many great women to thank for all the fantastic experiences, advice and not to mention all of the links that have been added along the way. I'm on a few different threads that are geared towards future experiences such as the TE Exchange City and problems with TEs etc. Having as much information that I can get my brain wrapped around the less terrifying this all has been! I'm not going anywhere anytime soon as there's just to much to learn!

Thank you all again, I've got a ways to go yet and I'm glad I have all ofyou to turn to!

Pesky right breast issues have earned me an upcoming 3 to 4 day stay at the hospital. Boo. Went in over the weekend for redness along the mastectomy scar and bleeding - dr drained 100 cc of saline to relieve the pressure, then sent me home with antibiotics. Follow-up appointment today showed signs of necrosis, so I go back first thing in the morning for my extended stay. The plan is an antibiotic drip and a small follow-up surgery to get this issue under control. Never imagined my non-cancer side would be the one causing me so many issues...

Raven4mi, now would that be something if they admit they gave it to you in the first place?

MyToyStory2, so sorry you have to go back in, sending gentle hugs your way.

Maya, yes rads are still required for me as it was so aggressive and the IBC, so mop up rads are still my future as I knew they would be

raven4mi, that's the scary thing is how many others will or have been exposed and not able to get over it?

It's such a reality in the healthcare industry. That's what is so scary to me about it.