May 2016 Surgeries

Raven - amen and amen! I've kind of been introspective lately about this whole shitshow and am just trying to be in the moment. I am learning with my boys that for these first few chemos I am going to have to look and act as strong as possible so that we can jump over the pit of fear they are trying to hide. But I'm a mom and that's what we do:)

For those of you talking about the tightness - the drains were definitely the biggest cause of nerve pain and soreness in the first 2 weeks for me too. I went to PT this past week and aside from the exercises I was given, I will also be doing some myofascial release. The PT was explaining that the myofascial tightness plus the limited ROM was contributing those nerve fire pokers that come out of the blue and take your breath away. She said that PT would help tremendously with that and to be patient, said it could take a few months. That helped to let me know it would be a long term process.

Good luck with rads Valstim! I thought the muscle relaxer worked better for me post - op than the pain meds too. So glad that your knee didn't end up being a blood clot:)

Re: orange discolored skin blotches post-surgery

Just wanted to post an update to this for the other woman who had noticed this - nearly 5 weeks out: partial scabs still on my incisions, the necrotic and blistered skin patches peeled off a while back leaving seriously ugly scars; and today the blotches of orange discolored skin peeled off the same way, only without the same kind of ugly scarring.

Happy to have them gone; hope they don't return in a future surgery. Orange is not exactly my color.

Still having nerve pain in my chest and hypersensitive skin. Cannot wait for that to stop although I've seen two women that have had to have more surgery to remove nerves in scar tissue that were causing constant pain - one over a year after her bilateral mastectomy/recon was complete. Let's hope it doesn't go that far...

Glad to hear from those of you who are recovering well!

Hello.

Glad to hear from so many of you!

GreatKat, that seems like a little bit of good news!

Valstim52, good luck to you, I might join you soon as well, so a double hug from me!

On Friday, I got the next to last or maybe last filling and it does hurt a lot! It is puzzling as the other ones were not painful after the day of the fill but this time it is totally different.Last week I had very minor discomfort so maybe he was overconfident this time? Just shifting in my bed hurts! It is just soo tight! Wondering if I should call his office tomorrow? I am mostly afraid of skin damage and also I would like some reassurance that it will not stay like that for months. I shudder at the thought of bumping into something or someone

It does not help that I have a lot of packing to do as my husband and older son are flying overseas tonight to spend some time with my father during his first summer alone. So,we will be divided, a bittersweet summer: staying here with my younger son so I can continue treatment and also not flying so soon after the surgery.

Have a nice Sunday!

Update- I actually found a simpler answer to having uncomfortable drain bulbs against my skin in my laundry basket- tennis socks! Easy on and off and no worries about them getting sweaty or dirty- I just toss them in the wash!

The May Board was kind of quiet over the weekend - hopefully that meant we were all off enjoying activities with our friends and family! I went to a rockin' summer kick-off party/block party and it was the first chance I've had to connect with many friends and acquaintances since my surgery. It was nice to get (and give) lots of love and hugs, and to catch-up with folks. I also connected with another woman my age who went through this last year....glad to have her as a future resource and sounding board! My nurse friend was pushing me to up the proteins for healing, too, Angtee, so I tried to be more mindful of it today....although I think I generally do a decent job.

Nice hint about the drain bulb covers, Stony. I may need those. I've had my drains for nearly a month now and I'm so sick of being uncomfortable with them! With today's output of nearly 50 cc's on each side, looks like they won't be coming out at my appointment on Tuesday.

Toystory, boo about keeping the drains. I know what a pain they are. Hang in there

Hi, Helen. Welcome to the board. Sorry you have to be here, but hope you find some useful information.

Papillon1, I can relate to your tiredeness after your parties. I hit the wine a little too much on Friday night and I'm still trying to recover. Oi. Lesson learned.

LRGO, yay on finally getting that drain removed! Oh, trust me, I know the relief!

NattyB, I'll be thinking of you and your boys as you go through chemo. Poor guys. But, you're right – that's what we moms do.

Valstim52, good luck moving on to rads.

Grandma3x, so awesome that you had fun at the beach with your grandkids. So nice to read.

GreyKat, glad the orange skin issue is resolving itself, and it sounds like it's resolving well. Fingers crossed this is just the first step on the road to a better recovery for you.

myToyStory2, sounds like you had a great week-end. It's so great that you found someone local with whom you can connect.

I am just really beginning to wrap my head around what my MO said last week about my tumor being invasive and I'm just so grateful that it was so small. I've avoided chemo by a mere .3 cm. I almost waited until the fall to have my MX because I didn't want to "ruin" my summer (as I'm a recreational golfer) and I shudder to think that, had I waited, there's a chance the tumor may have grown and I would be facing chemo on top of everything else. My heart goes out to those of you who are facing further treatments. Even with all the crap I've gone through it has been worth missing one stupid season of golf in order to avoid further treatments.

tsoebbin - some people use the abbreviation DMX for double mastectomy, but I believe the more correct term is BMX, for bilateral mastectomy. A SNB can only be done if there is breast tissue present so some surgeons do bilateral SNB for a BMX even when you have unilateral cancer. Mine did, but other surgeons don't want to expose their patients to bilateral lymphedema risk without a confirmation of known cancer. Some docs will do the injection, mark the sentinel node on the prophy breast side with a clip, then wait for pathology on the prophy breast tissue. If there is no cancer, no further action and no SNB, if there is cancer they would do a second surgery and remove the marked sentinel

Just came from MO and she says I'm doing too much too soon, that's why I'm having the opposite arm aches, and pain. So back to couch. My upper arms and then over the past weekend my knees were in a lot of pain. Better with muscle relaxers but sheesh.

Valstim - yep, sometimes you've just got to park it on the couch and rest. I know I still get worn out rather easily, but at least half that is now from my hand/arm mobility problems, and not the surgery. So basically, it gets better. My surgery instructions stressed walking to prevent blood clots and sleeping as much as possible to facilitate a faster recovery. I needed naps the first three weeks, although they got shorter as time went on.

Anyway, take it easy. Got any movies/shows/books/puzzles/easy sewing/crafting to catch up on?

Haha for what it's worth big bulky sweaters would go a long way towards solving the "I look really odd in skimpy summer clothing" problems. Because who can tell what you look like up top in winter when you're wrapped in six layers and a parka coat?

Yes Huskerfan it's so hard to 'take' it easy. I mean just going for a walk, and making my bed (which hurt my arms) oh well, back to the couch

Greykat, I have some great things to watch on netflix and amazon. Yay. I'll just laze it out for a while longer because the muscle pain is awful when I over do it. Plus I have rads coming up, so gotta get those naps and strength back.

I also am crocheting up a storm. It does not make my arms hurt, at least I don't think so.

Raven4mi and Huskerfan, it's even better when you boss them around and they are in their 30's. I'm really loving them coming and waiting on me. Between DH and DD and DS, I've really been taken care of. I'm whining now, about the pain and they are still there for me.

That being said, we are empty nesters, and sometimes you gotta do what needs to be done.