September 2016 Surgeries

Reflect, I'm sorry your nodes are positive. What is your next step?

I need to call my breast surgeon. My surgery on Monday was late afternoon and I have just been in and out of it for the past couple of days.

From what my husband remembers the BS was not concerned at all and said this sometimes happens with prior breast surgery. She said she looked at the rest of my nodes and they didn't look swollen but to my husband's knowledge, she didn't test any.

I need to call and get the full story because it doesn't make any sense to me.

I don't want to walk around with positive nodes.

I woke up like this. Gotta admit, it hit me kind of hard. I loved my silver hair.

I think I had enough meds to last a week, but I was on oxycodone. I did a similar thing with staggering but with Tylenol between. I started to notice that I needed the stronger meds less often and then just at night. I am a little over a week after surgery and no longer need anything other than the tylenol. I didn't really try to stay ahead of the pain after about the first 48 hours at home, though. I didn't love the way I felt on the pain meds, though, and the constipation they caused so I started trying to take them only when I had to. I'm hoping your dr. gets you some relief!

They gave me a new prescription for another week of percocet. I didn't know I could substitute advil or tylenol for the percocet.I would totally do that. I'm not sure why they gave me valium. They just said to stagger every three hours until my follow up in a week. Literally, all I do is sleep.

I would love to stop the valium.

Hi Reflect - I live in the Phoenix area. I originally contacted Cancer Centers of America (they came highly recommended from a friend in Chicago) and they reviewed my reports and recommended that once I had the diagnosis to come to them for a second opinion and treatment. But they checked my insurance and it would cover me if I went to one of their out of state facilities but not the facility in my home state. That made so sense to me but they said they would fly me to Chicago and do treatment there if I had a cancer dx. Part of me feels like there model is excellent and I wish I could go there but I really don't want to do this away from home. But part of me feels like it is a well-oiled profit making center.

We have an MD Anderson clinic here but my insurance didn't cover them either.

So I went to a local cancer clinic, Ironwood Cancer Clinic on the recommendation of a friend whose relative went there. The BS reviewed everything and said her first recommendation was to do the lumpectomy (which really I believe is more of an excisional biopsy), just taking the whole lump,which is small (1 cm). She did get back to me with the answer on seeing the RO and said that she wanted me to see him just in case we need to do radiation after surgery.

While I am slightly worried about not following the standard protocol, I just want this spot out since it is small and only one spot and I had such a disaster with the biopsy. I really don't think I would need chemo prior. This may be stupid on my part but it's been six weeks already to get to this point.

I'm not 100 percent sure that this is the right thing to do, but I am going to do the surgery Thursday and hope for the best. I really appreciate your help and advice and if anyone knows anything about Ironwood or other options for me in the Phoenix area, I would love that info, thanks.

HouseDivided, I'm glad you've decided on your plan. Once you get the pathology and know what you dealing with, what the plan is (radiation or not), you will feel more settled! Good luck & let us know how it goes.

Okay. So nothing ever happens to me in a normal way. I had my bilateral mastectomy on September 19th for cancer in my left breast/prophylactic on the right.

During the surgery, they could not find a sentinel node at all on the left side. They said they looked at my other lymph nodes and they looked fine so they didn't take any nodes at all. The pathology came back on my actual cancer. And that too was gone. So the cancer was taken out during the ultrasound guided biopsy. With no residual cancer left in. No cancer in the other breast either. That is great news.

My problem is that even though they didn't take any nodes from under my left arm I'm having swelling in my left arm from my elbow up until about my shoulder. It is painful it is a little red and kind of warm to the touch. Nobody seems concerned about this at all. They say it cannot be lymph edema because it is too soon. They say it may just be post surgical swelling. But my breast surgeon never saw it. It's been over a week and it isn't getting any better.

When I called my breast surgeon today. The nurse told me to call the plastic surgeon. I told her the swelling happened prior to seeing the plastic surgeon and that I had been dealing with the breast surgeon. She told me to call the plastic surgeon anyway. I called the plastic surgeon and the nurse at the plastic surgeon's office called said that I should call the breast surgeon.

I had my surgery out of state, so I'm wondering if I should go around them both. I'm so dissatisfied by the lack of care.

Thanks reflect. I'm still on keflex, so they said to finish that. I meet with both surgeons on Tues. If it is still swollen on Sat, I'm gonna,head to work and ultrasound it myself to make sure there is no clot.

The anxiety post surgery was a real shock for me. I was just throttled with all-consuming anxiety stress for a solid week after the surgery. Not sure if it was a combination of the anesthesia and the unknown pathology results. Anyone else get post surgical anxiety? It has happened to me previously post-surgery, when there was no report to be stressed about.

So glad to find this group! For as much as you hear how often people are diagnosed with breast cancer, I sure did feel alone with mine. My surgery was September 7, and I am happy to say my healing has gone very well, and my pain was well managed. I'm even very pleased with my reconstruction process. It sure makes a difference having a medical team you trust...and good insurance! My thoughts and prayers are with all of you as we figure this whole thing out!

Hello Sisters!

I had a bi-lateral mastectomy w/ TE placement on September 15-- almost 3 weeks ago! I'm feeling much better as each day goes by, but am slightly troubled by my elevated heart rate and BP. I normally have a resting heart rate of around 70-- but it has been between 90-110 at my follow-up appointments. My BP is also a little 'off'-- it's normally on the low side, but now is w/i the higher range of normal.

Has anyone else noticed post-surgery heart rate and BP changes-- could it be due to the anesthesia still working it's way out of my system? I haven't started exercising in earnest yet, but when I go for a walk I can feel chest tightness if I take a deep breath and I seem to get winded fairly easily...

Wishing the best to you all.

berrylvr My surgery was the day before yours- same surgery. I actually had the reverse, my BP was running a little low after surgery (they almost kept me longer at the hospital because of it.) It consistently got higher over the past weeks and at my follow-up last Friday was back to my normal (but I am on the low side normally.) I would check with them on it being elevated, hopefully its just anesthesia side effect. I will say I do feel like I have more shortness of breath. They told me that should improve after I exercise more, but also that sometimes after having a breathing-tube in surgery that can happen and because of the pressure of the tissue expanders the tendency is to shallow-breathe. So I try to focus on really taking deep breaths (which actually do hurt a little with my expanders if I am truly breathing as deeply as I can.)

Thanks for your responses everyone! A quick update-- in case anyone searches this thread with they same concern in the future. Shortly after my post my BP and heart rate they started to come down and eventually resumed normal levels-- which are typically on the low side.

Best wishes to all on this journey!

Hi Irony! I've recently finished rads and am finally starting to feel better (normal? I don't know!). I started back at work PT at beginning of rads, stopped out towards the end, and this week I am almost back to FT, and it feels great. I had forgotten that I am a competent productive person! Hope your return goes well. I was very glad to ease back in. Good luck!

Reflect, you have been through so much. I'm do glad you are done with radiation. This site has been so helpful to me but at times actually made me more anxious, so I haven't been on as often. I just didn't like not knowing how people I've connected with are doing. Congrats at getting back to work.

Kentrunner, My case is similiar to yours in that I don't need further treatment. Tamoxifen is not an option for me due to the blood clot, so I'm just gonna roll the dice and hope for the best. I hope you implant exchange is uneventful and your recovery, quick.

Thanks for writing back ladies!