December 2016 Surgeries

Hi Goincrzy8! Sounds like we are having the same sleep troubles. I am worried the port will mess up my left side and I will only be left with back sleeping.

I am nervous about working w chemo and going to talk to HR tomorrow about it all. I have a zillion Dr apts etc in the next two weeks leading up to chemo and I am worried about being able to work if I am not feeling good. Can work from home but not sure I will always feel good enough to do so. My work can be stressful and I definitely don't want to be worrying about that right now. We have to focus on getting healthy.

When do you start chemo?

Hugs,

Traci

Hi Goincrzy8,

Good idea to take advantage of the time off. I slept horrible last night and am heading to work but have to leave to get echo so it will a busy day.

G luck w scheduling all of your tests and apts. I'll be a few weeks ahead so I'll let u know how mine all go.

Have a good day!!

Traci

Pepper43: Do you still have your pre-op appt. today? You're on my mind. Please keep us posted.

ReneeCA: I'm so sorry to hear about your ears! How has it affected your hearing? Have you noticed some improvement? You're right about the collateral damage BC causes...I never knew all this. Had I known, I never would have signed up for it ;-)

Redemptivesuff- appointment is at 11:50, then I have preop testing at hospital at 12:30 and then an expander fill at 3:45. Busy day! Will keep posted on results. Came to rude awakening today on the impact of a brand new year when it comes to medical expenses. Will have to pay $1500 deductible to urologist for upcoming surgery. Fun!

Traci,

The port was installed a bit above my left breast (my right was the cancerous one) I did not experience much discomfort.

It is like a metal piece, the size of a quarter beneath your skin. It sticks out slightly but not a big deal. They attach tubes that goes into the veins in order to protect the veins and direct the hole thing towards the heart so the chemo pumps around quickly. I was´t very sore but yes, it of course feels a bit foreign to have this little metal piece there. After a few months I forgot about it and now its like I don´t even think about it.

So no PCR for me...my tumor was 2,5 cm x 2 cm at removal, instead of the 6,5 cm x 4,5 cm so it has shrunk some.

I am off the radiation tomorrow and have started Femara today. My Ki65 went down from 35% to 6% so I guess that is good. My onc is on holiday so I have to wait a whole week for the entire picture, but talking to another general doctor he said it will take about 6 months before knowing more for certain how things will go.

The nightmare continues....

Lilo, hopefully you'll have a better time with the TEs than I've had. I think I'm just a baby, lol! Do you take anything to help you sleep? Ativan helped me, but I didn't take it the past couple of nights because I wasn't feeling anxious and didn't want to take it unless necessary. Well, sleep is necessary so I may take it tonight.

Good for you for concentrating on your mental health...what a blessing that you already have a therapist. I know for me I'm constantly playing "mental games" to get through feelings of anxiety that seem to come out of nowhere. It helps for me to remind myself that this is a season and won't last forever...because sometimes it doesn't feel that way. It's harder for me than I thought it would be as well. Strangely, I accepted the diagnosis OK and going into surgery...but somewhere after that my outlook changed. But I KNOW it will get better! It helps when I focus on others, too, and less on myself. Will be interesting to see how I handle so much alone time when my kids return to school tomorrow and I have the house to myself.

Myjourneys its usually Chemo followed by radiation then Hormone. I believe that is the case, It is for me.

Hi, MyJourneys! I'm so glad to see you back on here and to hear you're feeling better! I don't blame you for wanting to hold onto that! :-) Oddly, by yest. afternoon I no longer had the rib pain and am fine today. Go figure!! I saw my PS today and he did a half fill, despite the fact the redness has diminished but he wants to remain cautious. It actually felt better afterwards...probably because it was only 60cc. No tightness whatsoever. Also, I barely felt the needle this time unlike I did with my first fill. Hopefully, because you already had an implant your first couple fills won't be that bad. I'm assuming your skin has already stretched somewhat. My first fill was a breeze (except for the needle...but even then the discomfort was short-lived.)

I'm moving over to posting in the January 2017 Chemo Board. Just to close out my status:

I have no pain meds now, not even Aleve. Most of the things I feel seem to be from the nerves under my arm. Still doing exercises for range of motion.

Sometimes I have phantom breast feelings, but that's not disturbing.

My husband seems to like the Amazon look: He's making me feel loved and beautiful.

My hijab came in the mail today.

Congrats Kattis! That's dramatic shrinkage! Especially because imagery tends to understate the size of things. Even if the depth was unchanged (you mentioned only two dimensions), you are looking at shrinkage to 1/6 the size! (29 square cm on imagery, down to 5 square cm). That is *way* better than what i had. Nice one!

My MO passed the job of deciding whether i need to have a mastectomy (to address the original DCIS that is now hiding) to my radiation oncologist yesterday. I'll see him next Wednesday. Loving my reno'd boobie, even after re-excision surgery, and hope i get to keep it. All my usual bras still fit so far and everything. Expecting to lose volume as swelling continues to subside and through radiation.