March 2017 Surgery

I have to say being at work is a good distraction, and one of my students kept asking"are you happy", and I would say"look at my smile!"

2FUN, BellasMomToo, Scottiemom11, thank you gals for all the encouragement and your kind words. You are helping more than you'll ever know. BellasMomToo, I so much hope you are right!

So, I have a couple of good news just for a change:
First of all, my BS was performing surgery today when I went for my 3rd fill, so this guy from his team was there and I asked him to perform the filling.
And boy, was I lucky with this amazing doc. He is such an easy-going, laid back kind of guy, smart and funny with a great sence of humor, and he did
not hurt me at all. He took his time, going slowly, asking me if I feel pain or not and he DID listen to me when I told him things were becoming uncomfortable.
He stopped at 80ml, telling me I did great. He answered all my questions, suggested another pain-killer drug I had not tried so far, and as an added bonus, he is a great looking guy lol! I nicknamed him Mr Grey's Anatomy and he doesn't seem to mind hahaha
Well, I also asked him if he has any good MO to suggest and explained to him what happened with the previous MO. He was appaled, but you know,
both doctors at the same oncological hospital, and the MO being his superior... he was in a tough spot. Nevertheless, he advised me to keep the
appointment I already had, but suggested another MO guy, a younger one, telling me he was a good doctor and a good person too.
After thanking him, I left for my appointment, and surprise, surprise!
The asshole MO was not even at his office. The nurses informed me he had some urgent personal issue to attend and had to leave early.
I thought, great, here is my chance to go find the other guy, and I did.
I find him at the chemo wing, runnng up and down, helping with the chemo procedure, talking to patients, talking to relatives, keeping notes etc
In a few words, I saw a guy really WORKING and not just sitting behind his big desc, lecturing people.
He was really busy, so he could not see me today, but he fixed me an appointment for tomorrow morning.
He seemed like a nice guy, with a hint of humor (that can never be a bad thing), who was polite towards me and found time to talk to me in a very hectic
day.
So tomorrow I'm gonna see him and till then I keep my fingers crossed!

2FUN, I pray for you, girl!

Hey there:

2FUN and Daphne: sounds like you are both having a time of it. Daphne that MO is way out of line. Good advice to get another. 2FUN,its nice to hear work is at least a distraction for you.

I am recovering from my fat grafting surgery of last week. I am bruised from knees to collarbones. The first week was not that sore - but now I am sore. And the bruises are getting darker. I think I did too much the first week. The reconstructive surgery is harder on me than the cancer dx, I tell ya.

Plus, I started arimidex yesterday.

wallan

Pseudomonas? Wow, that is usually found in respiratory patients. Hang in there, bluebirdgirl. Maybe PS will give cipro time to do it's magic. I got released back to life by my PS today. I see him in a year to check for CC. Otherwise I am done except for tats.

pseudomonas can be all over. Keep an eye on your Achilles tendons and shoulder tendons. Rupture of those tendons can happen with cipro use, up to a few years later. I ruptured mine, but the cipro was better than having an infection that wouldn't go away.

I had my surgery in 2012 and just now noticing my right nipple turning Black? I had a double done. Not sure if I should be concerned

Blubirdgirl, let's hope Cipro will do the miracle! My prayers with you!

Bluebirdgirl - I've been thinking about you, I hated to read you are still dealing with infection. I don't know much about that strand but am hoping that it is starting to turn around by now and that you will get a good report tomorrow. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

Dafne - read your update, you are in my thoughts & prayers also. I'm glad you have found a good MO, hope you are able to move forward with a much better rapport with him. I hope that it is as Bellasmomtoo said regarding the treatment.

2Fun - Thinking of you too, hoping and pray that the thyroid biopsy comes back b9 and also the colon is clear of any problems.

All you ladies are in my thoughts, you are each strong and amazing, you WILL get through this. Sending hugs to you as well as all the ladies on this thread.

Bluebirdgirl, so sorry you're dealing with infection but if it makes you feel any better, I'm on my second go-around with some mystery infection. It's only a mystery because my stupid PS didn't culture until he already put me on abx. ID doctor, of course, wants to have the replacement TE taken out again. I fought him on it, so he said he'd let me try the abx route for a while to see what happens and gave me a 14 day rx for double the dose of abx (bactrim.) I don't know what possessed me because I typically do not even mention homeopathic treatments to the MDs, but I asked him how he felt about me using essential oil of oregano and high dose Vitamin C and his exact words were "I feel you're going to have a failed outcome, so you can do whatever you want." Now what the F#%$ kind of thing is that to say to an already visibly upset patient??? I wanted to punch him in the face and then he chose that moment to try to comfort me with a side hug. Get off of me, you idiot.

Anyhow, hope the Cipro works for you. I was on Levaquin for many weeks which has similar side effects to Cipro - none of which I experienced, thank heaven - but I'm with 2FUN - better than a raging infection.

Dafne, can't remember if I thanked you for the lotion suggestions. I'll check them out. I'm glad you were finally able to meet an MO that works for you.

RE: cipro. I was put on cipro (and metronidazole) in March after an abscess on my colon was drained. My PCP recommended taking a really good probiotic because of the cipro. She recommended 'VSL #3'. It is non-prescription, but only sold at pharmacies. It has to be refrigerated. Costco's price was reasonable -- I think $40-50 for a 30 day supply.

what are the symptoms or a seroma?

fafne, I am I interested in alternative, complementary, whatever medicine. Are there rules about not discussing it here?

To my knowledge, there are no rules about discussing alternative therapies. I, personally, would not forgo conventional medical therapy and completely replace with homeopathic options, but as an integrative approach I'm all for it.

I'm currently getting high dose IV Vitamin C IVs in order to combat this infection, and am also taking liposomal vitamin C in between the IVs. I'm also using oils of oregano and cinnamon essential oils which are said to have anti-bacterial properties.

If you looks for this thread the pinned post on the very first page has a number of links to alternative options: TE/Implant OVER pectoral Can exercise, comfortable &NO RIPPLES!

Marih, im from the April surgery group, but I had my drains removed and they really didn't ooze at all...maybe for an hour or so after removal, but after day 1 I didn't need gauze on them or anything. you probably just have more fluid....are you wearing a compression bra still? My PS said to keep it on for a few days after drain removal to keep the fluids down...

Call your dr and see what they think....I'm sure its pretty normal.

Be careful of taking NSAIDS while on Cipro. I wish someone had told me that. I'm very sensitive to that class of drugs. They put me on Levofloxacin (same category as Cipro) when I went to the ER for a fever during chemo and it made my peripheral neuropathy worse. I read about it and there are three FDA black box warnings for that class of drugs, one of the warnings is that it can cause peripheral neuropathy and you are especially at risk if you are also taking NSAIDS. Well I was taking Advil like crazy to manage bone pain from the Neulasta. And chemo can cause peripheral neuropathy too. They never bothered to ask what meds I was on. I've added Levofloxacin and Cipro to my allergy meds list and won't ever take again unless I have anthrax poisoning. Curiously, those drugs started as chemo drugs.

Lots of people do just fine on Cipro, I'm just very sensitive to them. And Of course you take what you have to for an infection but beware of NSAIDS with Cipro and be sure to take probiotics. I have been able to almost cure my peripheral neuropathy completely by taking L. glutamine and Alpha Lipoic Acid so it can be reversible. Also, stay on the supplements (chemo people) as one lady didn't get peripheral neuropathy until something like 6 months or a year after chemo--she popped on one of my groups and said she wished she'd known that.

I take VSL#3 (costco pharmacy no RX needed) and Jarrow's Saccharomyces boulardii (like Floristor but cheaper from fridge section of health food store-Sprouts) religiously after my 2 1/2 months of c.diff. experience. And if I don't take it, I can tell. I wish I had been taking it prior to chemo and abx so my gut might have been able to fight off the c.diff bacteria I was exposed to in the hospital. You know, now that I think about it, all MOs should put patients on probiotics right away because it's inevitable that they'll be in the hospital and be on an abx at some point during cancer treatments unless they are very lucky.

I'm all for talking about alternative therapies and complimentary therapies. My MO gave me a name of a good Naturopath, I can't wait to go see him. I know, for one lady who sees him, he gave her copper reducing meds to prevent cancer reoccurrence. Has anyone heard of that? I'll be interested to find out more about it when I see him.