July 2017 Surgery

gigilala I hope your appt goes well! Shelabela that is great news about the drain removal & healing well!

My pathology results came back and all margins are clear (4 lymph nodes & vascular system) BUT they are still recommending radiation because the size was 7.5 and anything over 5 is automatic radiation recommendation. I will see the radiologist in a week or so but my gut feeling is that I am not going to have radiation. I feel like since I had the BMX & nothing in my lymph nodes and all other margins are clear that I shoukd be ok. I also will be taking tamoxifen. Anyone else been told t

I will have radiation. 25 treatments. I wasn't very happy but being triple +, with 1 lymph node that was affected in the beginning and the size of the tumor (which I found out was bigger then I was originally told) they recommend it. I am all for anything to prolong my life.

A question? My radiation oncologist talked about lymph nodes deeper in chest/ neck area being affected. Anyone ever here about that? I didn't hear anything about this before yesterday. And of course I forgot to ask then.

Willis, sounds like the area my RO showed me. Upper chest area. I didn't realize they would radiate the whole area like that

4 drains out yohoooooo

The doctor cut me again he did delay nipple delay

He told me about this surgery today I wasn't ready but everything is fine now

Path report is in.

Not great, but could be worse. Initial conclusion of no negative nodes was incorrect. Three nodes were removed. One has a small contained cancerous mass in it. About 3 mm. The PA I spoke to said that it's being contained is an important and good thing. My BS may remove more nodes for testing. TBD

My margins are negative. But my tumor had about 3 cm of residual cells, so I didn't have a complete response to Chemo. The BS does think she removed all of the cells. A follow-up treatment besides radiation seems likely; possibly the pill version of Chemo.

I'll find out more tomorrow.

This nasty bitch called cancer better be prepared for a fight. I won't go down without one.

Felinemum I am sorry to hear the results weren't what you were hoping for. So has this changed your mind about radiation? I had always told myself that I would have radiation if it was in my lymph nodes or in my cardiovascular system. Since it is not I most likely will not do radiation. I went through and read a lot of comments inbox about it and just feel that it is not for me. I think I will take my chances. I will most likely be taking tamoxifen as well.

SHElabela I was told by the radiologist when I met with her a couple of months ago that they would basically be radiating in the chest & clavicle area because there are lymph nodes there and those are not being tested or removed by surgery. She told me they do that just in case the cancer spread up instead of the direction of the armpit.

Felinemum I hope all of your discussions go well today. So did they say you will have to have chemo again (I believe you said you already had it)? Just curious why. Sorry that you will need the radiation as well. All if this stuff sucks & is so confusing. Having to make all of these decisions when we sometimes just dont know what to do is what frustrates me the most. I still have to meet with my surgeon and then my radiologist next week before I make my decision I'm doing radiation. I also still have four drains in because my PS would not remove any this week even though they were only producing 5 to 10 ML I meet with him Tuesday so hopefully he will take at least two of the strains out. It makes it so difficult to get around and take a shower.

I am still having to take pain pills at least once or twice a day. I also get the stabbing pains in my chest and I have such tightness around the top of my breast area and then stabbing pains under my arm almost where the drain is. How are the rest of you doing that have just had surgery?

I feel like we all deserve a major vacation when we are all done with our treatments!!! Best wishes to all of you ladies! Hugs!!

toughcookie, I would go and enjoy yourself.

I am feeling a little more human everyday. I had my Herceptin on Wednesday and was very tired.

Toughcookie, I hope you saw Santana last night!

Lynae23: I describe my pain and tightness as feeling like I'm wearing an underwire bra under my skin that's too tight and keeps poking me. I don't know if that helps. I've also had a sharp, burning pain under my right arm that streaks down my rib cage and hurts so much. My PS's nurse said it means my drain is hitting a nerve and when it happens, to move my arm. That moving it will hurt, maybe even more at first, but it'll get the drain off the nerve and stop that pain. I move my arm kinda like I'm doing the Chicken Dance. It works and now when I feel the start of that pain, I move my arm ASAP.

I'll be doing oral/pill Chemo. The med's called Xeloda. When I googled it, I read the manufacturer's information and started crying because its FDA approved use is for metastatic breast cancer, so I assumed I'd be getting even worse news when I meet with my BS this week. I've had teardrop blood cells in my weekly blood work too, which I knew can be a sign of metastasis. The only explanation I got when I asked about those was they hopefully would resolve themselves.

I was so mad I shot off an angry email. Luckily, a nurse called me almost immediately to explain I'm not metastatic. That my BS uses Xeloda off-label for TN and it's used to avoid recurrences or lengthen the time between them. My BS has had very good results with it and gets non-responsive patients referred to her because of that and her very active participation in clinical trials. And while my results weren't what we hoped for, overall they weren't capital B - Bad. My node cancer was very small and contained. Clear/negative margins are wonderful. And yeah, a complete response would've been ideal. My diagnosis remains the same.

I'll be doing radiation. Between the oral chemo and expanders, I don't know when that will start. I know it'll be at least 6 weeks before I've healed enough from surgery. The oral chemo will last six months.

I hope you're all having healing, relaxing weekends.

kae_md99: I don't have tissue expanders

I saw my surgeon yesterday he said he can schedule me for next surgery next Friday he said may be he will put a temporary implant

He said I still need 2 or 3 more surgery I was 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

I thought reconstruction is only 1 surgery...

lynae,

exactly what i was thinking,i dunno if i can make it to 2-3 months before the exchange with this pain. i was already off percocet and was toughing it out but last night was bad that i had to take percocet again... i really hope its from the expanders and not the alloderm . atleast the expanders iatr temporary.. i will pray we can make it! hugs

kae, I will be 3 weeks out from BMX with te's and I still have a lot of pain and discomfort. It feels tight around my ribs and when I sneeze or startle it hurts really bad

Well it sounds like we are all in the same boat. A man must have created these uncomfortable things!! Lol! I hope the pain eases for all of us soon!! Hugs :

Hello Everyone, *Warning TMI- sorry* I had my surgery (lumpectomy) July 26th, had my stitches out Aug 3rd. At that point around the stitches was getting red. (My skin is ridiculously sensitive). Doc took out stitches, and put on steri- strips. All looked fine. He said to remove them in three days if they didn't fall off on there own. Yesterday, (steri-strips were still on) I noticed it was oozing, and I was having mild pain. Today, I got up took off steri-strips and found that my incision was not only oozing, but was opening up. I called the on call Doc. He said to wear a tight sports bra and put some gauze and a bandage on. He told me if it was still the same in the morning, to call my Surgeon, that he may or may not put a couple stitches in. I'd prefer not to have any stitches put in as we are leaving Saturday on vacation. I figure if I don't need stitches today, why tomorrow?! Has this happened to anyone else? It makes me a tad nervous too. Once my kids go back to school I have to go back in as my margins weren't clean.

I am so sorry to hear that Snowfall! Did you have a PET Scan before surgery or chemo?