Diagnosed Yesterday 1/2/18

Veeder:

I have tracer injections two days before surgery. I applied Emla cream that I made (!) the doctor give me, via prescription. Applied and covered with Saranwrap as told to do here. Under clothing. Wore this to appt.

Felt nothing! I may have also taken a little happy pill because I was nervous.

Some facilities will apply the Emla before the appt but you must ask in advance because it takes more time. Emla is numbing cream. Pretty basic but effective I thought.

They numbed the injection area in my breast with lidocaine before the sentinel node injection. I didn't feel a thing. For my first MX, it was done same day as surgery. For the second one, it was the day before. It's good to hash this out with the surgeon before surgery so you will know what to expect.

I had 4 lymph nodes removed during my BMX surgery. One was the Sentinel node, one was the Axillary, and the other two were kind of like random to make sure there was nothing anywhere. That was left side only, since that's where the cancer was. No nodes were taken out of my ride side. During your surgery, as soon as they take the nodes, they send the specimen(s) to pathology and wait for the results. In my case, there was nothing in the specimens so they continued and took both breasts.

The day before my surgery, I went to radiology and had a dye injection into the tumor. That enables the surgeon to follow the dye from the tumor to the lymph nodes, if there are any that have cancer cells in them. In my case, the dye stayed in the actual tumor and there were no cells anywhere else. I thought that injection was going to really hurt, since they don't give any anesthetic for that other than topical Lidocaine. As soon as I got into the room, I started crying, and the radiologist who did it held me and talked to me about it until I was able to calm down. then she did the injection. I am being honest when I tell you I hardly felt a thing, just a little pressure and pinprick. It was one of those times when you say "is that it???". I'm not sure if that's the same kind of injection you are talking about but if it is, stop worrying!

You will be totally knocked out for your surgery so you don't really have to even think about what will be going on. You won't be in on the conversation in the OR!

I really had no pain at all after the surgery. I was a little uncomfortable and light-headed but that was it. I could have gone home the same day but chose the night in the hospital since it was offered and paid for. I was glad I stayed because it forced me to lay there and do nothing. I was easily able to walk out of the hospital on my own and truthfully never needed my husband for anything but help with the drains. My husband and I stopped for lunch on the way home the next day and when I got home, I put my pajamas on and sat in my recliner watching television. My golf group all provided us dinners for the 30 days after my surgery and I have to say that I began to feel extremely guilty after the first week. I was easily able to cook, etc. The only thing I couldn't do was clean, and that was fine with me! I milked that one as long as I could!!

My advice to you is stay off the internet and Drs. Bing and Google! I know that's hard to do but sometimes there is such a thing as being too informed. I get that you are trying to be as proactive as possible, but you really can't read any of our experiences and assume that's how you will feel.

Veeder - Your surgeon or MO will likely send a piece of the tumor to have genetic testing done, either Oncotype DX or Mammaprint, and the results will indicate whether you would benefit from chemotherapy. The Oncotype DX test is prognostic - tells you if you are at risk for metastasis - and also predictive - tells if chemo will help. If you have a lot of positive nodes, the doctor may decide that chemo is necessary anyway.

Whether you have rads depends on a lot of things - how many positive nodes you have, how large the tumor is and how close the margins are (how much normal tissue was removed around the tumor). If the tumor is indeed as small as they think and you are having a mastectomy, you probably won't need rads, but you may want to see a radiation oncologist anyway just to get their opinion.

Hi, I read a warning against use of Linezolid or Methylene Blue tracer / mapping injection on people taking Cymbalta (duloxetine), that an alternative should be used if possible.

Has anyone here had experience or heard of this?

Thanks