post lumpectomy, scar questions

Did you get a surgical pathology report from your doctor? The report should tell you how much tissue was removed and biopsied, etc. . My scar is a bit above my nipple/areola and there is an indentation when I look at my side view. It doesn't look that bad and the scar is shrinking up a bit now as it matures. It still looks pink but is getting lighter, I think. It feels a bit hard and you can feel the scar tissue underneath the scar. It's been almost 3 months since the surgery. I still have pain in the scar area when my breast hangs down when I am standing up. I don't usually wear a bra when I'm home which is most of the time due to my back problems. Sometimes when I walk around the house I will put my hand on my breast to hold it up. I did buy a sports bra but it was so tight on me I could not close the front of it and it was an extra large. (I have a large scar on my abdomen from a 1979 surgery and I remember it took a good year or more for that scar to turn white).

I had a radial scar removed, it was classified as benign. The doctor said he removed a spot the "size of a grape" but on the report it said it was 4 centimeters long I think. I have to go for a followup mammogram in December, I think.

Well I guess it depends on the original size of your breast and the spot they took it from. Mine was taken out of the front above the areola. (my breast size was 40 C before surgery).

As far as a radial scar raising the risk of future cancer I believe that the answer is yes it raises the future risk of cancer down the road, unfortunately. Did your doctor recommend that you take any hormone therapy? I asked my doctor about hormone therapy but he didn't recommend it at this time. Plus I don't think I can take Tamoxifen because I had a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) during my pregnancy 25 years ago. I have never taken birth control pills or premarin after going through menopause.

Anyway, I read that taking a baby aspirin/low dose aspirin might be helpful in preventing breast cancer from occurring in the future. I don't know if that's true but I decided to take an 81 mg dose of baby aspirin daily just in case. I figured that taking a low dose aspirin can't hurt, my husband also takes it daily for his heart health.

I forgot to point out that before my surgery my doctor decided to have this new technology implanted called a "savi scout" which is a tiny radio frequency device (RF device) instead of doing the wire insertion technique. They put the RF chip which was the size of a grain of rice in with a large gauge needle. So I didn't have to have a wire inserted. I don't know how the wire insertion technique works but it sounds uncomfortable and like it might mess up some of the tissue inside the breast. I think the RF chip insertion is less invasive than the wire insertion. But I'm not sure about that. Having the needle inserted under ultrasound guidance was no picnic either. It was like a needle biopsy.

My breast looks fairly good now, the bruising is all gone and the scar is still healing. Hopefully the next mammogram will be okay. I get anxious thinking about it.

Hi momtomy5, I too had surgery recently - 10 days ago. I too am shocked at how big my scar is. I had already decided that I wasn't going to cry at my follow up appointment today, but I really wanted to. I realize that I am lucky I only had a lumpectomy. Dr. says it looks great but I couldn't disagree more. My scar is about 3 times the size I thought it might be. In hindsight, I guess I should have asked him why it's so big... My next question is what can I put on it to help it heal and look better? And, will the dent ever go away?

momtomy5 --

They found some ADH in my radial scar which was removed. That is atypical ductal hyperplasia. The doctor said it was "benign" but I was not too happy to hear that they found ADH.

I don't know if they found ADH in your radial scar. It should tell you in your pathology report if it was found.

I also had usual ductal hyperplasia. I know that this is "benign" but I worry if I am supposed to be on medication. If I tell my husband he gets upset and thinks I'm being paranoid. I get nervous even thinking about this stuff. My sister died of uterine cancer (leiomysarcoma). She was diagnosed at age 37 and died at age 40. She didn't like speaking about it and lived 1,000 miles away so I was unable to help her as much as I wanted to. One of my cousins had breast cancer at a young age (27) and another female cousin died of colon cancer a few years ago. She was in her early 50's I think. I found out through a facebook post from another cousin.

I had my lumpectomy back in December, right side, upper outer quadrant, and it was puffy and pink for a while, but now, it's faded out nicely and I can hardly tell it's there. Even when I was doing radiation back in June and July, during one session, I had different technicians than usual and they couldn't even find the scar at first, they checked the scan and all that and they still had to ask me to point out exactly where it was because it was so faint.

Time works wonders, it's only been a few weeks, before long, it'll fade out more and it will look much better. You'll always know it's there, but it'll become less noticeable in time.