November 2018 Surgery Support Group

It looks like everyone is making progress!!! Yay!

I had my 2nd surgery to remove nodes. She had a hard time finding her way around because I already have my lat flap in place, so the anatomy under my armpit is pretty much upside down! Anyhow, she dig around quite a bit and is confident she got everything. If the pathology results are good, I won't need radiation. Fingers crossed. I will most likely be on some kind of med because I'm er/pr positive, but I can handle that.

This surgery was a walk in the park comparatively! I got my last ouchie/gross drain pulled and I have one new one. Overall, a positive experience. I've been so fortunate with my health care team. And I got lots of chocolate pudding.

Keep healing, ladies!!!! And good luck to those who are about to take the journey!

Heather

Hugs, MC Baker. I have my oncology appointment on the 17th and am already nervous.

I can imagine that treatment does take awhile to process and think through. Hugs.

Overdid it today and my armpit hurts sooo badly! I had to take pain meds after being off of them the past few days. My node dissection was last Wednesday.

I drove to appointments and over reached a few times, putting on my coat, picking things up, shaved my legs for the first time since chemo started in May, etc. My bad. My hubby is cranky at me aka 'i told you so"! Owie. I hope this gets better soon and I didn't mess anything up.

Keep healing, everyone! You all inspire me!

Heathrry

Thanks for the support, sisters! I really improved from the antibiotics over the weekend-ultrasound yesterday showed a small 10 cc pocket, not worth the risk of draining. The very nice doctor and I decided I had more of an infection from the drain, not a big seroma. Now to get my poor nipple healed!

Heather-I had the incision from sentinel node testing from my first surgery in July. I found it the most painful part of the recovery from a lumpectomy and breast lift. Overreaching was a real problem-I hear you. I hope it's just strain from overexertion. I noticed that any pulling feeling really improved at about the 3-4 week mark. I presumed it was when the internal dissolvable stitches dissolved. Hope the doctor has a good answer for you.

Hello beautiful ladies! I hope all of you are doing well!

My oncologist called me this morning......my Oncotype came back at 38. I was not really expecting it to be so high! Soooo, here we go with chemo starting this Friday! I am trying to digest this news and get ready to begin the next chapter in my treatment. I'm ready to get this show on the road.

Anyone else hear results lately? We are all in that 'in between' stage of being done with surgery and waiting for test results to determine our next steps. I am thinking of all you and sending lots of hugs!!! I hope we keep this thread going to support each other. In addition, I'll be hopping over the December Chemo thread. Maybe I'll 'see' some of you over there. Take care, ladies!!!

Mine took 2 weeks. Waiting was hard!!!

gosh Christine, chemo is starting already this Friday? Hugs...that seems like a quick turnaround! Wow. I know you will rock chemo...but sorry that you have to do it.

To all waiting for results and recovering...hugs to you as well. It doesn’t seem fair that we “recover” and then go straight to oncology, but I guess it’s all kind of part of it. I’m not sure if I will get any test results at my oncology appointment on Monday or not. My original tumor (IDC)was grade 2 to 3...they also found surprise DCIS and LCIS in addition to ILC so not sure how any of this adds up. From my pathology report my stage appears to be 1a. I’m trying to stay peaceful as I wait...for results and to get these dreadful drains out.

My acute stabbing pain is gone, but it's still pretty sore. Dr thinks I overdid it yesterday. Resting today helped and I see my plastic surgeon tomorrow so he can take a look. It's a little swollen and warm still today.

I meet with cancer surgeon Friday and will hopefully get pathology from axillary dissection. Im glad I was able to do chemo first. Best of luck to those who are starting chemo soon! (You can do it, Christine!)

Hope everyone is doing good. I meet with the oncologist today to find out when my chemo starts and also to get results of my pet scan. I am more nervous about the pet scan results then starting chemo. I spoke to a friend who is an oncologist and she suggested a re excision because my margins were so close. My surgeon said there is no way to do a re excision because she took as much skin as she could and I am stitched really tight as it is. She suggested radiation after chemo because of the close margin. Nothing is ever straight forward in this cancer treatment. I was all for bilateral mastectomy and chemo and anything else they want to throw at me but I feel every visit something new always comes up. I am hoping todays appointment goes well and no more surprises.

Kerri, such good news!!!

Thanks, evily! I'm a WI girl and grew up in Watertown... close to you!!!

So much better today. I actually got my first 50cc fill in my expanders today! Watching for lymphedema but looks good so far!

Then I went to meet my coworkers for dinner. First night out in so long! Great time and dinner, but my husband needed to pick me up! The wine hit me so hard! I felt so ridiculous calling him to get me, but I'm glad I did!

Now time for bed! Lots of love to all of you on your way!

Hi everyone. I had my DMX 11/15 and it went pretty well except the nerve block didn't work so I was screaming in the recovery room when I woke up My PS wanted to wait 2 weeks for me to heal so my next surgery was 11/30 with hopes to put in implants. I wasn't ready yet so I got prepectoral TEs.

Here's my issue...I started to feel decent between surgeries but this time, I'm two weeks out and and utterly exhausted. It's been the past 3 days, just the thought of getting out of my recliner is too much, usually by about 3:00pm I'm ok for a couple of hours. I am getting enough sleep at night.

Any advice, thoughts, ideas on this?

Thanks! Jamiesue

Jamiesue- I had BMX on 11/30 and reconstruction on 12/6. I was feeling great by day 6 after the first procedure but the second one knocked me out quite a bit harder. I am one week out of the second surgery and extremely tired and mentally foggy. I was sleeping almost non stop at first after surgery #2, if I sit I will sleep lol! So I am trying to move around more. Are you on nerve pain meds or muscle relaxers that might be making you tired? I just finished mine yesterday and have felt better already. I think the two anasthesias and surgeries together have just been producing a cumulative effect for me as well.

We have been through a lot! Hope you begin to feel a little better soon!

Mariett-I’m so sorry to hear that you have to go through another procedure, but of course they want to be super careful to physically remove everything they can before starting chemo. I saw another thread where women were talking about eating all their favorite foods before chemo...maybe now is the time to do that?

Hugs. I know a delay is not what you want.