I was booked to have Wide Local Excisions (lumpectomy) on both breasts as a day case. They also intended to take out the 5th and 6th sentinel lymph nodes on the left side, where I had the invasive cancer. I was so scared of my op being cancelled because of Covid, instead of the required 3 days of isolation, following a PCR test, I put myself in isolation from the day they told me, two weeks before the surgery.
The operation went ok but was a lot more complicated than hoped. I woke up in a lot of pain - a shock, as I expected it to be a minor procedure, but they gave me fentanyl, after which I was feeling no pain (physically or mentally). I did get very mellow however and told everyone I loved them. My left breast had been reduced from a D cup to a B, hence the pain, I had an incision round my left nipple and under my left arm from the lymph node removal. And instead of the 3 hours expected, it was over 4 hours. My right incision wasn’t painful and the breast didn’t look much different.
When I woke on the ward, the surgeon visited and he said the left side had a good result, despite the difficulties, but the right was concerning. He’d just taken biopsies and the DCIS from that breast and closed up again. He couldn’t be certain until pathology came back but he felt I should prepare myself for a later mastectomy. I was still high from anaesthetic and fentanyl but my heart sank. I hoped he was wrong, just being pessimistic from being a cancer surgeon in a pandemic, but part of me felt this was bad.
To add insult to injury, although my surgical wounds healed with not much drama, despite a hypermobility diagnosis, I got a post-surgical chest infection and had to go on antibiotics and steroids. I was more concerned about my breathing than the cancer for that week, so the anxiety didn’t hit me until later.
