Breast surgey

Hi and welcome to this community, a club you didn't want to join..... but lots of people here with similar stories, and lots of support and kindness. Your situation is similar to mine, I had invasive ductal carcinoma, grade 2, had the beast chopped out last October along with sentinel lymph nodes. Long wait for radiotherapy in January and have been popping Anastrozole tabs since December as my cancer was hormone receptive. My mum also died of breast cancer. 

Glad you have a date for your op but it probably seems a long way off at the moment. Lots of us here find the waiting the worst. I felt glad when the op was done, relieved thaat the lump had been removed. Then glad (as well as scared) when I got the tablets to start. And glad (but scared again) when I started the radiotherapy. The tabs seem to be ok for me and the rads are becoming a distant memory. It all passes!

Whatever treatment plan you end up with, somehow we all manage it in the end. None of it's nice, some of it is downright nasty, but it all seems to be 'doable'. And there will always be support here, someone with a similar experience to share, which somehow helps to make this cancer c*** easier to bear.

Keep posting, others may have already replied by now as it seems to take me ages to post!

Gentle hugs, HFxx

Hi AJ.

Your  situation sounds a bit like mine.  Lots of women in my family have had breast cancer and my mum died of it too.  I was diagnosed about 4 weeks ago and had to have a lumpectomy and lympnode removed.  I was pretty terrified, I have never had an operation before or had a general anesthetic or anything like that.  

The operation is not nearly as bad as you will be thinking, and you will feel better when you know that the lump has been removed from your body.  As far as recovery goes, I had my operation 11 days ago and  today was the first day that i did not feel I needed to have a rest in the afternoon.  I did feel very tired afterwards.  Arm movement has been much better than I thought it would, - you just have to take care- and listen to what your body is telling you what not to do.

I am still reeling from the shock of everything. Like you, even though I have had cancer in the family, I didn't think it would happen to me, and I have taken lots of care to make sure that it wouldn't.. ( so that didn't work!)

I have to go on the 18th to find out what my next treatment will be.  I will be thinking of you on the 17th.  I look back and think how I felt when I was at your stage, and I can honestly say, I think you are in the worst place at the moment.  You will feel better when you are bit further down the line.  This is a good place to ask for advice.  There are lots of lovely strong women out there, who will be able to offer you support.  

A big hand squeeze, and lots of love, 

Sukki.

Hello Vintage....

I had a lumpectomy and sentinel node removed in Nov 2015. For me this was not a very painful op but I think the position of the tumour may determine the discomfort afterwards. I had a wire marker inserted the day before the op with a local anesthetic which was no different to the biopsy and I had a radioactive dye injected on the morning of the op so that the surgeon could accurately locate the sentinel node and remove it without disturbing others. My wound healed neatly......I asked the surgeon if he would like to make my curtains next time I saw him!

Like you, I had no idea what to expect.....I didn't find Macmillan for another fourteen weeks.....but actually the side effects of the treatments that followed were much worse than the op and recovery from it. My tumour was analyzed after removal and this wait felt long although in fact only 15 days .....not knowing if the nodes were clear and the composition of the tumour which would determine the treatment plan was an anxious time. In fact it was only after  this analysis that it was recommended I had chemo as well as the radiotherapy previously thought to be sufficient . 

I am sure your lumpectomy will go well on the 17th. Waiting is the worse and not knowing exactly what is going happen can be frightening but I think you will find you will recover relatively quickly in the days after the op and unless you are very unlucky, you will have only a small dent in the breast to live with afterwards.

Take care. Love Karen

Thank you so much this has helped a lot 

Thank you it's nice to know your not alone.