Dcis diagnosis

hi Foxy

At the end of April  had a lumpectomy and a sample of nodes removed. Surgery was good. The anaesthetist said he would give long lasting local anaesthetic into the chest wall so that I would be comfortable when I woke up. I had no pain at all and went home the same evening with Dressings and no drains. All good afterwards, I think I took paracetamol one the next night but didn't need more than that.

I started doing the exercises the next day. The axilla was a little puffy, but doing the exercises three times a day definitely helped it to clear away. Now I am left with two pale neat scars about 2.5 inches long. I am very pleased with the results.

I went on to have radiotherapy which was also ok and quite doable.

Wishing you all the best.

WallyDug

Thank you so much for your reply WallyDug.  That has made me feel a lot better about it.  As always it’s fear of the unknown.  Congrats to you for getting through it all and all the best to you too.

Hi 

Welcome to the forum - albeit, I'm sure none of us would rather be here!

Try not to worry about the surgery as WallyDug says, it's really not as bad as you think it will be.  One of the things I said to myself at the end of treatment was that the fear of it all was loads worse than the actual.  I 

How big is the area of DCIS?  Depending on the size will naturally depend on how much time it takes for recovery.  I had 2 areas totaling 54mm of DCIS and then a 15mm tumour, so 80mm removed (they like to have 1cm extra for clear margins).  I had the op at 4pm on the Wednesday, home by 7pm, back at work on Friday and driving by the Monday.  I didn't find the pain too bad - as long as I didn't sleep on it - and paracetamol and ibuprofen was all I took.  I had 3 wires inserted before the surgery and I think that was the worst bit as one of my wires came out when she was inserting the next one, so I would say that was the most painful bit.

Make sure you do the exercises they recommend - don't overdo, but don't not do them as it makes a huge difference to recovery.

If you need radiotherapy then drink more than you ever believe that you might need as it really helps to prevent fatigue. (2 ladies who went at the same time as me and another lady got fatigue because they hardly drank.  The other one and I drank loads and were fine).

Best wishes,

Lesley

Nice to meet you Lesley.  Thank you for your kind reassurance and I hope you have finished your treatments now. So back in July they found a cluster of variable calcification of 8mm, I had a stereo core biopsy which came back as Flat epithelial atypical, they then did a vacuum excision and that showed an area of low grade dcis.  They said it may have all been removed in the vacuum excision but can’t be sure so need to do this.  

Hi

Hopefully by the sounds of it, that they hope it's all been removed then they won't have to take too much from your breast.  Fingers crossed!!  If so, you hopefully won't have too much in the way pain etc.

I'm over 4 years post diagnosis now and surprisingly actually often forget that I have had cancer - never would have thought that would be the case when I was first diagnosed.  I'm still taking daily tablets, but other than these tablets it's not all consuming as it was when first diagnosed.  It's surprising just how it impacts your mind isn't it?

I do hope the vacuum excision did get rid of it all and you heal really well from the op.

Best wishes, Lesley

Hi Lesley

Yes, it really does impact your mind.  I find myself positive one minute then distract myself doing something for a while and then it hits me all over again.  I am feeling overall better though and talking to you and WallyDug has really helped so thank you so much.