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LizT 1 hour ago

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Hi everyone, i have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. So far i have been told: i am HER2 negative, and i will need surgery to remove the carcinoma and radiotherapy as a minimum. I will also be having a sentinel node biopsy to see if the cancer has spread. I wanted to ask about peoples experiences with general anaesthetic and what are anyone’s thoughts on having a nerve block and sedation instead.

I really don’t want to have a general, and currently my consultant is giving me no other option, with no explanation to why and i haven’t spoken to an anaesthetist yet, but i am quite keen to see if anyone has any thoughts on sedation verses GA. Thank you

PTP 20 minutes ago

Hi,

Just on your general question: I had a nerve block (rather than GA) for surgery on my hand last year. It was very effective - if a somewhat surreal experience. It was what the anaesthetist recommended, provided that I felt comfortable with the idea, and I think it was definitely the right choice.

Obviously your surgery will be completely different, but googling just now I see that nerve blocks are indeed used for breast surgery, so it should be an option unless there is a compelling reason why not.

I think the right thing to do is to discuss it further with both your consultant (who should definitely at least provide you with a detailed explanation for his/her point of view) and your anaesthetist.

Very best wishes for everything.

LizT 7 minutes ago in reply to PTP

Thank you for sharing. These were my thoughts too regarding an explanation and a conversation with my anaesthetist. I will definitely be discussing further

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