I got back from the hospital a couple hours ago. My surgeon said everything went great taking the tumor out of my breast, and the lymph nodes she took out for biopsy didn’t look suspicious. Of course only the pathology lab can say if they had any cancer cells, but it’s sure better than, “Holy crap, we didn’t even need a microscope to tell there was cancer there!”
Speaking of Holy Crap - Holy Crap, the biopsy incision hurts! I’ll be taking my hydrocodone right on time for the next day or so, I can tell you that. The boob incision isn’t too bad, all in all.
On the other hand, they made a giant deal out of the injection of radioactive material they do to mark the lymph nodes - they warned me it was going to be painful, they said they don’t do any anesthetic, they described how they were going to inject right next to my nipple. Yech! They had me worried.
Then they did it, and I was like, Shrug “That was it?” So the radiology team thought I was a total badass, which was fun. (My mom hit the nail on the head when she said after, “It’s nothing compared to thrush, huh?”)
Glad it went well. Fingers crossed for the lymph node biopsy. Do you have radiation treatment to look forward to?
My wife had the same thing done almost exactly two years ago. The lymph nodes were negative, and after five or six weeks of radiation, she was given the all-clear with (i think) a 7% chance of recurrence. She’s been on Tamoxifen since then, and has another three years to go.
I’ve been thinking of you over the holidays. I’m glad it went well, enjoy the good drugs while they’ll give them to you, take your Xanax so you don’t freak out, and just generally, take care of yourself. And keep us updated, you’ll stay in our thoughts (and prayers for the few of us that think that way, me, its thoughts - but the same end goal).
Assuming they got clear margins, and they don’t think any more lymph nodes need to come out, my next step is chemo. It’s definitely full-on, kick-your-ass, baldness ahoy chemo, for 8-16 weeks, and depending on the test results on my tumor, I might also have a year’s worth of Herceptin (which thankfully doesn’t have significant side effects). I believe the lab work on the lymph nodes and margins will come back within a week.
THEN once that’s done, I get radiation for a month. After all that, I think the recurrence rate is less than 5%, so hopefully I can live with that level of uncertainty. It’s not too much worse a risk than getting on the highway in your car, right?
Thanks for the admonitions to take it easy. Sometimes I feel pretty normal, but then I’ll move my arm and the biopsy site will Make Itself Known assertively. So I’m being deliberately lazy and trying to enjoy that aspect of things.
Also slightly disturbing are the sloshy, squishy noises and sensations that happen in my arm pit a couple times a day. I’m hoping ice packs will help that diminish quickly!
To this day, one of the happiest moments of my life was when my Mom’s oncologist reported a clear margin after her biopsy/mastectomy, and that the lymph nodes were clean. She didn’t have to go through any chemo or radiation after that, so it was effectively the end of the journey.
I know yours has a bit to go…keep us posted so we can celebrate (hopefully!) along the way with you!
After my lumpectomy (which turned out to be benign in spite of previous ominousness) both the support bra and the pain meds were Carved In Stone :). Then, plain tylenol was surprisingly magic for a few more days.
Yes, second and third the take it easy. You are busy, healing.
I’m glad you’re over this hump of ‘what’s all this then’ and on to daily mundanities combined w/ ‘that feels weird, wth’. I hope there’s lots of dark chocolate in your diet, it’s good for you. Foot rubs, too. Medicinal purposes, ya know.
If you care to try the caps involved, losing your hair isn’t guaranteed. But of course your first priority is to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible so you can be here w/ us as long as possible.
I was told that my 11-lb cat would be too heavy for me to pick up when I had my lumpectomy about a year ago.
Cinnamon, it sounds like your surgery was more extensive than mine. I got on with just Tylenol in the days afterwards and didn’t use the prescription the doctor sent home with me. We also decided against radiation therapy although I did take Tamoxifen for awhile.
Did you have that preliminary procedure where they inserted a guide wire down to the biopsy site? That was the weirdest and worst part for me, like having some sort of little punk body-piecing antennae sticking up out of my breast.
I’m doing very well just on Tylenol now, and I took a shower! Woo!
Luckily I didn’t have the needle locator thing. I guess because the lump was incredibly easy to locate by feel.
Usually at least once a day I am having Dark Thoughts about dying from a recurrence, but such episodes tend to last for only 15 minutes or so, and I’m able to get through them. Mostly I’m thinking of things like, “Now I don’t have breast cancer - they took it out, and the next step is making sure it doesn’t come back,” and “Odds are I’ll probably be OK for a really long time,” and feeling very, very lucky to happen to live in a place where the best treatment that has ever been available in the history of humankind is available. And lucky to have all the fabulous people around me who love me and my kids, who are helping me, and generally being awesome in every way.
