Well, he’s got to make that next boat payment somehow.
BTW, I have not had even one twinge of pain or discomfort since the procedure was over right up to this very second. I’m grateful.
I don’t mind going back. This is a major cancer research and treatment center. I’m a freelance grant proposal writer, and when they were raising money to build it, I was hired to write a proposal, which ultimately was funded somewhere in the eight-figure zone. I have some affection for the place.
I’m glad to see that you’re doing fine (so far).
I just got home from the biopsy results. I have “invasive ductal carcinoma with lobular features.” I have an appointment with a surgeon next week and the radiologist said they’d probably want to do a lumpectomy. And then radiation.
Rats. Not what I was hoping for, but not catastrophic either. I don’t know much yet.
good to get an earlier diagnosis.
hope your treatment goes well.
So sorry. But you are right, not catastrophic.
I had a double mastectomy yesterday. it was less painful than the biopsy.
Many hugs to you.
Oh geez, now I feel like I jinxed you.
Since I just went through this same thing just over a year ago, I can tell you something about the lumpectomy procedure if you want. I think my case was a little less advanced–the carcinoma cells hadn’t gotten outside of the ducts. I did talk to a radiologist, but we decided against radiation therapy. I am taking Tamoxifen.
[Hug]
Holy crap. That’s a devoted Doper for you… she reaches for her iPad as soon as she wakes up from surgery.
All kidding aside… oh my. A couple of my friends have gone through it and it didn’t look like any picnic from my side of the room. I wish you a speedy and uneventful recovery and all the best.
Yeah, what’s up with that??
No, you didn’t. 
I have the one that’s one step up (or down) from what you had. The name contains the word “invasive”-- blech.
Are you under the care of a medical oncologist for the Tamoxifen? Did you meet with that person before you met with the surgeon?
The radiologist who gave me the biopsy results immediately made an appt for me with a surgeon. But one of my friends who has been through this said to find a medical oncologist and meet with him/her before the surgeon, if possible. I’m going into this kind of blind.
Is there anything in particular you wish you had known or that someone had told you up front (so to speak). Or something maybe that you wish you hadn’t known?
This.
(Stage III melanoma here)
If the radiologist wants you to see the surgeon right away – see the surgeon right away.
As part of the lumpectomy procedure, you may have a “sentinel lymph node biopsy”, which traces the lymph channels through which metastasis would spread, with just a couple of target nodes being biopsied.
The oncologist will want the surgeon’s input, including the post-surgery pathology report and possibly other tests (such as a PET scan). If you are being treated at a specialized cancer clinical division, the doctors will likely be part of the same team.
Push your care team hard about what you should be looking out for and getting back to them about.
Don’t look up anything in books or on the internet unless and until you are mentally prepared for worse news than your care team shares with you at a given point.
(This especially applies to survival statistics (for which the party line is that you are an individual patient, not a statistic) and to pathology reports (which may lead you into the territory of “difficult to diagnose”, “often recurs”, and “poor prognosis”)).
Nurses are the “boots on the ground” of medical care; ask them about anything and everything with regard to practical aspects of coping with your illness and its treatment (for example, how to move around with minimal disturbance to your incisions).
Expect your diagnosis to take over your life until you are past your first couple of years of follow-ups .
I’m sorry to hear your diagnosis. I’m 1/4 of the way through chemotherapy after having a lumpectomy in December. It righteously sucks, but with proper treatment we have about a 95% chance of getting through the suckitude and being done with it - a blip in our life that recedes into the past, and then we live for decades and die of something else. 
Aside from that little statistic, I also strongly advise against looking at survival rates and prognosis stats. You’ll just drive yourself crazy. My goal with this whole thing is to slowly sand the edges off the mortal dread until I have it in the same category in my mind as car accidents and lightning strikes - stuff you know is possible, but you just shrug and go about your business.
Do you know if your tumor is estrogen, progesterone, or HER2 receptive? That will influence what the chemotherapy outlook is like.
Here’s my deal:
triple negative (no estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptivity)
high grade (fast-growing)
small tumor, not lobular
The good news for me is I had a small, discrete ball of a tumor, with clear lymph nodes. So there’s a good chance taking out the tumor removed all cancer from my body. But they have to be sure, especially since triple negative can be aggressive and it was high grade. So my chemo is 4 treatments of AC, then 4 treatments of T, over 16 weeks. Then radiation, since I had a lumpectomy and that greatly reduces any chance of recurrence.
Nausea has not been a significant problem if I take my medication. Acid stomach and reflux has been a bitch, but I’m hopeful we’ve got the right med for that too now.
I lost my hair last week and that’s a bitch. It’s not just cosmetically and socially challenging - it’s also an icky, itchy, inconvenient mess. But I’m amassing tons of good resources about it.
Again though - all the ickiness is completely temporary, and it will almost certainly cure me. I’m holding on to that! In the end, the benefit is well worth the investment.
Take care of yourself. All emotions now are normal, and the hard emotions will get better. Bad days happen, then good days follow them.
Please PM me if you would like. I’d be happy to talk.
**susan **- I’m glad you’re doing OK! Take your pain meds and coddle yourself.
I had two lumpectomies (margins not good enough on first) followed by radiation. Everything was painless but that going to radiation daily was a drag. I got really sick of having to be there every day. The staff was great, I was just counting the days til I didn’t have to go.
I got the biopsy results yesterday and the cancer center made the appointment for next Tuesday , so if I can squeeze in to see an oncologist before that, I’ll do it.
I do anticipate this will be done.
Like what kinds of things? Side effects? New lumps and bumps?
You are so right about that. Except here, of course, where everyone is level-headed.
Wow. I wasn’t expecting that. But thanks for the heads-up.
Unauthorized Cinnamon, I don’t know anything about the tumor. I guess that’s something I’d like to talk to the oncologist about, i.e., to interpret the pathology report. I don’t want to google the descriptors as the results will prolly alarm me without conveying any information.
I might PM some of y’all at some point, and I appreciate the offer. 
I hope this essentially turns out to be my story.
Did you have any side effects from the radiation?
Yes, I’ve been seeing a medical oncologist, who prescribed the Tamoxifen and with whom I have follow-ups. I saw her most recently about a month ago.
I didn’t see her or the radiation oncologist until after I had the surgery and the results. The surgeon gave me referrals–a list of doctors in the area in both categories and I looked up info about them all online and picked one of each to consult about treatment. I had the lumpectomy in November 2013, but didn’t see the medical and radiation oncologists until around Christmas and started on the Tamoxifen early last January. I have to take it for 5 years. (1 down, 4 to go…)
I have a mammogram every 6 months now, but so far things have been fine.
The surgery itself wasn’t bad. I scheduled it on a Thursday and also took the Friday off; the Monday was Veteran’s Day so I had a nice long weekend to recover. A co-worker drove me to the medical center and picked me up to take me home again afterwards, about 4 hours later. I lay down on the couch and slept on and off through the afternoon and night.
My chest was well wrapped up in a large Ace bandage that I wasn’t allowed to take off until the following morning–I couldn’t take a shower/bath until the next morning either and really wanted one by then. Underneath that were little bandaids covering the incision and I kept those on for a few days.
The doctor gave me a prescription for Vicodin, but I was fine taking Tylenol and ripped it up over the weekend after I was sure I wouldn’t need a stronger pain med.
They didn’t take out nearly as much tissue as I was expecting them to.
Sometimes I have a little sharp prickly pain in the surgical area. I thought that was from the tiny metal chips they put it at the site to identify the problem area in future; they put in one when they do the biopsy, then use that as a central point for the lumpectomy and put in another one afterwards. But when I asked the medical oncologist about it when I saw her last, she said that it wasn’t the chips but was normal.
Miss Mapp, thanks ever so for that detailed account.
Have you experienced side effects from the Tamoxifen?
I had some odd pelvic pain last summer–whether or not it’s related to the medication, my doctor isn’t sure but we’re also keeping an eye on that.
I was hoping that it would finally kick me into menopause and put an end to periods, but no such luck.
Susan, how are you doing?
Saw the surgeon today. My cancer is Stage 1. She said I could have a radical mastectomy or a lumpectomy + radiation. I opted for the latter. It will be March 12. It’s an outpatient procedure and done under general anesthesia. I was glad to hear that. It’s incredible what they try to do under local these days.
Actually, I predict that the day is not far off when the doctor/hospital will mail you the instruments, you do the surgery on your kitchen table, and send them the money. But I digress.
I’m feeling okay about this, even though I’m standing on the edge and about to be sucked into the medical vortex.
What is the post-lumpectomy recovery like, specifically WRT walking my dogs. I’m thinking it will be awhile before I can let anyone tug hard on my left arm. One of the dogs is pretty big and pulls.
What other restrictions did you have in your activities?
Susan, how are you?
Unfortunately, one of the sentinel nodes was positive, so I’m probably looking at chemo as well.
I am wrapped in a giant, tight cloth binder that covers my whole upper torso (and all incisions) and I have 4 bulb drains dangling off me, not unlike a cyborg sow. Varieties of pain, none terrible. I’m on benzos only (no opiates), though I should say that later this week I’ll be advocating for a higher dose or frequency.
This is not how I intended to spend this month! :mad: (or year).