Beyond The Shock(R)

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  Is it rare for a carcinoma to be painful?

  Asked by anonymous

  Learning About Breast Cancer

  over 8 years 2 answers •

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    anonymous

    Learning About Breast Cancer

    I discovered my cancer because it was painful. Maybe God was showing me. I wasn't supposed to have another mammogram for ten months. It was stage 2 and aggressive. I would not have survived 10 months.

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    anonymous

    Learning About Breast Cancer

    That is the problem with cancer: it is not painful except the tumor is pressing some nerve or is in as advanced stage!

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  Is a painful lump diagnosed as carcinoma rare?

  Asked by anonymous

  Learning About Breast Cancer

  over 8 years Answer •

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  What is the treatment for low grade intraductal micropapillary carcinoma?

  Asked by anonymous

  Learning About Breast Cancer

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  If you have had ductal carcinoma insitu, can it return?

  Asked by anonymous

  Learning About Breast Cancer

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    anonymous

    Survivor since 2011

    I was diagnosed with DCIS stage 0. I had a bilateral mastectomy. My oncologist told me I would not get it again. They removed all of my tissue and both nipples. dCIS grows in the tissue. She also removed lymph nodes to make sure it wasn't in them. I am 100% cancer free because of my mastectomy. I...

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    I was diagnosed with DCIS stage 0. I had a bilateral mastectomy. My oncologist told me I would not get it again. They removed all of my tissue and both nipples. dCIS grows in the tissue. She also removed lymph nodes to make sure it wasn't in them. I am 100% cancer free because of my mastectomy. I hope this helps.

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  If I have a invasive tubular carcinoma tumor that is 4cm, how long should I wait before surgery removal? (my doctors say they cannot do it for two weeks...I am concerned it will grow or spread elsewhere )

  Asked by anonymous

  Learning About Breast Cancer

  over 8 years 1 answer •

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    anonymous

    Stage 4 Patient

    I can totally understand your concern. From what I've read....invasive tubular carcinoma tends to be low grade which means it is a slower growing cancer & two weeks is a reasonable time period to wait. I had to have chemo prior to my surgery due to my stage of cancer. I will have my mastectomy...

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    I can totally understand your concern. From what I've read....invasive tubular carcinoma tends to be low grade which means it is a slower growing cancer & two weeks is a reasonable time period to wait. I had to have chemo prior to my surgery due to my stage of cancer. I will have my mastectomy this coming Monday. That will be a period of four weeks between my last chemo and date of surgery. Here's a link that might help. http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/types/rare_idc/tubular/. Good luck with your surgery. :)

    Diana

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  What do I expect after lumpectomy from stage 1 carcinoma lcis

  Asked by anonymous

  Learning About Breast Cancer

  over 7 years 4 answers •

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    anonymous

    Learning About Breast Cancer

    You know what is so wonderful about these responses? No one is saying you should feel this or that. No one is extrapolating their individual experiences to a universal. They are all acknowledging there can a huge variety of responses.

    So - like everyone else I am not saying my experience will...

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    You know what is so wonderful about these responses? No one is saying you should feel this or that. No one is extrapolating their individual experiences to a universal. They are all acknowledging there can a huge variety of responses.

    So - like everyone else I am not saying my experience will be yours. One thing I learned myself and had reinforced on this site is we are often not warned about seromas developing post operatively - seromas are fluid filled sacs in or around the scar. Around 40% of women get them, so they are not rare. There are threads on seromas on this site so I won't go into more detail.

    The pain levels can vary enormously. I would recommend you make sure you have effective pain meds already prescribed for you and on hand so you do not find yourself in pain and without them after discharge.

    The lumpectomy size, location,number of stitches etc varies enormously. Mine is an inner upper quadrant, so my scar is visible with even semi-low cut top. but I actually like scars, and find them interesting, so this does not have a negative effect on me as it would on someone horrified by scars.

    The operation itself was my first as well as first stay in a hospital, so I was very frightened. I had a bad reaction to coming out of the anaesthetic - there is a family history of that so I expected it would happen.

    I paid huge attention to avoiding acquiring an infection while I was in hospital as well as once I got out. I was scrupulous about scrubbing myself from head to tow with the anti bacterial wash our hospitals give us to use the night before and morning of surgery. I wore pure cotton gloves in hospital so I was not touching germ filled surfaces and then my face or wound. I changed gloves often. I used anti bacterial hand wash many times a day after discharge as well. I bathed using Phisohex while my wound was healing. I kept well away from small children, even though it would have been lovely not to. I avoided anyone ill with colds etc so I was not sneezed or had to shake hands or kiss anyone carrying any germs. I followed the surgeons instructions to the letter for wound dressings. He used a dressing product that meant I could shower etc normally and it dropped off naturally when it was ready. I let it and did not pull at it. When I was briefly readmitted to hospital because of pain, I did not allow the Dr to remove the dressings early to "have a look" . I told him I had no fever, no temperature, no clinical indications of infection, I was back in hospital because they discharged me after removing 20% of my breast without giving me any pain meds to take home, I wanted some pain meds to rectify their error, and I definitely was not going to disobey y surgeons instructions to not touch the dressing till it fell off naturally excepting if I had an infection.
    I found I could not pick up and carry things I used to be able to carry leaning on my wound area. Even a couple of years later, I have to be very careful. Just this week a 3 year old climbed up next to me and bashed her head into my scar. It was very painful. I try to be careful about squirming children or animals, but I still get a painful whack.

    For about a year after the lumpectomy I had to avoid breast jiggle. I always used well supported bras anyway, but if I was in a car going over a speed hump for example, I would use my hand to hold my affected breast to avoid a painful jiggle. Years later I still don't do anything that cause my affected breast to jiggle - it tugs painfully at the scar tissue. I still get a weird tightness and burning sensation in the site of my sentinel node biopsy under my armpit. Many women I talk to say that is worse than the lumpectomy.

    Within days of my lumpectomy I returned to yoga classes. I could not lay on my front or do some of the poses. I didn't care. The reason was I did what I could was I wanted to try and stretch the underarm and breast scars while they were fresh and still soft, as much as I could, because I knew if I let them heal in a tight ball, they would remain tight forever. So as much as I did not want to do arm stretches etc, I did as much as I could. A formal independent test by a physio showed I retained more than 95% function in my affected arm compared to my non-affected arm, so I think the early stretching really helped.

    I did not have any body image crisis as I actually like my scars. Some women are very different and feel damaged or mutilated.

    The worst part for me was the Nuclear Medicine staff on the morning of my surgery who gave me an radiotracer injection into my breast under the general nipple area. The technician lied to me and told me if was the same pain level as a local anaesthetic and claimed I did not need any pain relief. The pain was excrusciating - I felt like it took the top of my head off. Every muscle in my body spasmed. I involuntarily urinated and defecated a little in my underwear. Tears poured out of my eyes automatically without any intention to cry. I needed three months of five times a week phsyio on the shoulder closest to the injection site as the contractions from the painful injection was so bad, it locked the shoulder in a weird position. I then had to sit around for 6 hours waiting for surgery essentially in shock from this.

    My tip - ask if you are having the radiotracer injection to light up the sentinel node before surgery and if you are INSIST on being given adequate pain relief such as EMLA cream one hour before, lidocaine injection first [I can tolerate a lidocaine injection no problems but the radiotracer is a million times worse] and/or the green tube with pain relieving chemicals you can suck on. I had to laugh cynically months later when I found out the university animal ethics research committee requires female dogs who are given this same radiotracer injection have solid pain relief first, yet our Protocols for Nuclear Technicians who do the same thing to humans do not. The reason it is mandatory for dogs by the way is because the pain from the radiotracer injection into the breast is considered is classified as cruel and torture when done to a dog without anesthetic.

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    anonymous

    Survivor since 2011

    Great news you caught the tumor early!
    I agree with the previous comment. Everyone is different. I was stage one but invasive. I did not require a drain. I did have to return one week later to get clean margins. I was very lucky. My first surgery was the day before Thanksgiving and while I would...

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    Great news you caught the tumor early!
    I agree with the previous comment. Everyone is different. I was stage one but invasive. I did not require a drain. I did have to return one week later to get clean margins. I was very lucky. My first surgery was the day before Thanksgiving and while I would not have been up to hosting, I did attend and felt fine. No pain meds were taken after I woke up in recovery.

    After my second surgery, I was much more tired and achey. All in all I found the surgery to be much easier than the the wire placement and the dye insertion. I think part of it is your relieved to have the lump gone. The other part is that, in my case, the surgeon and anesthesiologist did everything they could to make the surgery pain free and the recovery easy.

    If you stay on any narcotics, start taking laxatives from day one to avoid constipation. Beyond that, some people have more fatigue than others, allow yourself some slack. My second surgery was the last week of November 2011 and after 6 months, it was still unfcomfortable to run across the street or if I bump myself at the surgical site, it still hurts today.

    I took the oncotype blood test to determine if my type of tumor would respond well to chemotherapy. THe doctors originally prepared me for this evenutuality but again, I was lucky. My specific tumor woudl not benefit form chemo so I only had to do 7.5 weeks of radiation (5 days a week).

    After that, I was supposed to take Tamoxifen because I was pre-menopausal but I have a genetic blood clotting issue that put me at great risk of a clot on that drug. I had to have a hysterectomy but this is very unusual. I did not have to take the post-menopausal drug (Arimidex) because teh benefit did not statistically outweigh the removal of the primary source of estrogen( ovries).

    There are multiple paths and possibilities but the team of doctors should be able to share teh options an dteh pros adn cons of each so you can make your best decision. I would highly recommend that you bring someone with you to these appointments so that you can listen and someone else can take notes to review for unanswered questions later. This is invaluable.

    I hope these comments were helpful and I wish you the best of luck. You can do this!

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