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The Susan G Komen website has chatrooms that were very helpful. You can talk to women who have had your particular situation. Also, the Dr Susan Love website and her book, "The Breast Book", which my surgeon recommended.
When I go back into town next week, I'm looking for that book.
I'm on another breast forum so far but need to check out others too.
Thanks for the suggestion.
The Susan G Komen website has chatrooms that were very helpful. You can talk to women who have had your particular situation. Also, the Dr Susan Love website and her book, "The Breast Book", which my surgeon recommended.
Heard those books are excellent but have yet to them them, soon hopefully. There was no way I could shower b/c my chest would get wet, I was able to shampoo my hair and shower from the waist down (using a large plastic garbage bag to go over my upper body) but had to sponge bathe on my upper torso. The 2 last drains were removed after about 3 weeks and I was able to drive (limited) after about 2 weeks. I try to park in pull-thru spots even if they're further away b/c backing out (manuvering) was no picnic.
BTW, Yahoo has some BC forums which are helpful and reassuring.
I had bilateral mastectomy Nov 18th. I had a morphine drip that I quit using the evening of surgery and went home the next day. I did not have reconstruction so there were no tissue expanders which may have affected my length of stay. I'm currently doing chemo.
The chemo is rough. Not as bad as I expected, but not nearly as easy as I hoped. I just completed my four rounds of dose dense (ever two weeks) of Adriamycin and Cytoxin. The side effects for me have been fatigue, extreme hot flashes, and indigestion/acid reflux?/gastric problems. I can't eat anything without belching for hours. It's gross! *LOL* Folloing the last two treatments I got a low grade fever the day after treatment and had to miss a day and a half of work. I've had nausea, but they gave me Emend for that so it's not really been a big problem. The A/C wiped my immune system completely out, but that was expected, so I'm on anti-biotics while my WBC and Neutrophils are low. The effects seem to be cumulative, so it's gotten a little worse each time. It's no fun, but it's do-able. Next week I'll start my four round of Taxol. It's supposed to be easier, so I'm looking forward to that!
songinthewind7
I wanted to mention something else that I think is important. I had a sentinel node biopsy. This is where they remove just a few lymph nodes under the arm including the sentinel (major large) node, instead of a lot of lymph nodes. This is a lot less damaging to you body and has a speedier recovery with fewer side effects.This is peachy if the sentinel node turns out to be negative, but if it's positive then there is no way of knowing if the cancer has continued to travel past it.
The question I failed to ask my surgeon before hand was "What if the sentinel node is positive?" Might it be more prudent to have more nodes removed in the first place? Mine was positive and so I underwent both chemo and radiation, because there was no way of knowing if the cancer had gone past the sentinel node. If it had been negative, I would not have needed any of these things. I could have had more lymph nodes taken out and examined, but declined to have more surgery. I think my oncologist would have prefered that I had more lymph nodes removed, because you want to remove any obvious tumors.
I had 3 very teeny tumors, so everyone was really shocked that my node was positive.
When the radiologist talked to me, I think he said that they don't remove nodes anymore. I might have misunderstood at the time but I'll ask the surgeon when I talk to her.
I just hate all this waiting.
I just saw this and I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. My mom had a mastectomy when she was 73 and spent a couple of nights in the hospital, but she was frail and did not have a good support system. I was around, but was 9 months pregnant. Despite having the surgery and the drain tube, my mom spent all day at the hospital on the day I delivered. I'm just saying that so you'll know that although you won't feel good, you might feel better than you think you will.
My mom didn't have any lymph node involvement and because of her age the doctor did not recommend chemo or radiation and she's still cancer free 11 years later. She tried to take Tamoxifan but stopped for some reason--she didn't like how she felt on it, or something.
I guess I'm afraid with all this waiting I seem to be doing on referrals and authorizations from docs to insurance companies....geez I could be dead.
I have spent so much time on the phone.
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