Hi
I am just about to finish 8 lots of chemo and have surgery sometime next month,(Double MX and lymph nodes one side to remove BC the other side at my request due to family history). Can anyone advise me what the recommendations are regarding driving following this type of surgery. I appreciate that it will be an absolute no no initially but I am an independant sole and will find the restrictions very frustrating.
Thank You
Andie
Hi Andie. After my mastectomy and recon in November - I was in for 12 days, and still with drains after 20. So that was 3 weeks from start to finish. On the 21st day I rang my insurance co. - the one that begins with an e-s… and has Michael Winner in the adverts! A very young girl in a thick Liverpudian accent told me that they (the insurance co.) didn’t know anything about the medical side of a person (!? - well, perhaps she could have asked!), and that if the doctors hadn’t said that I couldn’t drive then it was ok to do so. Nuff said! I was in that car in five minutes! x Jacq x
Hi Andie,
When i had my mst,recon and lymph removal i had it done the diep way (tummy tuck), the docs said no driving till i felt better but about 6wks was normal, i did drive a wee bit earlier than that but phoned my insurance company just in-case and they said it was ok.When i had my hysterectomy they said any abdomen op takes time to heal and that was 6wks also. I think it just depends on the independant person how their op goes and how quick they recover.
Iv,e to see the consultant this fri re- preventative mast and recon to other side when they spoke about it not long after my first op i was all for it now i,m not sure (i,m a coward), but i,ll take the lead from the consultant and do what she thinks is best, i think it,s just the thought of going to the hospital again, i don,t think i could bear it if i didn,t get it done and it came back in other breast and have to have chemo again, this is my 2nd time and as well as the tumour i also had wid-spread high-grade dcis.
I don,t know what hosp you are going to but the one i was in was very good and you get to meet some lovely people who are going through the same thing, i met a smashing girl who also had her chemo first because she was mis-diagnosed at first and her tumour grew quite big, we still meet up and she is doing really well.
Hope everything goes well for you and take plenty of rest.
Love Reneexx.
Hi Renee
Thanks for your advice. As soon as I realised that my only option was a full MX I asked the consultant if he would consider doing both sides at the same time having lost my mum, her sister and my cousin all to BC. He immediately agreed and now I am relieved that it will all be done with in one operation. I was offered reconstruction but declined - I am an older lady, happily married for over 40 years and decided that one lot of surgery was enough. My oncologist was not keen on me having recon. untill after rads so it would have meant going back into hospital. I made the decision that I will continue my life without breasts.On special occassions I will have a prothesis - day to day I will be flat.
I am being treated at the Princes Royal hospital in Farnborough, Kent. I had my chemo first because I have IBC and until some shrinkage had been acheived they would not consider surgery. Things have moved on. I have one more chemo this friday then surgery at the end of Feb beginning of March. I have already met some really lovely people in the treatment suite and the staff in the cancer unit are all so helpful I could not ask for more. I am looking forward to moving onto the next part of this journey, - the reason for my initial question was summer is coming and I do not want to be stranded at home for too long. The answers I have had have really cheered my up.
Thank You
LOL Andie xx