My mother recently had a lumpectomy where a 3cm lump was removed. Two weeks later they came back with the results from the test of the lymph nodes, and found that the 5 they tested were all cancerous. This means that she is going to have to have a mastectomy.
However,
I am concerned, because the 5 week delay between the lumpectomy and the mastectomy is rather long and I was wondering if this means that the cancer will progress quicker than if she were to have the mastectomy in the first place?
She is also going to have to have a CAT and an MRI scan to see if it has spread around the body. Is this normal procedure or should we be worried?
hi, i think this sounds normal. i had lumpectomy and 5 nodes removed in may this year ,all 5 were positive . so i had ct scan of bone ,liver, lungs and all were clear. so had 6 fec chemos and all nodes removed 2wks ago. unfortunatley for me 3 still had cancer activley growing in them so about to begin 3 taxotere chemos before rads and hormone therepy. i hope all goes well for her.
I am sorry to hear of your mother’s dx, but I wouldn’t worry over much about a five week gap between the two surgeries. Your mother needs to be recovered from the first surgery before facing the second, and I would think that she will be having all her lymph nodes removed at the same time as the mastectomy?
I doubt very much if the cancer will have progressed further during this time - the real problem is how much anxiety this additional wait and surgery places on you all - and that will be hard. Just hang on in there - do talk to the breast care nurses with any concerns, and I’m sure they will be able to ease your mind.