Had my op now the wait

Life after a breast cancer diagnosis Recovering from treatment
1

Hi All

I had my ,wide excision with lymph nodes , last Friday

Last down as wire fitting, mammograms and injections all checked and double checked.

I felt almost nothing that I was expecting to, nothing painful , just a little uncomfortable .Home same day with pain relief if needed .

I didn’t need anything until the next day 

I was told scare would be where lump was at the top of my left breast and under arm of course .

Totally surprised to find scar almost completely around my nipple area , nothing near the lump site .

Not concerned about it as lump has gone , but why place wire to mark it then go in a different way .

Could it be because it was “very close to the chest wall , and you don’t have much fatty tissue “?

That was said during wire fitting , anyone else had this ?

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I can’t profess to know the exact answer, and its definitely one for your BCN - but my tumour was in the highest part of breast tissue possible and yet I was surprised by how low my scar was after unveiling it (it seemed inches lower than I was expecting). So, I realised that of course the surgery is done lying down, yet when we view breast we view it standing up. If I lie down flat on my back the incision matches up with the site of the scar tissue and hence the tumour…just wondering if you could be experiencing the same thing ? I might be totally wrong, and do ask your BCN as these things have a tendency to play on your mind and probably have a very simple answer :slightly_smiling_face: It seems your scar might be even further away than you were led to believe it would be, and you could indeed by quite right that it was a ‘preferred/safer/less damaging’ way to the site or something. I’d be interested to know what you find out :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hi, I had my lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy just over three weeks ago and our experiences sound very similar! Mine was an ER, HER2 negative and was at the top extremes of breast tissue in my right breast and when I had came round from the anaesthetic, momentarily had 50 fits as I could still feel the lump and didn’t realise that they were going in from around my nipple which would have been good to have known! On me, it looks as if a cut has been made half way round the top of the nipple and they’ve gone up from there and it does look pretty neat and will leave much less of a scar that if the lump had been removed in situ. I have got quite a dent where the lump was removed and have been told that will always be the case but feel I’m quite lucky and am just glad that “Gary the Gremlin” has gone:) Have had good news and been told that lymph nodes are clear and margins are good so no more surgery which is great, just waiting on Oncotype DX test results to determine whether chemo or hopefully radiotherapy next.

How are you feeling? Hate to say it but my pain kicked in a bit more after the first week especially with the lymph nodes, ow! Am feeling loads better physically now just a bit emotionally battered if that makes sense!

Hope this helps, take care and good luck with everything x