Hi @wolfpacmom welcome to this pack. I also had a bilateral diagnosis with one tumour in each naughty boob.
Hope your scan today went well.
Thanks @arty1 I didnāt know about Sambuccol. I will go in search of it. Definitely feeling rubbish and Iām back in the studio with a bunch of young kids again tonight so the immune system needs all the help it can get!!
I love that outlook @waveylocks and I feel exactly the same. I was certainly in denial before cancer and think that going through it has made me a better and more appreciative person. 100% agree on the meeting awesome people side of it too. 
Keep going, our @hoggie. Glad pain has subsided quickly and Iām hugging you right back.
Hello @worrieddaughter and welcome. Many of us have been at the same point as your mum and know and understand how frightened you must feel. It sounds like it would be best to get on with the chemo now and perhaps they will do a mastectomy at the end of it? I had 4 ops before my mastectomy and wish I had been offered one at the start in hindsight. It is not uncommon to hear the margins arenāt clear, but it is unlucky. When I switched hospitals and consultants after my failed surgeries, I was told they would prefer to go straight for chemo and remove everything at the end. My pathology showed no remaining cancer after the chemo. I had 2 positive lymph nodes. Please donāt despair; there is lots of very successful treatment available for your mum. I hope you have managed to speak to the wonderful BCN nurses today. @carrie5 is our resident wise woman (in addition to being a crazy potholing, axe-throwing, tank driving wild woman!) so definitely do as she suggests and talk through your situation with them.
Good to hear from you @bigpickle. Hooray for completing Herceptin!! Go slap the nearest bench! I have no experience of Neratinib but hopefully somebody will post who does. A 4 hour wait to see your onco makes me frown. 
@boobitis it sounds like you have a fantastic support network in place and a plan to deal with how you communicate your situation to your little boy. This is all really good. It sounds like your surgeon has empathy and understanding which is a big plus, as is the wealth of experience. My fake boob still has no nipple and doesnāt feel like the other one. But actually, itās fine. Itās a small price to pay for my life, is the way I see it. Sure I would have preferred not to have got breast cancer, but I did and I have reached acceptance on that. To begin with, I almost couldnāt believe they were telling me I had cancer. Almost like some spoiled child that couldnāt believe they had the right to give me such bad news! I am not invincible; I get that now. But I will try my best to be, with the cards Iāve been dealt. You are quite right, it doesnāt define us.
Last but certainly not least, hello and welcome to @wolfpacmom. Sorry to hear you have had to join us but we are an exceptional bunch so you are in great company. 
It sounds like your team are moving fast with it all, which is excellent as the waiting is torturous. A top quality husband and three grown daughters sounds like a perfect support network right there. Itās all such a shock to begin with and suddenly you are on that treadmill before youāve had a chance to take it all in. Well done for finding us and saying hello. Thatās a proactive approach so give yourself a pat on the back for realising that you need to take care of your mental wellbeing right from the start. You are certainly one jump ahead of where I was at the same point. Keep us posted. There is always somebody around or certainly never far away.
Salbert
x
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@boobitis - the nerve block I had wa brilliant , I can absolutely truthfully say that I came home pain freeā¦ I did develop a bit of an infected seroma two weeks later but my team got me on antibiotics straight away and that was the only issue I had x
My surgeon was also brutally honest which is why I turned down an implant as my other boob is a pendulous post breast feeding boob and I was told Iād have to wait two years for symmetry surgery
@wolfpacmom - Welcome aboard ā¦ Iām sorry you e had to join us though 
we are. Lovely lot though .
Itās so good you have a great support team in your family x
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Hi all. I have my pre-op tomorrow. I feel like I should have a list of questions ready but not sure what to ask. Was there anything you wished you had asked? X
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Hi @cass2 also interested in this as Iāve just had a call from the breast nurse to say my surgery will be on the 16th December! My last chemo is the 20th Nov.
My original surgeon canāt fit me in, in the necessary window so sheās allocated me to someone else. Has that ever happened to anyone? I doubt it makes a difference. Iām meeting her on the 2nd Dec.
Hi @cass2 and @emma-jayne - I wasnāt told about the heart shaped pillow and drain bag that Crawley hospital require you to bring before the lymph node removal surgery. Luckily they had a gift pack ready made up by women who had already had the op themselves. I felt such gratitude to these unknown women that day.
The original surgeon I was allocated was off sick on the day of my first op so I got another so I think it happens sometimes.
Itās good news that you both have surgery dates and are getting on with the next stage. Best of luck, ladies.
xx
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Sorry to keep on venting in here but I just got a call from my surgeon saying that my pre-op bloods were all out of range and they donāt know if they can do the surgery next week. Everything was fine in September and they donāt know what is causing the numbers to be all out of whack. Iām terrified and just sitting here waiting to see if they can get me in for a full body MRI and CT scan to see if they can figure out what is going on.
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You really didnāt need that @kartoffel and please vent as much and often as needed, I know we canāt change it for you but weāll listen and do feel for your stress and frustration at the recent train of events. Do hope you can get answers quickly. Sometime I think our bodies just refuse to play ball after putting up with all thatās happened to them over the months and throw a tantrum on lab results.
thinking of you.
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Oh no @kartoffel that is truly crap. That trauma is just under the surface waiting to hijack us, isnāt it. They canāt give you any idea of why? I am praying they get you in for scans today and can give you some idea of what is going on fast. You really donāt need this. You have been through so much, my friend. Iām so sorry to hear this.
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Iām so sorry youāre going through this. Have they said which part of your bloods they ware concerned about? Iām only asking as my friend had something similar. Everything was fine with her blood results at one point after chemo but then they went out of normal range. She had picked up COVID but was showing no symptoms at the time of the blood test. They stabilized again not long after. X
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Iāve been booked in for lumpectomy on the 17th November. Another milestone in sight. Hope it goes well for you x
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Thank you so much for your love on my post. We had a fabulous time away and are back home now. Iām looking at booking onto a moving forward course soon - they told me I couldnāt until Iād finished hospital treatment and I finished phesgo in August so I need to have a look at some dates now. Iām due my first mammogram this month - I spoke to the breast care nurses at my hospital yesterday as I have lymphoedema of the breast and itās pretty painful so I was hoping theyād agree to an mri instead of a mammogram. They basically told me to wait and see if it āsettles downā in the next few weeks. I did tell them that Iāve had it for months and am having hospital treatment for it, so it wonāt settle down in a couple of weeks, but hey ho. Iāve also found a lump in my neck 
. Iām trying not to let worry run away with me, but I reported it yesterday and the nurse told me I need to contact my oncologist as I finished phesgo less than 3 months ago 
. Passed from pillar to post at the moment. Will keep pushing though and advocating for myself. Praying the neck lump is nothing 
x
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@kartoffel not what you wanted to hear. Sorry. I hope you can get a scan and maybe new bloods to see if they have changed. Have you had any vaccines lately? A virus or cold that could affect them?
Keep venting. We are here to listen and support.
Sending love
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Morning beautiful people 
I think I have mentioned this already before but canāt remember hehe my mums mastectomy with axillary node clearance went all well. Today going to meet up with the surgeon for her first post op follow up and possibly removal of her drain as well.
Just would like to know what to expect on her first follow up post op appointment. My mum was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer with involvement in axillary lymph node under armpit. She finished 7 cycle of neoadjuvent chemo, had single total mastectomy with axillary node clearance.
I guess next treatment surgeon today will discuss about radiotherapy.
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Iāve been scanned head to toe and the good news is, no metastatic disease. I do however have a UTI and thatās what they think is causing my liver function to be impacted and they wonāt do the surgery until that improves.
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@rrey itās terrifying to find anything that could be cancer now, I do understand. The lesion that came up on my chest turned out to be benign but sent me into a paroxysm of fear the instant I found it. Get onto it and be like a dog with a bone.
Hi @sshini93. At my first meet up with my surgeon after mastectomy Iām pretty sure she told me there was no sign of any cancer in my pathology results. Hereās hoping this happens to your mum but let us know. My radiotherapy followed a couple of months after the mastectomy.
@kartoffel I had just written āHow are you, our kartoffel?ā and your message popped up. Massive relief. So pleased for you but a bit gutted that a UTI can send your liver function haywire and delay your op. Iām so sorry to hear that. I guess we have to focus on being hugely relieved that there is no metastatic disease. Honestly, I breathed out at my desk like it was me that had just been told that. We have travelled this road together for a long time so Iām clearly heavily invested in your journey too.
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Fantastic news. UTI isnāt fun but hopefully with treatment you will feel better soon and surgery will go ahead once all cleared.
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@kartoffel I think the main emotion there is probably relief but what a scare and a shame to mess with your surgery date. Good luck with getting things back on track, and also hope your friend is getting somewhere with a plan.
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Good news the surgeon said according to pathology report, the lump after neoadjuvent chemo went down from 11cm to 3cm. He removed 22 lymph nodes and all of them had no cancer 
3 of them which had cancer at the beginning when she was diagnosed was successfully eradicated with the chemo . Felt so happy hearing that she had complete pathological response. On Wednesday when I meet with oncologist, he will discuss further with her next treatment but Iāve been told she will have further treatment before radiotherapy, not sure what it is but whatever it is mums ready 
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@sshini93 thatās sounds really good news, thank you for keeping us up to date. Very best wishes.
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