Hey ladies.
I’m am approaching the end of chemo and am now starting to look towards surgery. Currently I have had a good response to chemo and my lump can no longer be felt. The discussion seems to be that I will have a lumpectomy to remove the tumour marker and then just some cells around it to be tested. My only concern is that I started with a 5cm lump and there seems to be a lot of women who had much smaller lumps and went on to have mastectomies.
Is there anyone who was in a similar position to me and if so how did you make your decision?
Xx
Hi SamH87 - I was originally expecting a lumpectomy however it was discovered before chemo began that although the lump was fairly small, I had a separate area of DCIS - which mean’t a lumpectomy was no longer viable but the best option was MX - I also had ANC. After chemo and targetted therapy of herceptin and pertuzmab - my pathology reports following surgery was excellent - all signs of the cancer was gone! I had 0/17 nodes positive - all they could see was I had had 1 node which had showed signs of cancer and 4 which were slightly enlarged but no proof they were cancerous - as absolutely no signs of it still being there! I was so relieved and glad to have had extensive surgery. I couldn’t have any reconstruction at the same time but I can in a years time - at the moment I’m quite happy with a prosthetic fitting.
Whatever decision is made I hope you’ll be as happy as I am xx
Hi Sam
I too had a good response from chemo, although I could still feel a lump before surgery. I made the decision to have a mastectomy. To me it was important for all the tissue that had been affected, to be removed. I was worried that there would be scar tissue left which I would confuse with a new lump, and I would spend all my time poking and prodding.
A sentinel node biopsy was done while I was in surgery, and tested, and I needed no further clearance. Then when they examined the breast tissue there were NO cancer cells found at all. Which meant the lump I felt was all scar tissue.
I am over the moon that the chemo did such an excellent job, and don’t regret my decision to have a full mastectomy. I will now be having radiotherapy to the chest wall and possibly the axilla, continuing Herceptin and Pertuzumab, hormone treatment and bisphosphonates. So still a way to go.
Finally the advice I remember most from one of the BCN was, when making your decision whatever you keep coming back to - in other words your gut feel - is the right decision. And that was exactly what happened with me. Every time I considered a lumpectomy, I had several niggles of doubt, and always came back to thinking the mastectomy was the right choice.
Good luck with your decision, and your surgery. Xx
Hi, i was diagnosed 17/3/17 with grade2 IDC. My tumor was small. I wasn’t given a choice at the time of surgery i had lumpectomy and 29 sessions of radiation. I was fortunate enough not to have chemo. I had a sentinal node biopsy during surgery. They ended up taking 3 nodes as they were enlarged but came back clear. I had a 6cm void where the nodes were taken and this turned to a seroma and kept fillinf with fluid.I finished radiation in June last year. September i had my first internal breast infection and had to have drainage under arm and breast. To date i have had 4 infections and now i am looking at having to have a mastectomy. I am upset and angry but what is is. I have decided to have a double with no reconstruction. I am plus size, and i am grieving for my breast now but i know it’s the right desision for me… i cannot go thru another infection and weeks in hospital. Mine is apparently not common My double/bilateral matectomy will be within the next 90days . I feel my breast and also gasp because i think i feel another tumour but it’s scar tissue. As someone mentioned below you have to go with your gut. From my diagnosis to surgery was 10 days and a whirlwind. I blinked and i was in surgery. I wish i had have had the time to get my head around it and to be able to chat on a site like this and be fully informed before i had surgery.