Thanks for sharing this. I’m due to start a pretty much identical journey in January and looking for as much info (and inspo) as possible. It’s good to read everybody’s experiences.
As a newbie (diagnosed September, Surgery November) there’s lots of jargon for me to learn. I’m not always sure what it means.
Good luck with your journey. x
Hi ladies,
Just want to say I have found this thread really useful today. I am going in for my lumpectomy and snb in the morning. I will now add my dressing gown to my bag and bring a pillow for the seat belt in the car on way home. Some great practical advice. Thanks everyone. 
I hope you are all doing well on your journeys. Mine is just starting.
Clare. Xx
Good Luck for tomorrow. You’ll be home before you know it
Good luck Clare. This is such a positive day. Good riddance to the nastiness and wishing you well for a swift recovery. Xx
Good luck Clare. You’ve got this. I was so anxious and scared ahead of my lumpectomy surgery in October, so weakened after the 4 months of chemo over the Summer, but it was so much more straight forward and the relief of getting rid of the lump finally was immense. Recovery was much quicker than expected and the pain was v manageable with ibuprofen. The exercises felt scary at first but really made a difference and within 5 weeks I had pretty much full use of my arm back. I’m 7 weeks on now and the scar has healed v well and looks surprisingly good, v neat. Sending you a big hug, today is a huge step forward.xx
Hello everyone
I hope it’s all gone to plan today!
Wishing you a speedy recovery
Xxx
Hi @littlehaba. How are you doing? Have you had surgery yet? If you have, hope it’s gone well and you’ve got rid off the lump. Any support and help I can be, just reach out. We’re all amazing and strong, and together can help each other through all the various twists and turns of our journeys to be be cancer free again.xx
Thanks so much for the good wishes ladies. Surgery went well yesterday and home today. Feeling good so far, lots of rest, TLC and painkillers for the next few days. Hopefully get results in 2 weeks, (fingers crossed for clear margins) and confirm next steps. Hope everyone is doing well. Xx
So glad to hear it went well @clare81 
How’s the pain on a scale of 1-10 ?
Do you feel well enough to move about ?
I’m just trying to prepare myself for next week……
Rest up and enjoy a Netflix binge
Xxx
Hi positivepants1,
Pain is only about a 3, its more discomfort. They gave me plenty of drugs post op but just on paracetamol and ibuprofen today. Started my exercises straight away today, helps to keep the movement in shoulder. Just sleeping on my back with lots of pillows for support. Front opening pjs and clothes a must for the first week I would imagine. You dont want to be putting things over your head.
Feeling fine moving about , just pottering around the house. Nurse said not to lift anything heavier than a full kettle with that arm for 4-6 weeks.
Best of luck to you next week. It feels good to have it over with. Like I’ve finally done something productive to start getting rid of this.
Make sure u have help on hand if needed and I tried to get all my big pre christmas tasks done before I went in. X
That pain sounds doable!
Perhaps I need to scrub my oven this weekend 
and get wrapping.
Sounds like I’ll need to adapt my job slightly, whilst healing. (I own an preschool)
Xx
Hi Clare81 and Positivepants
I must be an outlier or maybe just weird 
… paracetamol the first day after the op, no exercises as had full mobility and went for a gentle walk followed by a pub lunch. Did have a snooze in the afternoon though
Agree no heavy lifting but just didn’t let anyone give me a proper hug for months!!
A lot of the tenderness went when I took off the dressings after a week as they pulled a bit and it was nice to get in the shower at last then too. (was banned from showers/baths until dressings off)
So everyone experiences it differently. Hope all goes well and you are an outlier on the pain front too!!
I did get the oven done and cleaned my carpets before I went in 
wrapping presents will be fine. All depends on the size of your incision and the trauma involved, everyone is different. Physio insists that I do the exercises 3 times a day for the next 4 weeks…as I’ve to start radiotherpy in 6 weeks and he wants it all moving well. Ill be staying away from tennis and boxercise this week for sure but defo back out walking the dog tomorrow. I was in hospital for 1 night but Some smaller procedures are just day surgery. Im quite fit and no other health issues so im lucky in that regard.
Glad you recovered well willowherb.
Yes the pain is very doable and I imagine every day will be easier. Xx
Great to hear this who have had surgery are all doing well, following the exercises, which are important if you’re having radiotherapy as your arms are above your head for sometime. I’ve had my planning with a PICC line in and was told not to reach above my head with this in, but a few weeks before I started slowly reaching above my head to allow the scan to happen.
I finished my 12 weeks of Paclitaxel chemotherapy today and PICC line removed so will have my arm back in 24 hours. After 14 weeks ( I was ill for two) I’ve got to build up my strength as I’ve not been able to do any heavy lifting since surgery in July.
You’ve got this. You are all strong. You are all special. 
Hi Naughty. How did you find the Pax? I have 2 more doses of EC and then 9 weeks of Pax and the weekly session care worrying me a wee bit simply because there’s so little time to recover between doses?
Well done youfor getting through it:clap:
Hi
Time and effort to go weekly is hard work especially as we were travelling a minimum of 60 miles round trip and my last chemo yesterday was 100 miles!
The first few weeks were so bad 2 days fatigued needed to go to bed in the day, climbing stairs was go hard work, go up and down once and needed a rest. I had terrible diarrhoea so make sure you get Loperamide (Imodium) on prescription, it kicks in within a few hours after the chemotherapy. My team said some people need to use the loperamide on low dose throughout their treatment and that was me. Nausea take the tablets they give you I started on metocloperamide but also had stomach cramps with diarrhoea and given Buscopan which you can’t take with that anti sickness. Swapped to Cyclizine and have Odanestron on the day but also given some tablets they are great but can only be used for 3 days whereas Cyclizine can be taken for 5 days. Towards the end I need them for 4 days. Then the other days fuzzy head. By week 6 it was an extra day of fatigue after 8 weeks I caught an infection so was ill with that but had little chemo side effects. The last few weeks have been harder, side effects start 24 hours after so depending on the time you have chemo you may have a good full day the next day.
Mt chemo is Thursday which is a good day but spend most of it travellingor having treatment. Friday I can get a good half day depending on the time of my treatment. Yesterday the I fusion was finished at 3:30 so May get a little longer today. Then the weekend and Monday are a right off, I get up and dressed late, sleep is a bit hit and miss and need a day time rest ( not always sleep, just lay I dark room). Tuesday is better but head is a bit fuzzy and Wednesday is a good day.
I have spoken to some having weekly Paclitaxel and they only had two days tired but found stairs hard work, they took nausea medication and they were ok. No mention of diarrhoea. So it’s different for everyone.
You’ve done the EC, I didn’t having any other chemo but am having Herceptin injection 3 weekly with similar side effects as Paclitaxel. I haven’t noticed that 3rd week being any worse as the side effects have worsen over time anyway.
I wish you the very best I your treatment and hope my experience has helped a little.
Thank you for that information. The main issue seems to be that we are all so different in our biology that there’s no common denominator, so we each experience different effects. I don’t know how you managed to travel all that distance for your treatment. The cancer centre is a 20 min drive from home for me so I’m in awe of your strength. At least I now have an idea of what to expect in the coming months and I’ll show this to my husband so that he also knows what to expect. God bless and look after you:green_heart:
🩵
Hi All, I had a lumpectomy with full node clearance on Friday. Like so many the lumpectomy wasn’t too bad at all, but because of the lymph clearance, I’ve come away with a drain. I stayed overnight - almost my choice, (it was getting late and my blood pressure readings were still a bit haphazard) but could have been a day case if I’d wanted to be. The drain is taking a bit of getting used to. It will be in a week or less time if i can get down to less than 30ml in 24hrs for 2 consecutive days. Everything’s a bit uncomfortable, but not painful. I have to do the exercises I’ve been given and am following the advice to keep up paracetamol for the first few days.
I don’t think anyone else has mentioned the 2 weeks of anti-embolism socks either!
For me it’s been my first surgery ever and general anaesthetic. Nothing was as bad as I feared in advance, but it’s helpful to have places like here to read about all the various things to think about and be reassured by others who’ve come out the other side. All this I’ve managed only 4 weeks after the last of 7 rounds of chemo.
We’ve got this ladies.