I was diagnosed last Tuesday with Invasive ductal cancer stage 2. I have to decide between mastectomy or lumpectomy by next Tuesday. I was adamant that I wanted mastectomy, but now having a few doubts
Hi Nicho,
What are your reasons for doubting your decision?? You haven’t said. All your factors are very important to your decision. I feel for you because I was ADVISED to have mastectomy over lumpectomy by registrar with regards to a wide lumpectomy excision leaving me with a not very nice visual end result decision. Took me physically standing topless in front of a ward bathroom mirror, the VERY morning of my op to decide. Pinched in the required amount of mass of my boob (9cn diam) for probable clearance to then see what he was thinking/saying. Don’t know why I hadn’t done it before and put myself through so much deliberation/indecision. Was no doubt then - Mastectomy. Hence me asking your reasons.
Delly xx
Hi I had the same decision to make. In the end I went for mastectomy. As I have small boobs a lumpectomy would have meant taking away 25% of my breast which for me would have been unsightly.
It really is a hard decision to make. I also didnt want to have radiotherapy and was told if I have a mastectomy I didnt have to have it. Unfortunately my lymph nodes were positive so I have to have it anyway. Its such a personal decision and although I wanted someone to tell me what to do, I was the one that had to live with it so my decision had to be the one that counted. Good luck, there really is no right or wrong xx
Hi ladies,
I had a wide excision lumpectomy in June followed by a re-excision to clear the margins 3 weeks after.
I have small breasts and I was worried about how it would look after a chunk had been removed but I am pleased to say that 12 weeks down the line the scar is fading and it does not look that much different to the other breast. I was offered a mastectomy after the first op. Tomorrow I have my 15th and last session of radiotherapy and that has gone well with no real side effects - just a slightly pink boob. I had been really worried about having radiotherapy and I realise now that I need not have worried at all as the staff are really lovely and caring and it is totally painless.
I really feel now that my decision to have a lumpectomy was the right one for me.
Hope this helps any one that is still at the decision stage. Eileen.
Hi nicho, I too was diagnosed with invasive ductal grade 3 last Monday and was given the choice of either lumpectomy or full mastectomy. My gut feeling is to have the full mastectomy to get the bugger out! But like you I have doubts, they also offered me chemo before surgery or after! Can’t get my head around it so seeing oncologist today to discuss further. At the moment I have surgery booked for the 14th so I have another few days to make a final decision. I think this forum is excellent, only joined yesterday and shocked to see how many people are going through this terrible disease ?
Hi thought I’d add my experiences. I was diagnosed high grade DCIS estimated 4 X 2 cm, by 2 vacuum biopsies. After much deliberation and cancelling planned double mx, I had large WLE and double reduction in August. Pathology came back as intermediate and 2cm area so much smaller than originally thought. Because of this no radiotherapy was suggested by MDT. For me this was definitely the right course of action though I will of course feel differently if it returns. BUT for now I’m concentrating on my recovery and getting as healthy as I can. If I’d had a double mx with these path results I would have been unhappy. Good luck with your decisions xx
PS very good idea to go on holiday first, I did that and had the operation 4 days later, enjoy every minute, you will be in a much better place when you have your operation, sending all good wishes x
Hi all, nicho I totally agree, enjoy your holiday, you deserve it. I agree with everyone it’s down to personal choice and psychological impact when deciding on what treatment option to take. It’s difficult but for me I went with gut instinct so booked in for full mastectomy on the 14th sentinel node biopsy to see if there is node involvement. I have already been told I’m HER 2 positive so chemo / herceptin afterwards. I’m trying to stay positive. I’m sure the coming months will throw lots of challenges to us all so let’s take the bull by the horns and fight this bugger!
Just popped in to say “HI” and hope you are all doing well with decisions, treatments and healing.
Plus Nicho - have a brill holiday. You’ll be well rested and fed - better able to face anything.
Sending well wishes and healing thoughts to you all
Delly xx
Hello everyone, thank you all for your messages! We had a blast on holiday in Italy. We go every year and we have some wonderful friends there. I was surprised at how I was able to ‘forget’ about the BC and enjoy myself. I am so glad that I went. So back to reality now! I am spending this week doing mundane things like housework and sorting things out as I need to have everything ‘up to-date’ before my surgery next week (borderline OCD hahaha!). So it’s the radio active injection on Tuesday and mastectomy on Wednesday. How is everyone else doing??