My Mum finally had her lumpectomy yesterday. A lot of waiting around and it was very scary seeing her after surgery but she is coming home today. Yay!
Only thing that is worrying now is that the surgeon took 2 lymph nodes to biopsy and he said he can’t be certain they aren’t cancerous. He said that there are three things they look for with lymph nodes; completely normal cells, definite cancer cells or somewhere in between where they just can’t tell because they don’t look right but they don’t definitely look cancerous either. He said it could just be that her lymph nodes are irritated at the moment because of her biopsy and everything. So we have the wait to find out.
The surgeon said the worst thing that would happen was he would have to remove all the lymph node under that arm but I am praying they are fine because I don’t want my Mum to have to go through more surgery xx
It is scary, but you know, your mum is in safe hands. often they look at lymph nodes, and that is the most painful part after!!! Continue to look after her, but allow her to do things she wants to, I went for short walks with my drain in!!!eat chocolate with her as well!!!
Hi Jilly. Thank you for replying. Well were trying to be positive that Mum won’t have to have another op. So fingers crossed. And yes chocolate is a favourite at this time lol xxxx
Hi bumblegirl
Your mum has had the lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy which is a standard thing in invasive cancer.
I had this op on Tuesday and my consultant explained that 2 nodes are removed ( which show up with that horrible blue dye stuff ) and tested for cancer.
The results take 2 weeks and as you said, it would mean another op to remove all lymph nodes if they show cancer.
Tell your mum to try not to worry, just take one day at a time and focus on recovering from the op and looking after herself so she will be strong to get through this.
Give her a big hug from me too x
I had lumpectomy and a few lymph nodes out, and one node had some nasties in it. So the next few nodes were removed 3 weeks later, and honestly it was a breeze. I had been doing all the shoulder exercises straight after the lumpectomy, and I am sure that had loosened everything up cos I had very little stiffness after the second op.
Good luck for your mum, even us older ladies can cope (I am 65)