The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. I got diagnosed on 12th of August and had a wide local excision on the 25th. The surgeon did the sentinal node stuff through the same excision.
I have had a pretty good recovery and went back to work on Tuesday, but have only done 2 days this week as I am a little tired.
Just waiting to hear if they got clear margins or they need to go back in.
I am a little concerned if they do need to do a second op will it be more painful as they are doing a procedure in an area that has already had some surgery
Hi Sharon , I’ve not had that experience but hopefully someone will comment who has ,keeping everything crossed that you don’t have to cross that bridge again. and can continue to recover !!!
Sorry to hear you find youself here but good news you have had your surgery so quickly
As Jill says, fingers&toes crossed you don’t need to go back but…hypothetically…if you do, I hope I can reassure you. I had to go back&found it much easier than the first time. You sound “lucky”(there’s obviously no such word when you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, but I hope you understand what I mean) to have had the one scar for both the lumpectomy and the sentinel node biopsy as the latter was the one that restricted what I could do most.
When I went back for a further re-excision, my surgeon just opened up the previous scar, so no further scar or any pain&it was a much shorter operation as he didn’t need to do the sentinel node stuff. So I recovered pretty quickly and had no pain at all.It healed up well-although it maybe took a little longer, as it had to be reopened.
However, I hope that doesn’t happen&wishing you all the best for your results appointment.I’m afraid the waiting is the worat bit
I had to have a cavity shave as my margin wasn’t clear and I was also dreading it but it was so much easier for recovery. My surgeon went in on my original scar and it’s healed just the same, it’s much easier as you don’t have to have the lymph node surgery which I think is worse.
My margin was clear the 2nd time so just awaiting my radiotherapy now.
Hi Sharon
I had a WLE and unfortunately they didn’t get clear margins so I needed two further ops to get better margins. The surgeon went in through the same scar each time which was good so similar healing each time. Unfortunately for me, one margin wasn’t clear at the bottom of my breast and he couldn’t go any closer to my skin so I had a bilateral mammoplasty - removal of a much larger area in the cancer boob and reduction of the other boob to match. I am definitely in more pain in the one that had four surgeries and I have more scars as it is major surgery. It is partly to do with having four surgeries and the surgeon having moved things around to get the right shape.
Although it’s been tough, I’m still glad that the surgeon kept trying to conserve as much as possible each time.
You seem to have recovered fairly quickly from your op so you shouldn’t be any worse if the surgeon needs to do a second op. Everything crossed that you won’t need it.
