Hi. I had a wide local excision of a 7 mm IDC yesterday and was expecting to have one or more lymph nodes removed. In the event I haven’t got a cut under my arm but can see where a needle biopsy only was taken.
I’m confused as to why this might be. I did ask the nurse discharging me from the day ward, but neither of us could read the surgeon’s writing !
I know I will get an explanation in 2-3 weeks time but it’s unnerving when the plan changes and you don’t know why. It feels like a long wait of course.
At the moment the information that I have is that I am ER+, PR+, HER2- The mammogram and scans didn’t show anything in my axilla pre- surgery.
Any ideas please?
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Welcome to the forum . I’m not a nurse , the nurses will hopefully respond on Monday. Not sure whether this had happened with you they can do sentinel node removal/ biopsy via your lumpectomy incision if it’s accessible so you might not have a wound in your arm pit . You could ring your own BC nurse on Monday to discuss and hopefully get some re-assurance .
Best of luck with your recovery .
I do not have a cut from SNB as they were able to in through the lumpectomy incision.
I didn’t have a separate cut for the SLN removal either, its not always the case as they go in from the wle if they can. Handy, if that’s the case as I’ve heard that its the armpit incisions that hurt the most. Latest techniques can vary, so if they are confident that your type of small cancer rarely spreads to a lymph node, it might be possible that they only did a needle biopsy, but usually the whole lymph node is removed. (I’m also not a BCN).
Oh thanks all, that does make sense and would explain bruising where I didn’t expect it to be !
It’s interesting how a change from expectations is so unsettling when you are waiting for results !
Hi gabrielle1
Thanks for posting.
It’s normal practice to perform a sentinel lymph node biopsy to remove one or more nodes, at the time of surgery in someone who has a diagnosis of invasive ductal breast cancer.
As others have said, depending on the location incision used, it’s sometimes possible to remove both the cancer and lymph nodes through the same incision.
It sounds like the needle biopsy incision may be the one you had as part of confirming your diagnosis rather than done during surgery, as it’s not usual to perform a needle biopsy like this at surgery as @entropy says.
It can be unnerving and unsettling as you say when things are different to what you expected, so as @Jill1998 suggests it would be a good idea to call your breast care nurse to ask to discuss the details of the operation so you feel more reassured.
Talking to someone who has had a similar experience can also often be helpful. You can do this through the forums and our Someone Like Me service.
The Someone Like Me service can match you with a trained volunteer who’s had a similar experience to you. You can be in touch with your volunteer by phone or email and they can share their personal experiences to answer your questions, offer support or simply listen to how you are feeling.
You can ring the Someone Like Me team on 0800 138 6551 or email them at someone.likeme@breastcancernow.org, so they can then match you to your volunteer.
The going through treatment section of our forums might also be helpful
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