My results appointment from my second surgery is on Monday and the inevitable overthinking has begun! I’m trying to remain neutral about it as after the first surgery I was 100% convinced that they would have got it all and that it wouldn’t have spread to any nodes, so to be told it had and the margin wasn’t clear completely floored me - I took it harder than when I was told I had cancer! (Although not as hard as my husband who nearly fainted in the appointment…my big gruff northern hubby being such a wreck blew my mind )
Anyway I’ve been told if the margins arent clear this time I’ll be looking at a mastectomy. If it happens, it happens and I’ll deal with it, but I was just wondering if many people need three surgeries? I know we’re all different and all have different treatment plans, so what happens to one wont necessarily happen to another, but I find these forums far more comforting than poring over Google all weekend
Counting the minutes to 9.30am Monday morning…cancer has done NOTHING for my patience!
I had 2nd surgery fir re excision after margins were clear but were not within nice guidance recommendations…5 years later i had a recurrence in exact same spot and same type…went on to have a mastectomy…often wonder whether i should have requested mastectomy after the first surgery …but it is what it is…ive seen a few ladies on here over the years have 3 and 4 lots of surgery so not uncommon…speak with your team …get their opinions …wishing you well
The waiting is torture isn’t it @sharlou. I have everything crossed for you on Monday. Going through partial or complete healing and then having to have more surgery is incredibly tough. Like you, I was more floored by the need for subsequent ops than the very first one. I’m sorry to hear it’d spread to any nodes. I’m sure that was very hard to hear, especially when the message pushed at cancer patients is “be positive”.
So a slightly different situation but essentially yes I’ve had 3 ops - two lumpectomies (a couple of years apart) and a mastectomy in the end which was close to second lumpectomy. I’m not sure how common it is however you’re right, you’ll deal with it as you have done to date because what else can we do? The second lumpectomy was for a small invasive cancer and like you thought they’d get it all. But they discovered more DCIS around it and understandably didn’t get clear margins so I’d need a third op. Another lumpectomy was discussed but it was in a tricky position and they’d spotted the tiniest calcifications around that region that now needed investigation given they bordered the DCIS. Mastectomy became the best treatment choice. Gutted. I was dreading the latter however grateful I went with it now as the mastectomy actually found a new invasive cancer about 5 times bigger than the original one removed in the second lumpectomy. It was hard to spot on the scans because of the tissue density I think.
So it does happen, it’s hard to know how common it is however like @cat15 says I’ve seen quite a few women with stories like ours. Although I’m sure if I’d not had to have a third op I’d probably spend less time on these lovely forums but like you, the treatment uncertainties dominates a lot of my thoughts. I hope for both of us we get more certainty soon. Let us know how you get on x
Hi @sharlou, I had a mastectomy straight away as my tumor was very big but I had two further surgeries after the mastectomy. I had a full axillary node clearance - all 34 nodes removed. Unfortunately, 3 were positive. And on top of that I had a 3rd operation as I had a really bad infection. I had mastectomy with immediate reconstruction and almost lost my implant but my surgeon managed to save it during the 3rd surgery so yeah, you never now what’s going to happen and honestly, those breast conserving surgeries I think, and this is my opinion only!!!, are making everything more complicated than it should be. Don’t get me wrong everyone is different and I had the surgeon telling me that I will be having a lumpectomy untill the pathology results from the biopsy and MRI scan came and it was lobular BC, very big 12.5cm tumor and I had to had mastectomy…sometimes I think I was one of the ‘lucky ones’ as I didn’t go through having 3 or 4
surgeries until you end with having a mastectomy but you never know and you listen to what the surgeon tells you…
Crossing my fingers and toes that it will be good news on Monday…
Hi. I had 3 ops. 1 lumpectomy and SLND, 1 cavity shave and ALND, and then another cavity shave which was finally successful. To make matters worse, after the 3rd op, a radiologist went back to my original mammogram from 7 months ago and asked for more biopsies from a separate area. So after all those ops, I might also need a masectomy! Will find out tomorrow.
I sincerely hope your results are clear tomorrow and you get to move on to your next treatment stage. Are you having chemo? X
Hello! Sorry to hear you’ve had multiple surgeries And so sorry they are reviewing the original mammogram! Hopefully they are just being thorough and there’s nothing there to worry about, I’ll keep everything crossed.
I’m not having chemo despite the positive node; I’m a bit worried about ‘only’ having radiotherapy for it as I just keep thinking how will they know if they got it all? I wasn’t offered a node clearance as the doctor said I’m high risk for lymphedema…it just worries me a bit. Much as I don’t fancy chemo at all I almost wish we were chucking everything humanly possible at it…although I know the doctors will have discussed what is best for me personally.
Anyway fingers crossed for both of us tomorrow, let us know how you get on
Yes I had 3 ops. First lumpectomy and 9 nodes removed. I was totally floored that it was much larger than anticipated and margins weren’t clear. Further excision but more cancer found and margins still not clear. I was offered a further excision which may or may not be successful or a mastectomy. Apparently they can only have 3 goes at getting clear margins. After a lot of research I opted for the mastectomy as I couldn’t face another failure and then a mastectomy. As it happened it was the right decision as histology found a lot more invasive cancer that didn’t show up on imagery or at surgery so they would never have achieved clear margins. My original estimated tumour was 9mm and in the end they removed 70mm.
Wishing you well for tomorrow. I hope that clear margins have been achieved and you don’t need more surgery. x
Aw bless you, sorry I should have replied on this thread with the outcome! I started a new thread but it may have got lost amongst the busyness of the forum
They got clear margins! However, they hadn’t yet discussed my case at MDT so they weren’t able to give me many details…I was told that I needed to see an oncologist though as it looks like I now need chemotherapy - I wasn’t expecting that so it was a bit of a shock. I’m seeing the oncologist on Tuesday.
Thanks so much for checking in Hope you are doing ok xx
Well I’m super pleased you got clear margins. And I’m super sorry you and I are now in the boat waiting confirmation of chemo. My tissue has gone off for oncotyping before they can confirm the likely benefit for me. It is such a shock isn’t it? It was “highly unlikely” at the start and then this. Hope you and your hubby are doing ok processing that news. Good luck on Tuesday xx
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but like you, the treatment uncertainties dominates a lot of my thoughts. I hope for both of us we get more certainty soon. Let us know how you get on 
And so sorry they are reviewing the original mammogram! Hopefully they are just being thorough and there’s nothing there to worry about, I’ll keep everything crossed.
Hope you are doing ok xx