Two operations or one?

Going through breast cancer treatment Surgery
1

Hi,

Could any of you tell me whether you have your sentinel nodes removed (3 of them), Mastectomy and DIEP carried out in the same operation or if you had the Sentinel nodes removed in a separate one first?

Just hearing a lot of different experiences but the majority both at once. I really don’t want to have 2 separate operations.

Thanks all

Sam xx 

2

Hi Sam

 

I don’t think they’d want to put you through two general anaesthetics so, unless your diagnosis is such that the reconstruction might get in the way of treatment, logic says it would be one op. Certainly I had all my nodes removed (axillary clearance) at the same time as my mastectomy and they well and truly influenced my diagnosis.

 

Good luck with the surgery (and make sure you do those exercise from the very start!).