I’m due to have a wire guided WLE and a sentinel node biopsy, still waiting for surgery date. I’ve been told that on the morning of the surgery I will have dye injected into my sentinel nodes, and a wire inserted into the lump under anaesthetic. Naturally I’m very nervous about it all and am wondering if anybody else has had similar
Hi Jewels,
It is a standard procedure for most of us, if a mastectomy is not needed.
As ever, the prospect is worse than the reality, I found it all quite straightforward & no more uncomfortable than having an injection.
It will be ok
ann x
Jewels
Just wanted to echo ann’s post, I had exactly the same and as she says the thought of it is not as bad as the reality.
Sending you hugs and best wishes for your op
Helena xxx
Morning Jewels
i had my surgery on Monday - I was due to have exactly the same as you but ended up with a Therapeutic reduction mamoplasty (more on that in a moment). So I totally understand how you’re feeling. Please don’t worry about the wire - it’s really common and just helps the surgeon. It is no worse than the biopsy. They will give you the scratchy slightly unpleasant local anaesthetic and guide the wire in while looking at your breast on the scan. You will probably then go for a mammogram, again, just to give the surgeon as much info as possible. They dont squeeze so hard as usual either !
I am surprisingly chipper four days after my op - ibuprofen and paracetamol are enough to keep the discomfort at bay. Be prepared for heady emotions on day 3, I felt like I had the worst PMT and cried a lot. Do what you can to prepare - comfybwirless bras x 2, maybe buy yourself a wedge for in bed because you have to sleep on your back and pack an overnight bag for hospital. Yiu will probably come out the same day but I didn’t and was so glad I had a few bits, toothbrush and mascara! Which by the way I couldn’t put on left handed.
so to my op - to be blunt I am a big boobed lady 32GG and my lump was 3cm an top middle of my right breast. I met the surgeon 30mins before my op and he warned me that he may not be able to join the breast tissue around the area he removes which could leave me with a big dent/dip. A throw away comment from me that I had always fancied smaller perter breasts so he could fix it afterwards les to a completely different conversation. It turns out that he would not be able to fix me afterwards because the radiotherapy precludes reconstruction afterwards, so I had a breast reduction , he was able to take a bigger margin and reshape my boob. Now half an hour before surgery is not really the time to discuss a new option and they were happy to postpone for a week but when I asked the surgeon if I was his wife what would he recommend without hesitation he said the therapeutic reduction not the Lumpectomy. For me the decision was easy and I didn’t want to wait another week . The downside is I now have one x 32 GG and one x 32 ?? At a guess maybe a D. The NHS won’t pay for the left to be reduced but luckily we can - it will probably be me xmas present 2019 ! (You have to wait for a good while before they know exactly how your treated breast looks so they can match it)
We all react differently to our own situation , you are bound to feel worried. You will have good days and bad days - my own experience so far is that I have a superb team at Taunton, the surgery is no where near as bad as I was expecting even though I ended up having a bigger longer op than I expected. I haven’t done much on the forum and don’t know if there is a way of sharing a phone number but I would be very happy to have a chat if that would help you. Hopefully just knowing I’m chipper enough to write this long reply will give you some confidence.
Wishing you well, lots of love,Liz
Thanks everyone. It’s the bit where people say it’s no worse than the biopsy that bothers me. My biopsy was agony. I’ve got severe Rheumatoid Arthritis and thought I had a high pain barrier, but even when they increased the local anaesthetic it was still agony.
Hi, I had wire guided wide local excision & sentinel node biopsy 2 weeks ago. It was straight forward inserting the wire under local anaesthetic. The operation was straight forward, I had x5 lymph nodes removed, I did the recommended exercises and felt well enough to go back to work after 2 week.
Good luck with your op, hope all goes well.
Hi, Jewels, I empathise, I was very anxious after 2 biopsies and worried what the wire being put in would feel like. It wasn’t that bad, I just felt the local anastaetic (and told them to give me an extra dose upfront, as during the biposies I had to have more, as I could still feel something) and then it was over pretty quickly. I also told the nurse who was in the room how anxious I was and she held my hand which helped. The other thing you could do is ask for valium. I did ask the anästhesist about it, I was the first to be operated on so he gave me the choice to have the valium and be operated on a bit later in the day (but I wanted to get it over with so decided against it.). I tried to see the day of the operation as the last bit to get through after all these tests and before I knew it it was over. I think for me the worst was the anxiety beforehand about being anxious during the procedures (does that makes sense?) which is pretty pointless if you think about it (but so hard to switch off). Wishing you all the best and that it goes smoothly on the day xxx