I am new in this site but read a lot of the discussions over the past few weeks. I was diagnosed last Nov with Grade 2 Invasive ductal carcinoma. Shed buckets of tears with so many sleepless nights. Now I am just recovering from my WLE and node sampling last 19Dec. Got out of the hospital just this Sunday, 21st Dec. Fortunately I am not draining too much so they have removed it. Unfortunately because of the holiday and since it was a Sunday when I was discharged, my consultant, surgeon, and BCN are all on holiday. A reliever had seen me and has approved of my dischraged and drain removal but is unable to respond to some of my questions. I am at a lost on what to do with my dressings. It’s a bit itchy now and I have no idea if I will be the one to change it on my own or shall I wait for my next appt. for them to change it. I am dying to have a full shower, but then again not sure if I can wet the dressings (afraid to make mistakes) and make matter worst. The nurse at the ward told me that I should keep it dry all the time. For how long I don’t know. I have no follow up appt yet and need to ring my BCN for it this Mon (if i can get hold of her). Your thoughts would be much appreciated. I have met a lot of good people during my 3 days at the hospital. But all of them are saying that my journey has onlyu just started and should take things one step at a time. Merry X-mas everyone. xxx
First of all welcome to the BCC forums where I am sure you will receive lots of advice and support from the others users once the Christmas period is over.
If you are at all concerned about your wound and the dressing may I suggest you either contact your out of ours G.P. Surgery or your local A & E department. Both of these will be able to offer you advice on what you should be able to do with regard to the dressing and getting it wet etc.
I too was told not to get my dressings wet I just washed in the bath without too much water and missed out on the long soaks. As I recall I dont think my dressings were on for very long really. Hope that helps
I had those see through plastic dressings abit like chunky cling film, ny drains where pulled 5 days after surgery. They are pretty water proof. I got round the situation by sort of lying on my side so the actually wound was not in the water. My spouse washed my hair for me while I knelt on the floor next to the bath, hanging over the tub.
The DN actually showed my spouse how to change my dressing, this was something he was happy to do. I think it made him feel involved and less helpless.
It is daft though they never seem to think how it feels to be left to deal with these things during holidays.
Ihope you mange to have a reasonable Christmas - and good luck
Jacqui
Hi there,
I managed to bathe shortly after my WLE - just make sure the bath water isn’t too hot an there is someone else in the house (in case you feel unwell). Keep the bath failry shallow and keep the dressing dry. I was told not to change my own dressing and it lasted about a week - ugh! when I thought everything was healing nicely my scar started to leak a lot of fluid and this went on for several days so I did have to keep changing my dressing - apparently this is not uncommon. if your boob feels hot or any leekage is excessive contact your BCN or casualty dept cos it might be an infection. if the boob feels itchy this is usally a good sign that things are healing - although it is maddening cos you want to scratch.
cheers
caroline
Thanks so much for your thoughts. I am so so thankful to have found this site where I can discuss freely with what I feel. I did manage to bathe , hubby washed my hair just like Jackie and heaven knows how good the feeling was. We had a family photo taken yesterday (with my hair still in good shape ). We had postponed our holiday because of my operation and just managed to have a really quiet X-mas. Its a shame really, how cancer can change your life completely in an instant. From the time I was diagnosed, all our plans for 2009 has completely changed. In fact we don’t have plans at all now. We just go by the day. Is it really a std practise for cancer patients to undergo chemotheraphy or is there a guideline why others just have radiotheraphy instead. I am really really scared of chemo and i would like to know as much as possible about the reason for such treatment so I can prepare myself if ever. The size of my lump is about 16mm , based from my biopsy result prior to WLE it is Grade 2, ER (8/8) and PgR 8/8 both postive and HER2 neg.
Hi giget
i was dx in augs with grade 2 ductal cancer 3 out 17 nodes infected like you i was very scared about all the treatments but have now had my 4th chemo and it is doable try to talk to your bcn as different Dr use diffrent treatments i had to have chemo and rad because i had lymph gland involvment and i am 45 which they class as been young so chemo up my % of reccurance happening and thats made my mined up to go a head.
Take Care
Poppet
Glad you managed a bath! I got a shower today, 4 days after WLE and Sentinel Nodes. I’ve got the plastic dressing on and had fabric type dressings on top, but they fell off today. That’s what happens when you can’t wash, you get sweaty and the less sticky stuff doesn’t stick! Anyway, doc and nurse said that the plastic dressings were waterproof as long as I didn’t soak them. So now that the fabric stuff is off, I stood in the shower with my right shoulder as out of it as possible, and everything went ok.
Regarding chemo. I’m 45 like poppet and got the same info. I don’t have the post op results yet so don’t know what I have, but my doc said that because of my age they are likely to hit me with chemo to make sure I don’t get recurrence. The age thing is to do with hormones. Pre menopausal and your hormones are still going like crazy which makes recurrence more likely (not definite, just a higher likelihood). However, there are a lot of women who only get rad. It’s entirely dependant on your particular cancer type and spread (or not). I might not get chemo, but to be honest I’d rather have it. It will make me feel more certain, so I’m going to ask Doc to go that way if they are swithering about whether to or not.
As you say, you want to know what to expect. I’m like that too. I should be having this discussion with the doc in a week or two, and I’ll be asking everything I can think of. In the end though, I’ll do whatever it takes to be rid of this, and knowing that I, me, have already made up my mind about that, I definitely feel stronger about what might be ahead, even though I don’t know exactly what that is yet.
Hope that helps. It’s such a difficult time to go through. Best of luck!
chemo seems be offered on the basis of tumours size/grade, lymph node involvement and patient age (i.e. if you are younger thry will go for more aggressive treatment). Generally people with smaller tumours (less than 20mm), grade 1/2 and no lymph node involvement will avoid chemo. It is best to see what turns up when they look at what they have removed. when you go for your appointment take someone with you and a written list of questions you may want to ask (you always forget something). Do not be afraid to phone the BCN after to get things clarified and explore treatment options.
If you do have chemo it is not a ride in the park but it is doable and could save your life.