Axillary clearance feeling fed up!

[tracy2905]

Hi anx56
Had to reply just to say I know exactly were your coming from.. I had a mastectomy for my pleasure of bc.. snb..3 nodes removed. .All clear and yes folks reaction.. They caught it early u will b fine lol.. its like it just a trivial little illness you have and u will b fine.. I have come across so many blasa responses to catching bc early it makes u angry.. I lost my right boob. . Invasive surgery.. numb in what used to b a boob... drains for 10 days.. now for my trivial catch it early bc I am stuck on hormone tablets tamoxifen for the next 5 years.. which for that little pleasure at 43 I am being forced to experience menopause. . And all the little delights that's coming with it like hot flushes.. constant joint pains.. mood swings to die for.. weight gain lo and ime sure I could real more off .. but let's not forget.. They caught it early so we will b fine lol..
My rant over lol
All good fun don't you think lol. Keep song chuck.. xxx

[anx56]

Hi Mel66 thank you for your post.  It does help to share was probably feeling quite down when I posted middle of the night and all that!  District nurse called at the same time BCN phoned this morning they were disagreeing on whether to remove drain or not! BCN has made an appointment for me to see registrar this afternoon as she feels it should be removed.  Had to change my night wear 3 times last night.  Im sure that as you say it will feel much better once removed and probably feels far worse than it actually is and like you I found some weird blisters near to the site.

Let me know how the 'de-sloughed' procedure goes hoping that it works for you and you start to feel a lot more comfortable and it starts to heal well.  I have found a small soft cushion under the arm sometimes helps with certain clothing. Im sure once things settle down you learn to cope with the residual numbness!

Take care hugs Xx

[Mel66]

Hi anx56
I had my drain in for 10 days. I think psychologically it feels much worse when you're lugging the drains around with you. You'll feel much more human again once it's out and you can move about more in bed. I also had an allergic reaction to the dressings and got huge blisters off the opsite type.

I'm 4 weeks down the line after mine. Movement is pretty good and that horrible bad sunburn feeling has subsided a lot. I found that massaging the top of the arm with bio oil helped and also wearing longer sleeves as it hurt a lot when the bare arm rubbed against things. There's still a fair bit of numbness there. I'm not sure if that will ever go back to completely normal. The surgeon said that I will probably have to learn to live with a certain amount of residual numbness from the various procedures.

The only problem I do have is that it isn't healing very well. The District Nurse has been visiting to redress it a couple of times a week but it's getting steadily worse. Got an appointment with the nurse at GP clinic today to get it 'de-sloughed' so hoping that will work.

I think people are trying to be positive and helpful when the come out with all the usual stock platitudes. I know you do get sick of hearing them though. Yes, it may be very treatable... but when the treatment involves horrible mutilating, invasive surgery; poisoning by chemicals; burning by radiation; sickness; hair loss and being thrown into full scale menopause, it kind of loses it's positive spin a little!

I think we have every right to have a little moan now and again...! 🙂 xx

[anx56]

Hi there fellow fighters, just wanted to post that I'm feeling fed up.  I had my axillary clearance a week ago and am so uncomfortable.  Came home with the drain in its such a pain.  Its leaking badly I have had a skin reaction to the dressing and can't get comfortable enough to sleep.  The only position I can adopt is on my back, Im fed up with the fatigue and all the unhelpful comments from people that are not going through what we are.  It seems that because its been caught early and supposedly treatable every one feels the need to say dont worry you will be fine I know someone blah blah.  Sorry everyone but it sucks and I want to say to them you should try it!!! Anyone share thier experience of getting better following this procedure?  How long before the feeling of a hot iron on the back of your arm goes away?  I was recommended to use emu oil anyone tried it ? Sorry to moan but just feel better having wrote this Xx