Well, here I am, having had 4 FEC and 4 TAX and finding out it’s shrunk the 2.3cm grade 3 rudely behaved lump to nothing on the scans (hurrah).
Now, to see my Surgeon. You’d think it’d be easy, but no. First I was given a time on Thurs this week, then told he had to cancel it and it was moved to yesterday evening. I’m not good at evenings as I’m too tired to think straight. I told them that. They said it wasn’t possible to change it. Got myself very fretful, hubby equally panicked (we’re both disabled and appointments and sudden changes to appointments are scary at the best of times - they know this - it’s on my notes)…and with three quarters of an hour to go we’re told that it’s cancelled because he’s running late…and moved back to tomorrow morning, where it was in the first place. So hubby has now had to cancel off his work for tomorrow as well. And this is private healthcare.
It might be a lumpectomy. I really hope so. But I wish I knew how they work out whether it is a good candidate for one or not. Lump was sort of in the middle of the breast under the nipple, slightly more towards the armpit. If I’ve been through all that chemo and got that result and he says ‘no, it’s a mastectomy for you, missus’ I think I’ll faint clean away. No-one has ever mentioned radiotherapy to me. Not the onc, not the surgeon, not the specialist nurse…it makes me wonder why…
Good luck with your results. I am out the other side of treatment. Awaiting my 2nd year mammogrsm next week.
I am NHS, and hsve been fortunate enough to have never had an appointment cancelled. I can understande how horrible it must be as we get ourselves so worked up.
Hi, just wanted to wish you well Amber. I had my lumpectomy last August. Waiting to know what the next stage is going to be is one of the hardest parts of this journey.Hope you get good news tomorrow. Getting through the chemo was the worst for me, so if you’ve done that already hopefully you’re through the worst.
Thinking of you. x
Oh dear Ann, that’s really rotten to mess you about like that - I know how hard it is for you to get to your appointments.
Fingers crossed that you get away with a WLE, but you need to be aware that you might then need rads. Often the choice is either to do a mastectomy and no rads, or a WLE with rads because they’ve found that the prognosis is the same. Don’t panic if you do though - it’ll be at the same place every day so hopefully you’d be able to get into a routine. It can also be fairly impersonal so it’s quite easy to shut yourself off from it.
Good luck Amber,
my consultant hasn’t even used the word lumpectomy yet. He’s a little shy in coming forward with any details. He has said that only the cancer will be removed along with sentinel node surgery and radio and tamoxifen after. I was really surprised not to be prescribed with the hormone therapy prior to surgery. These forums certainly highlight the huge variations in the experiences across different regions and different consultants.
All the best.
Well, after 4 hrs in total to get the wire in place, take the mammogram to confirm etc and do the surgery, I’m home.
But Mr Surgeon explained that the lump was up against the chest wall. That’s the first time they’ve told me this. No wonder they were so glum back in Feb, with it being a grade 3 and positioned right at the back. I’ve no idea what it means for outcome now - must really get a serious set of answers from them next week when we find out what the margins were like on the rest of it (as they can’t go any further back). At least we knew there were no nodes involved, and the chemo had reduced it from 2.3cm to ‘vanished’. Keeping everything crossed here.
Ann x
So glad that your surgery went ok - did your OH cope with it OK as well?
My lump was also quite close to the chest wall and grade 3, with no nodes involved. I had lobular cancer and it was quite big, so had an mx an immediate recon before chemo. I’ve also just finished rads that were aimed at zapping the chest wall ‘just in case’ - I had a clear margin, but it was v small (1.7mm!).
So they may decide to zap you with rads… Hoping that there was a big enough margin that they don’t.
OH, bless him, was totally panicked and fell asleep in the waiting room most of the time (it’s how he copes…) but the staff were lovely. They’re definitely doing radiotherapy from mid Oct.
Onwards and upwards!
Hi Ann,
So glad your surgery was a success. I hope now that your results will show clear margins.
E hugs a good idea Rev because I’ve got one arm that can’t hug properly since surgery and the other has a PICC !