Surgical options when you need radiation post surgery ???

SandiDee

Hi All

I am seeking advice/information about what options you were given for surgery when you needed to have radiation post surgery.

A bit about me, I am 52 single mum to adult sons (one still at home). I was diagnosed with IDC Grade 3 Triple Negative BC in early May. I have been undergoing neoadjuvant chemo and have just completed my last AC treatment, but still have 6 months of immunotherapy to continue.

I've lost 10kg as a result of AC treatment. I struggle with being able to eat much so the weight loss may continue which won't be ideal. I get fatigued extremely easily with shakes and feeling like I'm going to faint after simple activities like doing dishes and food shopping. So I'm pretty house bound with minimal family support available.

Back to my main question, what surgical options were you given and what warnings about negative side effects of radiation?

My initial thought was to have a DMX with immediate implant reconstruction but the Oncoplastics team feel i should go for a SMX with DIEP reconstruction due to the radiation requirement. Due to my weight loss I probably only have just enough tissue for the single DIEP procedure and I'll likely need fairly extensive node removal also as I had 3 active nodes at diagnosis.

My concerns are the length of the surgery needed, the scarring from the DIEP procedure and the recovery time as I have my first grandchild due to arrive around Christmas time.

Any advice, stories, photos, anything would be much appreciated.

Thank you for reading this and I hope your journey is going well.

Sandi

arpie

Sorry to see you join us here, @SandiDee ..... please consider joining the Triple Negative group here, so you can chat with others with your type of BC xx:
https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/group/30-triple-negative-breast-cancer-tnbc

You may also like to join both the Reconstruction group, as well as the 'stay flat' groups too, so you can get both sides of the story, here:
https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/group/1-choosing-breast-reconstruction
and
https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/group/29-flat-chat-no-breast-reconstruction

These groups are totally private and you can ask ANY question about anything - and see pics that have been put up xx

You've had a hard trot with it all so far.     I hope things improve for you & that you can put on weight again, which in turn will make you stronger for ongoing treatments  xx 

I had radiation (post surgery) but didn't need chemo/immunotherapy - and found it the fairly easy ... it is to mop up any random cells that may have been missed with the surgery.  

take care & all the best

unicorn3

sounds like you’ve had a rough time with chemo so far. I found once chemo was done I regained my appetite and the weight steadily increased again.  

I had triple positive but also had chemo first. 12 months of immunotherapy which I’m almost finished. Surgery was a single mastectomy with no reconstruction as I couldn’t face the recovery time with a school age kids and the radiation after surgery
i found radiation fairly easy compared to chemo and surgery just tiring towards the end. 

I hope you have some good family support around you to help as that makes the world of difference if you can just rest when you need to knowing that someone else will get the basics done.  

Best wishes for your next stage of treatment