Tamoxifen

Hi Sara B, I am so glad to hear that your surgery went well. It doesn't hurt much for a start, because they cut nerves and also do some longer-term kind of painkiller, which is great. But then as the nerves come back there can be some weird and rather surprising twinges of pain that you don't need to worry about because all it means is that the nerves are coming back to life, not a sign of anything being wrong. 

Do be very careful with the drains and don't do what I did, ie got tangled up in them overnight and partly pull one out so it stopped flowing and then got infected. And if you do, as soon as you have the first symptoms of an infection at the drain or wound, be really pushy about seeing your surgeon again for getting on antibiotics. I let a nurse talk me into waiting 2 days by which time the infection was extremely bad.  It took about two months for the swelling from the infection to go down, before I could wear any sort of breast prosthesis. So please learn from my mistakes and have the easy ride you deserve on this difficult journey.

It is hard dealing with all the issues of what surgery to have, what to do re reconstruction or breast prostheses, how to learn to live without fear while also living with the knowledge that we have an increased statistical risk of recurrence. Good for you for going with Tamaxifen: I hope that process is manageable for you, and that you get onto all the wise advice about how to deal with side effects effectively

All the best

Jessica