Forum Discussion
new to bcna
Hello all I've just joined the network. This is my status. Lumpectomy after DCIS insitu highly invasive, nuclear high grade, too small to be able to get hormone readings. Yes, I'm lucky....sort of...
Gosh! So many different opinions - and the heart problem thrown in as well! No wonder you are in a quandary.
What a bugger that everyone has something different to say.
I had a lumpectomy, breast conserving surgery with immediate 'tidy up' - and 15 months later, have minimal scarring. My surgery isolated the nipple & everything was removed (including sentinel nodes) from under the skin & then the skin trimmed & nipple sewn back in place, with some of the excess fat from the breast filling up the hole from the tumour.
Mine was also the right hand breast. I had radiation for 4 weeks - 20 in total, with the last 2 being 'boosters'. I had mine 'prone', so lying face down, which allows them to target the area very specifically, specially if the tumour is close to the nipple. I never ever thought that I was 'big breasted' - only ever having been a size 34! However ... I stopped wearing bras decades ago & I guess my boobs 'stretched' a bit (I never had kids!) so suited the prone position. The prone position also prevents the radiation from affecting the heart & lungs too ..... something I was grateful for.
I don't envy your choices - hard to understand why everyone has a different opinion. Have they explained WHY each one has that opinion? Maybe record it & let the other specialist hear it!!
I hope you have someone with you in these discussions, as they may pick up on a detail that you could miss in the stress of the discussion. Can you record any discussion for your own record? I do.
What a bugger that everyone has something different to say.
I had a lumpectomy, breast conserving surgery with immediate 'tidy up' - and 15 months later, have minimal scarring. My surgery isolated the nipple & everything was removed (including sentinel nodes) from under the skin & then the skin trimmed & nipple sewn back in place, with some of the excess fat from the breast filling up the hole from the tumour.
Mine was also the right hand breast. I had radiation for 4 weeks - 20 in total, with the last 2 being 'boosters'. I had mine 'prone', so lying face down, which allows them to target the area very specifically, specially if the tumour is close to the nipple. I never ever thought that I was 'big breasted' - only ever having been a size 34! However ... I stopped wearing bras decades ago & I guess my boobs 'stretched' a bit (I never had kids!) so suited the prone position. The prone position also prevents the radiation from affecting the heart & lungs too ..... something I was grateful for.
I don't envy your choices - hard to understand why everyone has a different opinion. Have they explained WHY each one has that opinion? Maybe record it & let the other specialist hear it!!
I hope you have someone with you in these discussions, as they may pick up on a detail that you could miss in the stress of the discussion. Can you record any discussion for your own record? I do.