Don't suffer in silience

hi all

I am 10 weeks post right simple mastectomy,1 of the lucky ones were the mammogram found the lump, stage 2 no nodes involved so only tomoxifan. Little worried that I have no scans or blood tests. Went private (very sorry I did), my surgeon has done a wonderful job but that's about all he did. I was going back 2 times a week after surgery to get Seromas drained from my chest wall and under my arm. At no stage did he offer advice just drained and billed me. At 1 stage I thought my breast was growing back. I had a breast care nurse but she was 1 person in a large private hospital so contact was minimal. I was sent home with very few instructions and no exercises and a lot of pretty pamphlets. Went back to full time work 2 weeks after surgery as that was the time frame surgeon gave me.

So you can see how much fun I have had, my poor GP  was pulling his hair out. Any bug that was going around I caught, I came out in a itchy red rash and my swelling was still causing major problems as well as restricted movement in my right arm and a really tight chest. My GP is a very special person and he went looking for things to help. He referred me to get the lump under my arm checked and drained and a PINC physiotherapist and my life changed dramatically for the better. I am getting lympthatic physio, have a heap of exercises and most importantly someone who knows what is happening to me physically and emotionally. Turns out I have trunk odema, cording and the start of lymphoma, which we are working on. My GP has got me 5 free visits under Medicare, apparently you can get 5 free visits to certain things each year after you have been diagnosed with cancer. So please don't do what I did and just think it's normal till you end up a blubbering mess, this is a new rehabilitation program, check out the web page www.pincandsteel.com (hope I'm allowed to put that here), has made a huge difference to me.

Cheryl