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Julz67's avatar
Julz67
Member
2 years ago

DMX or Lumpectomy

I was diagnosed in September 2023 as Hormone negative HER2 +.
My first thoughts were DMX & get rid of it, surgeon said "no I needed chemo first" which caused my first & only meltdown pretty much all day if I was on my own as I wasn't in control. 
I finished my chemo on Thursday just gone & have surgery booked for 22nd Feb. I went back & saw surgeon on Tuesday just gone to discuss options, she has now said "it's my choice what I want" as my daughter made a point of bringing up I had my head set on a DMX.
I'm now conflicted as to what to do, I'm swinging every few hours between the two.
I don't have access to a McGrath Nurse & have relied on the support from family & work colleagues so far. My chemo nurses have been great but now can't help as it's my decision & not their speciality. 
Oncologist has said only 1% chance of recurrance if clear margins from the lumpectomy but then more chemo if not clear, I don't want to do that again even though it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. 
I will be continuing with Herceptin until September this year.

Sorry for the essay.
double-mastectomy
her2
lumpectomy
mastectomy
  • AllyJay's avatar
    AllyJay
    Member
    2 years ago
    I was in a similar situation back in September 2016 when I was diagnosed with triple positive in the left breast and with node involvement. I also had chemo first and had to push my surgeon to remove both for much the same reasons as you've stated....I did not want a 'rinse and repeat' of the shitfest of chemo which had resulted in me being hospitalised for a total of 57 days and nights over the four AC chemo doses due to terrible side effects. I too was told that the risk of cancer recurring in the other breast was negligible, and that if it came back, it would most likely do so elsewhere, such as the liver, lungs or bones. When I raised the question of a brand new, totally unrelated to the existing left sided breast cancer, occurring in the right breast in the future, I was told that that statistic was 1 in 8....now I gather that the figures are 1 in 7. I was told that just as with a coin toss...the chances of either heads or tails on any particular toss were 50/50...even if you had tossed three heads in a row, the chances of the next toss were still 50% that the next toss would be heads again. The fact that I was one of those 1 in 8 this first time around was no guarantee that the Cosmic Clowns wouldn't bite me in the bum again for the right one at some time in the future. I insisted on both being removed. I have no regrets at all. Good luck with your own choice and treatment.
  • Julz67's avatar
    Julz67
    Member
    2 years ago
    The other issue I was talking to my other daughter about is there has been a lump in the affected breast for 27 years as I was hit with an indoor cricket ball years ago.

    Surgeon asked if I can still feel the cancer seeing it's shrunk from 32mm to 13mm. I said "yes, because either that initial lump has gone rogue or the cancer has attached to it as I can only feel the one lump"

    She has said she won't be removing any old haematoma, just the cancer if I do the lumpectomy.

    How will she know if it was the lump that went rogue if she doesn't remove it?
  • arpie's avatar
    arpie
    Member
    2 years ago
    Gosh - that's a toughie @Julz67 .... you could join the Breast Reconstruction and Flat Chat private groups .... and put the question to them as I would think many may have had the same dilemma?

    Or Maybe ring the Helpline, 1800500258 (now as they close at 5pm), .... and have a chat. 

    Take care