Mastectomy this Thursday..

@Fernweh

The decision for a preventative mastectomy is intensely personal, so what others have done doesn’t necessarily give you a solution. I had a single mastectomy. I had the surgery three days after confirmation of my biopsy, my surgeon never mentioned bilateral surgery and I had no family history of cancer at all. I was too busy about having one breast removed to think about the other! After surgery, quite a long time after, I discussed the possibility (for interest rather than commitment) with my oncologist. His view was that I had as strong a chance of a new cancer in another part of my body as I had in my right breast. More than nine years on, and so far NED. The major issue is, I think, that I could live and function with the possibility of cancer again. I can’t remove all the parts of me that might get it. But if I had felt terribly anxious about my breast, removal may have helped me to live with all the other uncertainties that cancer is so good at reminding you about! You’ll find your right answer. Best wishes. 

I had a double, and the risks are not that much higher than a single. Everything is made to seem like a risk to cover them, should anything go wrong. I had the anaesthetist telling me that a regional anaesthetic was very risky (!!) just to get me to stop asking for it. When I asked him if general was riskier still, he said yes. Then I asked if he said that the regional one was that risky to people who needed one. He didn’t answer. 

Hi @Fernweh that is great news.
Assuming you want to proceed with the double.
I initially was going with the single but ended up with the double after my breast cancer surgeon ( who was private) raised it with me as an option to consider given my cancer was lobular and that had a higher chance of appearing in the other breast.
He said it was a 10 percent chance and how risk averse was I?
The answer was “ very”.
He said the decision was very personal and there was no wrong or right answer.
I spoke to my breast care nurse, my female GP and a lady who had the double who was a friend of a friend.
I didn’t want the anxiety of wondering if I had to go through the whole shiftest again especially as my cancer never showed up on the mammogram .There is of course the other argument why remove a perfectly healthy breast and 10 percent is pretty good odds.
As I said it’s a decision only you can make but having made it I am very happy I did.

Keeping_positive1 said:

@Fernweh I just remembered if you are operated on both breasts whether lumpectomies or mastectomy they require you to stay over 2 nights, for one breast, one night.  Ask your surgeon and see if you can stay one night with the operation on both breasts, if their "damn" hospital beds are so precious, and see what the reaction is.  I would get to the bottom of this if you can.

Perhaps don't use the word "damn".. heehee.   All the best, and let us know how you go.  Please try not to stress, but hearing your story and the lack of information you have received does get me a bit annoyed that you have to go through all this.

Thank you @Keeping_positive1
I had already a 2 nights booked in hospital so that should not be an issue. After I emailed the surgeon she said she can do a DMX next Wednesday which is great.. but now that it is not happening tomorrow I am double guessing myself..
I have way more pros than cons of doing a double, but all article I find online seems to say it is absolutely unnecessary and useless.. 

@Fernweh oh yay, I just read your update, so ignore my above comment, so pleased for you and so worth you pushing.  

Another good point @Keeping_positive1. My surgery was supposed to be 3 hours, ended up being 4.5. When I went in for my nipple surgery, which ended up being deferred, I was in prep an hour and a half longer because yep, my surgeon was late from his previous surgery again. So I’m willing to bet that there’s more than enough time scheduled for the surgery tomorrow. But even so, @Fernweh you can ask for it to be deferred by a couple days. They’re only doing this as an ‘in case’ and to hype up drama over the whole covid thing, not because the hospitals are actually that full. They shouldn’t be, after all measures taken until now. But in any case, cancer is more of a threat to a person currently than covid!!! They need to get their acts together. And your surgeon needs to give you a much better reason for not wanting to do a double than just ‘she doesn’t want to’ 😠. Ask her if it’s because she has been ordered by AHPRA not to perform double ones, for no particularly good reason. I asked my GP if that was the reason she refused me an exemption and she said yes. If she gave me one, she’d have her licence removed. Regardless of the fact that I could be harmed without that exemption. Doctors are forgetting all about their Hippocratic Oath it seems. Stand up and fight for your rights, because others certainly won’t. 

@Fernweh I just remembered if you are operated on both breasts whether lumpectomies or mastectomy they require you to stay over 2 nights, for one breast, one night.  Ask your surgeon and see if you can stay one night with the operation on both breasts, if their "damn" hospital beds are so precious, and see what the reaction is.  I would get to the bottom of this if you can.

Perhaps don't use the word "damn".. heehee.   All the best, and let us know how you go.  Please try not to stress, but hearing your story and the lack of information you have received does get me a bit annoyed that you have to go through all this.

@FLClover
I have emailed her again earlier and she said she can do a double mastectomy next wednesday if I want to (as there is no spot available for it tomorrow) which is good as it is only an extra 6 days wait. Yes she is private..

I am now doing more research online before confirming with her and all the medical articles I am reading seem to be against a preventative mastectomy in my circumstances as there is little or no risk of the cancer appearing in the other breast and the risk of the surgery is too high.. ??

Any single or double mastectomy lady in here that can give me their opinion about why they chosen one or the other?  

🌼

Hi @Fernweh I am so sorry you are being put through all this.
I am not a medical professional but my reading of the latest Queensland Health Order is that only urgent elective surgery can proceed at the moment .
This is the same position in NSW due to the hospitalisation rates as a result of Omicron compounded by the number of hospital staff who are off work as a result of contracting Covid as well as being close contacts.
My understanding is that a mastectomy of the non cancer breast would be classed as non urgent elective surgery so it may be that your surgeon has no choice in the matter.
But communication is important and emailing the surgeon and asking the question is worthwhile.
All the best.

You know what @Fernweh for some reason I am not fully aware of I end up being under anaesthetic extra long, perhaps I am giving them a hard time and thrashing around.  My point is that they don't just book the operating room for a specific time and then if your operation isn't complete then they just wake you up and say, sorry we ran out of time and the next patient is due for their surgery now.  Push your point across if you really want a DMX it can be done, or let them reschedule for a week later, they don't plan operating lists too far in advance from what I hear.

Also I agree with @FLClover the hospitals are not full, and the reason is they don't want them full because of more risks.  Some staff are working from home doing the telehealth appointments.  

So if you are going there for an operation best to have the surgery you require in one hit, not two, and best not to have more anaesthetics than required.  Do you have someone that can advocate for you?