Surgical options
Hi all, I have been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and I have my first meeting with the surgeon on Thursday. I know to expect surgery soon but dont know if this will be lumpectomy or mastectomy. I know that this will be one of the things to discuss on Thursday but I am curious if there is a 'choice' - in a sense part of me just wants to be told which option but I wondered if anyone here made a decision one way or the other and how they felt about that? How long do you get to make any decisions if a choice is available? Am also put this query in the recently diagnosed thread as I have not posted before and not sure which is better for this. Thanks for any thoughts.
Inquiry
Had left hand side mastectomy with sentinel lymph biopsy 3 weeks ago and results showed 4mm on the node and dcis 19mm and invasive ca 22mm found hence surgeon suggested axillary clearance which i have done a last week and still recovering. I dont get enough sleep as i kept waking up in the middle of the night. I have not book my post review as still processing all the information.
A-cup surgery options
I have very small breasts and I do a lot of running. My surgeon says she can easily do a silicon implant reconstruction for my unilateral mastectomy, but she didn’t have a sample of an implant that was small enough to match my size in her collection of samples or in recent patient images. I’m concerned that the end result will be annoying when I’m running and whether an aesthetic flat closure would be a simpler option for someone with such small breasts to start with. Can anyone relate and what did you decide?Another Re-Excision or Mastectomy?
Note: this is all behind me now and I feel great. I had four surgeries in the end, the last being a mastectomy. Recovery was pretty easy and I now have my external prosthesis, and noone would even know! Well, here I go again. I was diagnosed with DCIS in December. It has been a long path, but I eventually had a double lumpectomy on my right breast on 26 March 2026. A week later I was told that although they got clear margins, three of the margins on my largest lesion (4 cm) were less than 1mm. So, I had a re-excision on 15 April to get wider margins. I saw the surgeon this morning, who told me they found more disease and the new margins are still less than 1mm in two places. I have to have more surgery next Wednesday but have to decide (by Friday) whether to have another re-excision (and my breast will be starting to look a bit sad after that) or go straight to a mastectomy. She said it was quite feasible to try a re-excision again, to preserve the breast if I want to, but if they still find disease or don't get good clearances, then I have no choice but to have a mastectomy. If I have the re-excision, I have to have radiation treatment for 3 weeks, 5 days a week afterwards. If I have a mastectomy, then it's all done. No radiation and no lymph node involvement. Does anyone have any advice on what I should do / or want to share your story if you've had a similar experience? I know it's my decision, but your advice is appreciated, thank you.
Post mastectomy and auxiliary clearance concerns ?
Hi I am a 45 yr old post single mastectomy on my left breast and also full auxiliary clearance and was hoping for some advice from those who have gone through the same ! I am still struggling to be able to lift my left arm to a full reach and also have some weird sensations in different parts of my under arm and also my upper arm and from where breast was ! I haven’t left the house much and can feel my mental health heading down ! I’m just curious as how long it took others to be able to be at full arms reach after surgery and or any tips regarding this ! I am following the after drain removal exercises but still quite painful for me is this normal for 2 weeks 3 days post surgery ? Feeling quite lost with it all so thought would reach out to others for some or any advice ? Thanks a lot for taking the time to read !!
Prosthetic
Hi there, this is my first post. I have had a single mastectomy of the right breast in October 2026 and recently given the all clear to get myself a prosthetic. I got an Amoena gel prosthetic which I am very happy with but I am finding that when I wear it in my mastectomy bra I am getting really itchy inside my scar. My scar is still numb so scratching is useless 🤦♀️. Just wondering if anyone else has this issue? if it will go away? or is this still part of the healing?
Post Mastectomy discomfort
HI, I had a left Mastectomy end Sept 2025. I have healed up okay. However, I have always had this really "tight" feeling under my arm and there appears to be a hard area, like a muscle that has been pulled really tight under my arm. Initially I was told to do plenty stretches etc, which I do. However, since surgery I have also had pain down my left arm, like nerve type pain. I am an RN and to me it seems to be neuropathic pain. It frequently is more painful at night and almost every day still wakes me up. And I cannot sleep on my left side, I used to a bit, but now if I try. after about 30 minutes I am in pain and have to roll back onto my back. I am also numb under my arm and across the left side going up to under my arm. My left side still feels really heavy and tight. I did not have any lymph nodes removed. Only breast tissue. I am a bit overweight so surgeon (very experienced) said it was hard surgery to do. I used to have very large breasts and had a reduction 10 years ago. I was supposed to go back and have further liposuction as in the initial surgery they could not do anymore liposuction under my arms. I had to wait until all bruising went down. That was so painful I never went back and have put up with having too much "Breast" under my arms for 10 years! Ironically at the beginning of 2025 before the TNBC diagnosis. I was thinking "this year I really must go back to the plastic surgeon and get the breasts fixed up better" as it did look a bit weird. Anyway. Does anyone else have this problem? Do you think it's just a "it takes time" thing as when I bought it up with Surgeon and Breast Cancer nurses Oct /Nov last year they just said recovery would take time. But it's now been almost 6 months and I am still having problems. Do you think I should go back to surgeon and follow up again? I'm just SO FED UP with seeing doctors!! I've had massive problems /complications from the Chemo & Immunotherapy and am just starting to get my life back. I want to avoid seeing doctors as much as I can to be honest. Anyone have anything similar??
One night stay thoughts
Hi all, I am going in for a mastectomy, reconstruction and symmetry reduction and lift and was advised if all goes well I will only be staying over one night in hospital, Im wondering how you all felt about this experience and if you coped ok going home that early etc? Feeling a bit nervous about it but understand its out of my hands.
