Prepations for mastectomy + lymph clearance + DIEP + potentially removing port surgery
For the short read: What exercises for PRE-surgery and items to have onhand for POST-surgery do you recommend? I have about 2 months time, am 45 and generally fit except for limited mobility in one arm due to a pesky port that won't ever heal properly (see deep read below if interested). For the deep read: So I hear this is a 10 hr surgery with my arms up over my shoulders and people leaning over them. Obviously lots of incisions and wound care to follow as well as time appropriate physio and exercises. I'm still 2 months out from surgery and would like to be as prepared as possible since I've previously suffered shoulder bursitis and subsequent frozen shoulder on both sides (at different times fortunately!) that lasted many many months (less the 2nd time as I could feel it coming on and do exercises). Any pre-surgery exercises to recommend? I also have had problems with scar healing. My port insertion was the first time I've ever been cut and stitched up. I had it first become dehiscent, then redone 6 weeks later, then lots of spitting sutures. After another 8 weeks the skin was irritated from taping so stopped that. But in this last week, the scar has widen without taping and is now 2cm wide! Have now started back on with stratamed and taping but using a gauze over the wound because it now got a bit of exudate. Yes, nurses and doctors monitor it, I have suitable antibiotics on hand, but since they saw how bad it got last week I've been told to be extra vigilant and go straight to ED with a low tolerance of anymore funny business or temperature of course. So stretching back on the port side is currently difficult. I understand I'll be a fairly sedentary for the first while. For items after surgery I found such things - any comments? Any brands or items you tried that were no good? Mastectomy ice pack strap thingy https://ebay.io/m/lgO8Mh Wedge pillows https://ebay.io/m/l4HXiR Different ones https://ebay.io/m/YhKxGI https://onelink.shein.com/58/65zvq6nbsrcr Will I need a girdle? Where to get, what to look for? Skins brand compression items were mentioned elsewhere in forums. Any relevant for my case? A bit of chest compression with this chest binder? I'll be a 10A-B with DIEP flap https://onelink.shein.com/58/65zwsvn5cwfj Or this just looks like a tight tank top https://ebay.io/m/DeByYA Best wound healing products? I've got stratamed (didn't use from beginning or consistently. Just started again now). Tips for use other than what on the package? Any tips for avoiding spitting sutures? Yuck and annoying! 😭 Many many thanks for all you lot helping each other out ❣️10ViewsSign in to react to this post0Comments
Baring all
News story about showing off the scars doesn’t consider the trauma of seeing this. There’s a lot of discussion about bringing breast cancer to the attention of the public. With one in seven women likely to experience this disease I’d think it was already noticed, without having women undress to show scars. Also some of us don’t appreciate being reminded. And some think their medical history is a private matter. I was having a coffee with a dozen people in a cafe when my friend casually announced to everyone that I’d had breast cancer. Why is this okay?395ViewsSign in to react to this post7CommentsBra
Hi there I went bra shopping today to get some new bras of the type I bought when I had my double mastectomy and reconstruction and thought I would share. The bra is “ Comfort Revolution” by Playtex and is lovely and soft with a bit of padding and no underwire. I went from E cup to C cup and am slightly smaller on the cancer/radiated breast and the padding smooths it out.465ViewsSign in to react to this post11Comments
Tattoo Questions
I’m over a year out of mastectomy, and 6 months since corrective surgery on the dog ear I ended up with. I’m in regional WA, and looking for recommendations for a tattoo artist who has worked on scar sites. I know I will have to travel to Perth or maybe further. Has anyone in WA had a tattoo over their mastectomy site and who do you recommend? With thanks! cle408ViewsSign in to react to this post7Comments
Not coping well
Hi, I’m new to this. I have been getting fairly regular mammograms ect for years now due to strong family history of breast cancer. I’m 45 and have always looked after myself physically very well. No one aside from me had any issues until they were in their 50’s or 60’s. Aside from my great grandmother no one has had a mastectomy. So after postponing my mammogram for a year due to Covid I decided I needed to get it done before starting a new job. About a week after re entering the workforce I was told there was a problem. It took 2 biopsies and about 6 weeks before they confirmed DCIS medium grade (still don’t know what that means) and I was advised of my options. The options all seemed pretty awful but a double mastectomy with reconstruction (implants as I was told I’m too thin for flaps), seemed like the safest option but I’m ashamed to say it was also very high on my priority list that I’d look ok after. What irony!!! I’ve had three operations in ten days due to complications. I’m left without implants and due to skin necrosis I’ve lost one nipple and about a third of the skin on both flaps. I’ve just seen a second surgeon for a second opinion and it appears this could and probably should have all been avoided (I believe she said “what’s this?” When she saw the mess I’ve been left with) I had to explain why my skin was so damaged. I can’t have any reconstruction until possibly mid next year maybe later as I’ll lose my job if I have any more time off. I know I should be grateful to be alive, ( the surgeon kept telling me I’d dodged a bullet) but I feel devastated, broken and completely unattractive. My relationship with my partner is at best under enormous strain. Can anyone tell me how they got through losing their breasts and feeling incomplete? I feel ashamed even whinging here about this as I know it could have been so much worse. And yet I’m not ok at all and having a very hard time seeing any light at the end of this.420ViewsSign in to react to this post9Comments
Do I or don’t I ?
I am 66 yes old - 3 years post lumpectomy and radiation Each review I’ve had means painful mammograms ( due to dense breasts) and ultra sounds - finishing off with a mammogram biopsy - yes at every review ! I’ve just had my third year review with the inevitable biopsy - results came back today as negative So here I am - emotionally spent - if it was just the mammogram and u/s then I could deal with that but it’s the lonely humiliating experience of the mammogram biopsy and the wait for results - I can’t explain to anyone who has not experienced the impact of a cancer diagnosis - then treatment and the emotion that you go through during the reviews I want to focus on life not think every time there is pain - my mind starts thinking and while I can bring my mind into the now - this is taking it’s toll i want to have a mastectomy - I need to do something positive - take control of this monster and be boss of it - not it of me My daughter is also on this journey - I know what to expect - I don’t need or want reconstruction - I want peace My husband thinks I’m nuts going down this road - how else do I find this peace ?1.2KViewsSign in to react to this post24Comments
Need for Lyphodema Arm sleeves
I don't actually know who needs these sleeves. Is it potentially anyone who has had a Mastectomy? Or only those who had axillary clearance? I've had both. I have been measured for Lyphodaema with the SOZO machine, and do not have it yet, 11 months after surgery. Has anyone else been recommended to get one, especially for airflights? If so how long a flight, would they be needed for? Also do they cost much and easy to get? Or custom made? Any advice would be helpful.445ViewsSign in to react to this post8Comments
Post Mastectomy Pain
Hi I had her2 negative in left breast in 2019. I had chemo, lumpectomy and sentinel node removal, radiotherapy and Herceptin. Got the all clear then in November this year they found cancer in situ in what remained of left breast so I had a double mastectomy and some nodes removed on 4th Dec. The scars go from under my arms to the centre. I look like someone’s tried to saw me in half! The actual scar and skin just around it is numb. The pain I have is like a band around that area. It’s like a tightness and burning. Stretching seems to relieve it. I’m 5 weeks post op now and was told it would be ok in 4 to 6 weeks after op. I just want to know if others had this pain and how long it lasted. It’s not bad enough for Panadol but if I do take Panadol it doesn’t work.376ViewsSign in to react to this post9CommentsBespoke Bikini
Hello Beautiful People. It’s been a while since I posted. 3 months since mastectomy and starting tamoxifen. im healing well and almost back to full exercise. It’s been getting very hot and I’m trying to get comfortable at home without baring my remaining boob ( hubby and I call it bob.) Sarongs aren’t really comfortable anymore, and tank tops/ singlets are too hot. Today I suddenly remembered the adjustable triangle bikinis in my draw that I rarely wore. Took one triangle off the strap and I have a you beaut monokini for around the house! My husband thinks it’s hilarious. But it’s perfect for at home. I look like a giant pirate! 🤣 I’d like to think I could wear it at the local pool but I think it would be too out there! The scar will probably terrify the general public. I’m very happy with my invention and wanted to share here, just in case it helps one of you lovely ladies and also cos there’s nowhere else I can share this that would get it! 🙂🥰😬281ViewsSign in to react to this post5Comments
Mastectomy looming
This time next week I’ll be having my double mastectomy. For the first time since diagnosis I’m feeling so sad and swamped with gloom. The lumpectomy and the entire node removal left me mentally unscathed believing I’d be okay and able to cope with whatever was to come. I know I have no choice and to save my life these breasts that have turned on me have to begone. But .... it’s all so hard to comprehend. My glass half full look on life is now feeling decidedly shaky. Thankful for my fabulous family and friends though and today I randomly turned to a page in a daggy old mag at pathology quoting one of Winston Churchill’s sayings ... “If you’re going through hell... keep going.” I’ll try to keep that in mind.581ViewsSign in to react to this post14Comments
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