Lumpectomy: Share your questions, experiences, advice

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in Jan. Chemo was 16 weeks which went very quick. Had a lumpectomy  in May surgery went very well. 100% cancer free.  I did get cording under my arm from removal of a few lump nodes but with exercise it went. Getting ready for four weeks radiotherapy. Looking forward to having my life back to normal. 

Hi Niki, I'm going for lumpectomy next week,  after chemo,  which like you, went really quickly in the end.  Glad all went well for you.  Fingers crossed it will for me too.  Yes life is restricted by chemo appointments,  good and bad days,  scans and blood tests.  Like you looking forward to getting my life back after the radiotherapy. June

Best advice I can give for lumpectomy is to take a sports bra to wear after for support - really helps.  I found I healed quickly with no problems.

For me it was horrendous from start to finish. I was diagonsed 30 Dec 2015. Started Chemo feb 3 '16. Had to give up work, as I worked in a Nursing Home, to great a risk of infection. GP, and homes manager wouldn't let me in the building! Chemo made me ill from the start. Came too on the bathroom floor on day 5 of 1st cycle. In A&E on day 10 of 1st cycle. Hair completly gone by day 18. By 3rd cycle I was bedbound 3 days from days 5-8. Cycle 4 nearly finished me off. Body wide pain from day 2. This lasted 15 days, with 8 of them where I was unable to get out of bed, shower or wash... "a bit too much given". By the end of the 6th cycle I was unable to walk more than 50 yards.  Surgery got all the cancer, but 21 days later a massive bllod clot and bleed meant I had to have emergency surgery, fully concious in the consulting room of the Out Patients. That lead to 3 MONTHS of thrice weekly trips to OPto have the wound cleansed, packed and redressed. (I become allergic to every dressing they had, and also to the products they were using to pack the wound). The pain from the lymph node surgery was unbareable. A single parent, I had no support, and the BCNs knew that my (only) teenage daughter was away 5 days after my first surgery, and that I would be on my own. "oh you'll be find by then". I could not lift a kettle, or saucepan or even the milk from the fridge, so subsisted on bread and water and yogurt  for several days. After the emergency surgery, once again my daughter was away, so the same thing (Hospital aware). The only hot drink I got that 10 days was the one the Nurse gotme after the dressing was done. RAds were started October. I got bad burns, as my skin was already supersenitive from the trauma of 3 months of dressings. 8-9 months down the line, wearing a bra of any discription is tortore, and I only wear one when out of the house, I get thrush on the scar (it is under my breast, right where the breast swells out. I'm plagued with crashing fatigue 24/7, and still get a lot of pain from the surgery sites, where my breast was brusied from having clots squeezed and scrapped out, and body wide joint and muscle pain from the chemo. Support from the BCNs is zero. Not that it was ever very apparent even during my active treatment! 

Please god 2018 will be a better year for us all. We will look back on 2017 and realise how strong we all were to get through what we got through. 

I was disagnosed in July 2016, surgery in September - it was cancelled in August as it was not considered to be important.  (That is what the lady on the phone said to me).  Started chemo at the end of October followed by radiation in March.  I am still having treatment every three weeks - herceptin and a tablet every day for the next five years.  I think the reality of the whole thing is now begining to sink in.  I have had the strangest of things said to me like .... herceptin is not really chemo and the best ever was having a lumpectomy was not real cancer!!  These comments gave me something to actually laugh at.

I wish you all the best and stay strong on this rollercoaster ride that is cancer and its impact on our lives.

hi junerichland     I hope your surgery went well and you are healing ok... I'm still waiting on radiotheraphy date,, should be soon... best of luck to you...

Best of luck with radiotheraphy - follow the advice the staff give you.  I found that the moment I had finished treatment, I put lots of cream on the area - didn't bother with a bra just a vest top and it made the whole process easier.  Oh drink loads of water and only wash with water, I followed this advice and had very little skin problems.  

Thanks Niki,  All went we'll.  Back working in our shop next day.  Bit stiff under the arm but that's all.  Tried to try on sports bras as felt they would help keep things in place but four them hard to pull over my head so didn't buy! Sense of relieve now chemo,  then op over.  Just radiotherapy next and that's it,  I hope!! 

Hi junerichlane. I hope you're recovering well. Radiotherapy is a dawdle compare to the rest of it. I am a bit fed up as I've to travel an hour there and an hour back for a ten minute session.  But I'm sure it will fly by now I've started.