Surgery:
Mastectomy Part 1
12/22/2016-- Surgery Day. I felt pumped to finally get this cancer the hell away from me. I had a pre-anesthesia appointment on December 21 that discussed all the risks, etc. I had to shower (twice) and scrub my whole body with some weird anti-microbial soap (the kind you see the doctors on tv washing their hands with before surgery). Mom and I arrived at the hospital before 5am on Dec. 22 for surgery. In pre-op, the nurse had to put my IV in my foot since they can’t put the IV on the side of surgery and I couldn’t get my IV in my left arm due to the blood clot issues. The nurse didn’t seem too comfortable sticking my foot and had a hard time finding a vein, so LUCKILY, she didn’t even try to prick me, she just called the anesthesiologist to insert it and they’re THE BEST. (Advice: if you ever find yourself in a situation where a nurse pricks and can’t get your IV in, ASK for someone else. Do NOT give them more than 2 tries, and do NOT feel bad asking for someone else!! I’m sure a needle-pro, like an anesthesiologist, may not always be available, but there should at least be a nurse who is the “best” of the shift.) The anesthesiologist found a vein pretty quickly and used a tiny needle, although, it did still hurt like a bitch. I started to get my “feel good meds” as they wheeled me to the OR, so all I remember is asking my surgeon if he had his coffee that morning. Next thing I remember I was awake in post-op. When I came to, I felt wide awake and in no pain. Before surgery, I was hooked up to a blood pressure and O2 machine, and after surgery, my blood pressure was really low. I remember it registering as 91/39 at one point. From there, we went upstairs to an actual room, since I had to stay the night. It was pretty uneventful. I was getting pain meds every 4 and 6 hours, and did not feel any pain at all, except my IV hurt when I tried to walk to the bathroom. They wouldn't take out my IV until they were certain I didn't need any more drugs. I had some awesome inflatable massagers on my legs to help prevent blood clots. They’d inflate every few minutes around the clock and were the best part of my hospital experience! We got a room about 4:00pm. I just relaxed with my mom and ate. I was very comfortable except in the middle of the night, when a night doc came by to make his rounds 3-4 times and kept waking me up to take my blood pressure, lol.
1/11/2017-- Post Surgery Update. From my last chemo, much had happened! About 6 weeks after the last treatment, I totally lost all my eyebrows and eyelashes, but have since then started to regrow them. Funnily enough, my head hair started growing very soon after the last treatment and I never ended up losing all my head hair. I really felt like an alien for the 2 or so weeks that I had no hair on my face! It's impossible to wear makeup, even though I did TRY to wear mascara, even when I only had about 6 eyelashes per eye, LOL. It just became pointless after that. I started feeling much better all around. My brain had already seemed to clear up A LOT and I felt like I was able to focus more again. I didn't have to worry about getting that infusion every 2 weeks, which lifted my spirits even more.
I felt amazing at first. I had zero pain when I walked out of the hospital. At 2 weeks post mastectomy, I was having some discomfort as a result of physical therapy. I started physical therapy quickly after surgery. Part of the reason was that I had been developing "cords" where my body was healing. The other part was because I was unable to raise my arm high enough to fit into the radiation machine and we needed to get radiation therapy started soon. My physical therapists Alex & Lynnea (shout out, miss you girls!) were the funniest pair I'd met! Lynnea was learning from Alex, so I got a LOT of great explanations, as the two of them discussed anatomy & symptoms, etc. The 3 of us would carry on and laugh and have a great time during my sessions. However, when they attempted to break up the cording that was forming near my armpit and chest wall, I would nearly be in tears! It hurt so bad!
My drainage tube was the most annoying part of the surgery. It was a long tube with a bulb at the end, sewn into my chest under my incision, to drain excess fluid from the surgery. It was really gross and swung around whenever I got up to move around. I had to drain and measure the fluid output every few hours. When the fluid output was low enough, they'd remove the tube. Other than that, the surgery went off without incident. The final pathology report showed that the lymph node(s) he removed was(were) clear of any suspicious cells and that the tumor responded well to chemo. Apparently, the tumor could've totally melted away during chemo(best case scenario), but that didn't happen. It measured ~11mm at the time of removal. I'm not certain, but I believe it was somewhere around 50mm when this started, so that was a significant response to chemo.
I felt GREAT walking out of the hospital knowing my cancer was gone. I feel completely at ease having one less boob. It didn't seem like anything was missing. I did have some numbness around my chest/armpit and even into my back, but hopefully some of that would return over time. The surgeon said it could take up to a year to get some of the nerves back. Reconstruction can't happen until 6 months after the end of radiation, so it'll be a while, but I was ok with being lopsided. It's better than having cancer, that's for sure. :)
Radiation is due to start somewhere near the end of January and expected to last 4-6 weeks. There are many factors to consider regarding the risk/benefit of radiation. If the tumor had broken into the skin, radiation is beneficial because tumor cells can travel more easily through channels in the skin. My tumor didn't appear to have broken through into the skin, but was pushed right up against the skin, so they're not 100% sure nothing got channeled into my bloodstream. The size of my tumor put me right on the cusp of needing radiation. ~5mm is the size at which you're kind of funneled into the category of "yes, you need radiation," where as under 5mm is "not so much." There are obvious risks to have radiation, as it is a form of a carcinogen in itself. My radiation oncologist said the younger you are, the more likely you are to develop cancer as a direct effect of having radiation. Again, I'm right on the cusp of that data. She explained that if I was >40 y/o, she'd lean towards radiation for the benefit, but people <30 y/o have a much higher risk of developing cancer 10-15 years down the road. Well, I'm 32, so f*ck. There are also some aesthetic complications to having radiation (skin is discolored/tight), but those are minimal in my mind, so I didn't let that weigh very much into my decision.
With all that information, I was leaning towards having the radiation, to eradicate any rogue cancer cells that may be lingering around the tumor site. I was waiting on the green light for radiation, my radiation oncologist wanted to discuss all this info with my surgeon and medical oncologist to decide which option is potentially more beneficial.
I also got some unfavorable news regarding the type of cells found on the tumor in the final pathology. It was determined at that time, that my tumor WAS, in fact, positive for estrogen receptors, which is NOT what they discovered during my biopsy in the beginning. This changed things up quite a bit. I was trying to stay positive, even though the estrogen factor would throw a big wrench into my after care. I had been having some recent anxiety about the future and wanted to chat with some survivors about how they manage to live without worrying this shit will come back one day. It had been messing with my head a little lately. I felt "safe" from the cancer while I was on chemo, but since it ended, I was feeling scared again.
I felt amazing at first. I had zero pain when I walked out of the hospital. At 2 weeks post mastectomy, I was having some discomfort as a result of physical therapy. I started physical therapy quickly after surgery. Part of the reason was that I had been developing "cords" where my body was healing. The other part was because I was unable to raise my arm high enough to fit into the radiation machine and we needed to get radiation therapy started soon. My physical therapists Alex & Lynnea (shout out, miss you girls!) were the funniest pair I'd met! Lynnea was learning from Alex, so I got a LOT of great explanations, as the two of them discussed anatomy & symptoms, etc. The 3 of us would carry on and laugh and have a great time during my sessions. However, when they attempted to break up the cording that was forming near my armpit and chest wall, I would nearly be in tears! It hurt so bad!
My drainage tube was the most annoying part of the surgery. It was a long tube with a bulb at the end, sewn into my chest under my incision, to drain excess fluid from the surgery. It was really gross and swung around whenever I got up to move around. I had to drain and measure the fluid output every few hours. When the fluid output was low enough, they'd remove the tube. Other than that, the surgery went off without incident. The final pathology report showed that the lymph node(s) he removed was(were) clear of any suspicious cells and that the tumor responded well to chemo. Apparently, the tumor could've totally melted away during chemo(best case scenario), but that didn't happen. It measured ~11mm at the time of removal. I'm not certain, but I believe it was somewhere around 50mm when this started, so that was a significant response to chemo.
I felt GREAT walking out of the hospital knowing my cancer was gone. I feel completely at ease having one less boob. It didn't seem like anything was missing. I did have some numbness around my chest/armpit and even into my back, but hopefully some of that would return over time. The surgeon said it could take up to a year to get some of the nerves back. Reconstruction can't happen until 6 months after the end of radiation, so it'll be a while, but I was ok with being lopsided. It's better than having cancer, that's for sure. :)
Radiation is due to start somewhere near the end of January and expected to last 4-6 weeks. There are many factors to consider regarding the risk/benefit of radiation. If the tumor had broken into the skin, radiation is beneficial because tumor cells can travel more easily through channels in the skin. My tumor didn't appear to have broken through into the skin, but was pushed right up against the skin, so they're not 100% sure nothing got channeled into my bloodstream. The size of my tumor put me right on the cusp of needing radiation. ~5mm is the size at which you're kind of funneled into the category of "yes, you need radiation," where as under 5mm is "not so much." There are obvious risks to have radiation, as it is a form of a carcinogen in itself. My radiation oncologist said the younger you are, the more likely you are to develop cancer as a direct effect of having radiation. Again, I'm right on the cusp of that data. She explained that if I was >40 y/o, she'd lean towards radiation for the benefit, but people <30 y/o have a much higher risk of developing cancer 10-15 years down the road. Well, I'm 32, so f*ck. There are also some aesthetic complications to having radiation (skin is discolored/tight), but those are minimal in my mind, so I didn't let that weigh very much into my decision.
With all that information, I was leaning towards having the radiation, to eradicate any rogue cancer cells that may be lingering around the tumor site. I was waiting on the green light for radiation, my radiation oncologist wanted to discuss all this info with my surgeon and medical oncologist to decide which option is potentially more beneficial.
I also got some unfavorable news regarding the type of cells found on the tumor in the final pathology. It was determined at that time, that my tumor WAS, in fact, positive for estrogen receptors, which is NOT what they discovered during my biopsy in the beginning. This changed things up quite a bit. I was trying to stay positive, even though the estrogen factor would throw a big wrench into my after care. I had been having some recent anxiety about the future and wanted to chat with some survivors about how they manage to live without worrying this shit will come back one day. It had been messing with my head a little lately. I felt "safe" from the cancer while I was on chemo, but since it ended, I was feeling scared again.