Reply to Hard lump in right breast/ armpit area?

Forum Index » Health and Medicine

Reply to "Hard lump in right breast/ armpit area?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Angela, I'm still here.  I was a PP with early stage BC.  I had a lumpectomy and radiation.
So sorry to hear of your diagnosis and genetic testing results.  But it sounds like you are on the right track and getting good care.

I found the waiting to be so hard.  Not that it's a picnic later, but I didn't realize how long it would take to confirm everything and finalize the plan.  So I feel for you being in the midst of this!

I'm thinking of you and wishing you excellent care and supportive people around you.  Sending you prayers![/quote]

Thank you for the kind words. Especially when you are going through this battle too. Yourself and the other BC poster are in my prayers and thoughts. I can't express in words how it helps to talk with someone who is fighting the same battle at the same time. You did not have to do chemotherapy? I can say for sure that I know I will. They have spoken to me about a port? It will be another surgery for me. I never knew that is how it works. I thought it was just like an IV. Well, this is my moment of weakness.I am scared.I'm scared of many things right now. I can only try to focus on positive things, but it is much easier said than done. [/quote]

Stage 4 AMA poster here. (Sometimes, I think we need better nicknames than this, but we do what we have to do.) You mentioned being concerned about a port. Yes, it's another surgery, but it's pretty direct and easy in the scheme of things. Usually, they do the twilight anesthesia, as described by the PP. In my case, because I did not have anyone to drive me home, I was not eligible for twilight and had my port placed under local anesthesia, so I was awake the whole time. I was never in pain, and recovered fairly easily. It was an odd experience, but a short outpatient surgery and the benefits of having a port far outweigh the difficulty of having multiple IVs. Like the PP, my port site took awhile to heal and it was painful for a few days, but not intolerably painful. A PP mentioned EMLA, which is the cream to apply to numb the area when your port needs to be accessed (for chemo). Definitely ask for it if it isn't mentioned, but it didn't work for me, and I'm told there are a lot of people it doesn't work for. Don't worry about that. It gets easier and easier every time they access the port and soon is no worse than a blood test, in my opinion.

Oh, something I didn't learn right away. Since you've already had surgery, make sure that any BP measures routinely taken during clinic visits, or any bloodwork taken before you have a port are taken from the arm opposite where you had your surgery. This is important.

Continuing to think of you daily and sending the best of thoughts. I know that everything is scary and overwhelming at this time, but you have support here.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics