Dear Liz,
I know it is a shock for you right now and difficult to choose which path
to take. I see you have had postings from other members and I will give you
my experience as well. Trust your doctor and yourself to know what is right
for you. Take our experiences into account and know you will make the right
decision.
I found a lump in my left breast 2 years ago. Took several months to
finally go to the doctor. I believe it turned out to be stage 1 (small)
lump with no lymph node involvement. In Nov/96, I underwent a lumpectomy
followed by 4 weeks of radiation. I went to the hospital at 8:00 a.m. and
came home at 4:00 p.m. A visiting nurse came in for about 10 days to check
and remove my bandage. One thing I had not been prepared for was a drain
tube from under my arm which was in for about 2 weeks. That was the only
discomfort. I did not start the radiation for 6 weeks after the surgery
which gives you time to heal and adjust. Radiation took about 10 minutes,
once a day. There is no sickness (or hair loss) associated with it. If you
have a hospital which does radiation nearby, there should be next to no
disruption in your life. I did require 2 visits from a physiotherapist to
regain total use of my left arm. I think exercise is required whichever
route you choose. Parts of my upper arm are still a little numb.
I chose the lumpectomy as I felt it was less invasive and, for me,
emotionally less distressing. My doctor said the prognosis is the
basically the same if you have a lumpectomy and radiation or a mastectomy.
He did stress that you need to have the radiation as well. He said if it
did recur, they would probably do a mastectomy at that time but you would
still not be at any greater risk, not having done the mastectomy the first
time.
I hope I haven't rambled on too much but I wanted to tell you the good (and
the bad). I wished I had been a little more prepared before my surgery but,
as you know, everything happens so quickly. It was certainly not as bad as
my imagination thought it would be. I am still fine, no signs of anything.
I wish you the best of luck and please stay on MOL so that we may help you
through your journey.
Christine
At 08:23 AM 04/07/98 -0700, you wrote:
>I just found and signed on to this list yesterday. I had never believed
>cancer would be a part of my "real life"; then I had my "routine physical"
>about three weeks ago and was called back for a second mammogram and
>sonogram because something seemed suspicious. That led to a biopsy and a
>positive confirmation, A small (level 1) tumor in my left breast. I was
>presented with alternative treatments which included a lumpectomy followed
>by radiation or modified radical masectomy with the good chance that I will
>not need the radiation treatments. Based on the comments by the doctors
>involved and my preconcieved ideas about radiation treatment I have opted
>for the masectomy. The surgery is to take place July 10.
>
>Like many who have faced the same thing, I had believed it could never
>happen to me. Oh, I did not think I would never be sick. If the doctor had
>told me I had diabetes or heart trouble I would have believed it because
>they have been dominant in my family. But cancer had never been a factor as
>far as I had known. I have since discovered that three of my dad's sisters
>have had breast cancer.
>
>I am thankful that this has been caught early and it appears that the
>survival rate is very high, but I know that this is a life altering
>experience, and I know that it is a factor I will always have to deal with
>for the rest of my life.
>
>I have been reading the posts from Marty about alternatives and approaches
>to improving things, but since I am new to the list, I have not read the
>previous posts which have been referred to, and I forgot to bookmark the
>site on the net that directs you to them. If anyone has that site address I
>would appreciate your posting it
>
>Liz
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
>from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
>at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
>majordomo@lists.meds.com
>with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
>unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
>where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
>address.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
majordomo@lists.meds.com
with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
