Please tell me how long your breast wide area lumpectomy recovery took?

[SummerFeverVenice]

Sorry to bother you all. But I’d really like to know if my recovery is abnormal or going longer than it should.

I had cancer surgery almost 5 weeks ago. It was a wide area lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy. The incision under my arm is as long as my index finger and has healed to a long red fresh scar. It still gives me the odd twinge.

But it is the incision on my breast that has me worried. It is a half circle arc following my aureola. The pain has not been getting better, if anything it is getting worse. It is like a burning sensation 24/7 that makes it hard to sleep. I will drop off for a few hours when totally exhausted but then woke by the pain.

I was last in clinic this past Wednesday (4th Dec) to check on the incisions. The armpit one is good and I don’t need a dressing anymore. For my breast though, the nurse cleaned it and re-did my dressing. She said there is a gap where the wound isn’t closing and so she put three steri strips on it to close it and redressed it. She said no sign of infection. The breast concerned is usually naturally slightly smaller than my other one, but even now the swelling is still such that it is noticeably the larger breast even after the cancerous tissue and margins have been removed.

This next part is a bit rare but I have a metal allergy and I made sure the MDT agreed to not leave any metal tags in my body as for this surgery they usually leave some titanium markers in. It was on my consent form. I am beginning to wonder if maybe they left metal in me? There must be a reason why my wound is not closing.

I have read online that most people are fully recovered from this type of surgery an average of 2 weeks later. I’m at almost 5 weeks and nowhere near recovered. I have worn a sports bra 24/7 since surgery and I’m still clutching my breast as just walking makes it hurt so much. I’ve followed all the advice and not done any heavy lifting, hoovering, or hanging up washing. So it’s not like I’ve done something silly that has reopened the wound, it just isn’t closing.

Has anyone had similar? Am I being paranoid to wonder if they left metal in me and my body is rejecting it? Or have wounds taken awhile to close for anyone else? I don’t want to go into clinic and start demanding a scan to look for metal without getting a bit more informed.

Thank you in advance for any wisdom you can share

Your recovery time does sound abnormal. My swelling and wound had completely healed within a fortnight. I would definitely suggest contacting the breast nurses again. If they fob you off you could try your surgeon's secretary for a referral. If you draw a blank there do you have a good GP who will get on the case for you? If not I'd go straight to PALs - they will respond quickly.

I think you need to be a squeaky wheel here as, unfortunately, a lot of cancer patients do.

That does sound rubbish. Not breast cancer related but I did have a surgical wound last year that similarly was really tricky to heal.

can you contact the clinic tomorrow? Try and get seen again in the next day or two and be clear you are concerned, and if you get fobbed off then as pp said contact someone at the hospital or a helpful GP if you have one.

Thank you @SewingBees , it not want I wanted to hear as it’s just so hard to muster the energy to navigate all this. But it sounds like I will need to push for some medical attention.

I can call them tomorrow and hopefully see them again on Tuesday. I had planned on it, but I guess I am trying to get a feel for whether it is truly abnormal and I am right to push, which you are helping massively with. I am pretty trusting and don’t know when I’m being fobbed off versus reassured.

I'm sorry you wound is giving you problems.

My situation is similar, but the wound had just about healed after surgery late September for the radiotherapy in December, despite having a haematoma (sp?) However, after the radiotherapy it all went pear shaped and I ended up with a gaping wound that didn't heal properly until after another surgery at the end of May. I was having to attend the dressings clinic twice a week between January and May. It was a real pain.

Now all sorted, although I have been left with two post surgical cysts which can be uncomfortable.

My advice would be to push on this with your team (I didn't) and possibly consider not having radiotherapy until the wound is properly healed (I was paranoid about getting it within three months of surgery). I also saw an oncologist privately, just to reassure me that I wasn't doing anything wrong - I think he possibly made the second surgery happen behind the scenes - he never charged me despite me chasing the invoice, because I think he knew I'd been mistreated. DH thinks he's just got an inefficient admin team!

Don't worry about being a pest - I think sometimes we can all just want to be thankful they found the cancer, and worry about being pushy. It took DH and DD getting pushy on my behalf to make things move forward.

All is good now though and my mammogram is clear!

Unfortunately you will probably find that you need to advocate for yourself quite a bit.

There's a really helpful cancer thread here that you might find a good resource for support and advice. I'll try and get a link for you.

@ajandjjmum
Thank you, I admit I am worried about it not being healed enough for radiotherapy. I am so sorry yours was difficult too but happy you’re in the clear!

Hi, I had the same op end August. I wore the compression bra they gave me 24/7, which helped. The scar in my armpit is about an inch long and looked a bit of a mess to begin with. The scar is all around my nipple, tad cringe worthy when I saw it initially but both scars have healed really well. I was very uncomfortable for the first few weeks, but I wouldn't call it really painful. They gave me a number for a wound nurse, that I could contact if I needed to. Everyone heals differently, but I would have thought that 5 weeks is long enough for the wounds to have healed. If you are worried, keep contacting them, they understand that it's a worrying time and should do everything they can to help. Happy to answer any questions you have about my experience. I had my 5 days of radiotherapy at 12 weeks.

Thank you @SuzieQ300 for sharing your surgery healing time too. It is really helpful for me to hear from everyone who has responded as it gives me a feel for what is normal or not :)

After calling yesterday and today, I finally have a wound care appointment at the breast unit for tomorrow at 2:30pm. Still hurts enough to keep me up most of the night.

The armpit one only twinges now and then and looks better every day, I measured it at 4.8cm long which is close to 2 inches?

I hope you are recovered from radiotherapy and doing ok.

I hope it goes well tomorrow. I'm now 2 weeks post radiotherapy, the swelling has gone, still a bit pink :) but that's going now too. I'm starting to feel more relaxed about it all, very grateful for screening! Onwards and upwards, you'll be where I am soon, hold onto that x