What was your experience of a lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy?

[TerrorAustralis]

I have had two surgeries, one lumpectomy (wide lateral excision) five weeks ago, followed by a lymph node biopsy three weeks ago.

The recovery from the second seems a lot worse than the first, although that might be more the compound effect of two surgeries close together. I’ve also had a seroma in my armpit that I’ve had aspirated twice (and will possibly need doing again.

My nipple still feels weird and bruised, even though neither surgery was that close to it. My breast also seems to be a lumpy and uneven shape, but I can’t tell if that’s because there’s still swelling to go down

I’m looking for other women’s experiences with this. How long did it take for things to feel ‘normal’ again? How long was it until your breast settled into it’s new long-term shape and form? Thanks in advance for sharing.

Lumpectomy: about 4 months, but I then had a lot of radiotherapy, which made my breast very hard and lumpy again. It's taken over 5 years, plus menopause, for it to start feeling softer. The area around my nipple is still uneven, 7 years later, but I'm used to how it looks so it doesn't bother me. I had cancer in my lymph nodes, so very cornily, I'm just glad to be alive and (so far) cancer free. My incision was about 3-4 cm and only immediately around the nipple (the cancer was directly behind my nipple).

The lymph node biopsy was a very quick recovery, weeks rather than months and hasn't bothered me since then.

Mastectomy about a week with not that much pain. Lymph nodes taken out about a week with more pain.

I had the DIEP reconstruction and they told me 18 months for a full recovery and it was 3 months of restrictions though that was more for the stomach than breast.

About 3 months for breast to feel better, but much longer for scar in armpit to stop feeling tight. Early days yet! 💐

@Skybyrd I may have radiotherapy (will find out next week) so it’s interesting to hear that it might affect how things feel.

Thanks all for sharing. Seems like it’s a bit different for everyone.