← Return to Diagnosed with DCIS: How do I decide on treatment?

Discussion

Diagnosed with DCIS: How do I decide on treatment?

Breast Cancer | Last Active: Mar 20 10:00am | Replies (345)

Comment receiving replies
@tctredwell1

Thank you callalloo very much. I kept calling my doctor’s office for visiting nurse care until I finally started receiving calls from visiting nurse services - a lot of calls. There seemed to be a mix up. As it turns out I did request Visiting Nurse services before the surgery (a suggestion from a support group member) but the request was never sent through. I finally received a call from one very honest nurse who said, “I’m calling to aggravate you.” I laughed and asked Why? That’s when I found out about my request not going through. She said she had to start from scratch. That was Wednesday - 2 days after the surgery and then Friday I saw a visiting nurse! She was lovely, got all the information she needed, I signed consent forms and then she carefully examined my breasts.

Good news - I don’t have a fever and there’s no infection. Also my racing heart rate (almost 100 bpm) is considered normal after surgery - something like a “normal tachycardia”.

The not-so-great news is that I still have a huge, hard right breast and a huge not-hard left breast and the tugs at the incision sites are creating a weird nauseating, stinging pain.

The nurse said that what I was doing was okay and proceeded to do the same - carefully remove the blood stained white Bounty napkins (they don’t stick) from under and around my breasts, replace them with fresh napkins and carefully reposition me back into an old bra that has a big enough cup size to hold everything and still offer some compression.

I sure wish the doctor or someone would have told me of this possibility so I could be more prepared. No one told me about the possibility of a huge hard breast or what to do in the event of that happening. If it wasn’t for rene1636 and others from this site, I would have gone mad!

I got another call last night telling me to expect a visiting nurse again on Monday. I think 6 visits have been approved. 🤞

Hopefully, hopefully, the swelling will go down, the horrible bruising will fade and the nauseating weakness will subside.

Thank you again for your reply. 🥰

Jump to this post


Replies to "Thank you callalloo very much. I kept calling my doctor’s office for visiting nurse care until..."

Wonderful!! I’m so happy to hear you finally got your nurse visit & are feeling more comfortable with the process! It’s good news that there’s no infection & you’re on the road to recovery with the added support. This site is wonderful for additional support & it makes my heart happy that you at least found some comfort & peace of mind from the conversations. This site has done the exact same for me when I started loosing my mind, lol. My doctor didn’t fully explain the after effects of surgery either, only the basics like expect some pain & swelling, which really was common sense that I already expected.
Hopefully you’ve been through the worst! Wishing you a speedy recovery! 🌻

Good news! I'm happy to read that you have some nursing help and congrats for getting that done. I'm sure it was stressful to have to keep calling and trying at an already dicey post-surgical time but we all learn from these shared experiences and are better-prepared if we face similar glitches.

I think doctors have a difficult time of trying to decide how much to tell us (to inform us) and which less-likely consequences they can fairly omit. As long as you're keeping your doctor informed at every step, which the nurses can help with too, the healing process will do what it needs to do. If you can't see the doctor yet for a followup appointment, make sure he knows what's going on so he can reassure you along the way or attend to anything unusual. But I'm really glad that you have some nursing help in the interim. 🙂