Thur. 7th May 2009 'Post Op Folow up'

It's been a long day, but on the whole a positive one.

My appointment was at 10a.m. and was on time. The nurse removed my dressings and all is looking clean and dry. Mr MJ then explained that any residual Ductal Carcinoma Insitu(DCIS) has now been removed and hopefully the chemotherapy will have dealt with the Invasive carcinoma. He was pleased with the surgery results and we discussed some possible adjustments once everything has settled down.

I had around 250 mls of seroma removed from my back, which should make me feel more comfortable, but he did say that it may need doing a couple more times over the next few weeks. The swelling under my arm is apparently the result of the reconstruction and may need 'tweeking' at a future date.

The next step is to start Herceptin and we agreed to return in the afternoon (as opposed to next week) to see the Oncologist and arrange my first treatment. We returned at 2p.m. but had a very long wait, which I wouldn't normally mind, but I was extremely tired by the time we were seen.

My First Herceptin treatment will be on May 21st and will be carried out on the unit. My only disappointment is that it's given via a cannula (I thought it would be a butterfly needle) and I was hoping I'd finished with large needles. Never mind, it is much less aggressive than chemotherapy, but can occasionally cause some unpleasant side effects. Surely I can't be as unlucky with this treatment.