Hi Frantastic51,

Welcome to Cancer Chat. I hope that the forum can be of some help and support to you at this time - there will be others here who have been through something similar. My reply will boost your post, meaning a few more people should see it, so hopefully you'll get some more replies soon - particularly from anyone with similar experience.

I hope you are getting on OK, and we are always here for support on the forum if ever you need it.

Wishing you all the best,

Ben
Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi, I'm hoping to have DIEP on 24 Jan (all bring well at consultation on 10th), be good to keep in touch as this is all new to me too x

Yup happy to keep in touch as always good to know someone going through similar- where are you planning for the surgery?

I am meeting the surgeon Thursday- met the plastic surgeon on Saturday- I’ve stopped tamoxifen as have to not take it 2 weeks prior surgery 

I've not had any treatment yet, when did you get your diagnosis? Mine was 11 Dec x

I was diagnosed 15 November- due to the delay in securing a surgery date they decided to put me on tamoxifen- I am unhappy my surgery has not been booked earlier however Christmas impacted this 

Hi Frantastic,

A very warm welcome to our forum. 

As you travel your cancer journey, you will find it helpful to be able to chat with others, who are going, or have gone through, the same procedure as you, We are a friendly and supportive bunch of people and I'm sure that you'll be glad to have found our community. I expect that you are beginning to get nervous about surgery. It is all very straight-forward and nowhere nearly as bad, as we tend to imagine beforehand. I have had a lumpectomy, followed by a double mastectomy, a year later. I recovered quicker from the mastectomies than I did from the lumpectomy. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't have Diep flat surgery, because of scarring from previous non-cancer related surgery. In the end, I decided not to bother with reconstruction and just use an assortment of prostheses for different activities.  That was all 14 years ago and I still lead a busy life. The tissue removed during your surgery will be sent to the laboratory to be tested. You will usually get the results of this about 1-2 weeks later. This will indicate how much radiotherapy you are likely to need.

I am not a doctor, but don't see any problem with you having a holiday in September, when this is all behind you. You may have some check-up appointments, which you could work around, date wise. The only factor that could change this, would be if your pathology results recommend chemo. This can happen occasionally, but again, you may be able to work around this. Make sure to discuss this with your consultant.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you get on. We are always here for you.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

Jolamine thank you so much for this it really dies help me judge well.

my biopsy was tested and didn’t react to chemo so that is not something that will happen unless anything changes - I know I will need radiotherapy.

finding this chat forum is a great help as there is reassurance for my journey 

HI Frantastic,

I'm delighted to hear that chemo won't be an option for you, but mention the holiday to your care team.

Always here for you.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx