Hi Robin,
Post on the breast cancer newsgroup.
You'll get a wider range of responses there
Clicking on this might automatically take you there, depending on how your
newsreader works or add it to your list.
news:alt.support.cancer.breast
J

"Robin" <robinxjoy@yahoo.com> wrote in message

The first lumpectomy really was a piece of cake for me.  I had it under
lidocaine in a same day surgery setting.  I had another lumpectomy on the
same breast, a week later.  Same thing.  But when they told me that they had
not gotten all of the cancer, I had a third lumpectomy under general
anesthesia, with morphine for pain.  The pain was tremendous at that point
because the breast was so traumatized.  I want you to know that this type of
situation is not "normal".  It was a very rare cancer that was hard to
distinguish.

She may feel pain, and then again she may not.  It depends on the extent of
the surgery they need to do.  If a lot of tissue is taken, and if that
tissue is in a painful place, or if she chooses a mastectomy; most likely
she will have pain.  So, the question is not whether she will feel pain, but
what will the doctors plan to treat the pain.  She need to speak up ahead of
time.

I had a follow-up reconstructive plastic surgery, while the breast tissue
was still a little traumatized.  I did not ask for anything for pain, and I
had to sit all night in pain in the hospital because they did not have an
'order' from the doctor to treat the pain.  So, if you are here in the US,
ask the doctors to give the nurses a standing order for pain medication. If
the surgery is going to be extensive, ask for the 'big guns' in pain
medication.  One thing that I learned is that if you treat the pain
immediately, it does not escalate.  But if you wait to treat it, many
medications will not be able to bring it under control.  So, have her ask
for the pain medication when she starts to feel the pain.  It will help to
alleviate experiencing high levels of pain.

There are very few surgeries that do not have some degree of pain with them.
It is better to be prepared ahead of time by asking the doctors what nursing
plan they will be leaving the nurses in case she has pain.
--
Take Care,  Sharon Lane
http://www.rare-cancer.org

1. My wife just had the lumpectomy for a small tumor and it wasn't too bad.  I
took her home the same day after about 3 hours following surgery.

2. The surgery was shorter because she had I believe CT with contrast the day
before which identified the location of the sentinel node which had to be
tested.  

3. If you decide on a mastectomy apparently there is little risk of recurrence
with reconstructive surgery which makes sense for cosmetic reasons.