How long should there be from surgery to chemo start

Hi Trish

The usual gap between surgery and chemo is about four weeks assumig you are all healed.

I had problems after my mastectomy with wound healing so it was nearly eight weeks before I started chemo.

Suggest you get on to the hospital or your breast care nurse as you should have seen the oncologist by now and have a treatment plan in place for chemo (including herceptin) and possibly radiation treatment if it is required.

LindyLu

Hi Trish,

Waiting is horrible but hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer. I was told six weeks wait required post mastectomy before chemo commencing. I think it varies between 4-6 weeks from what I've read on various threads. If you have not spoken to the oncology dept or breast care nurses or chemo nurse recently may be worth calling to check your start date.

Hope you get a date soon.

Best Wishes
A

many thanks. I finally have a date 11 weeks post surgery and am starting TCH on tuesday. I am so relieved to be starting treatment that Iam not daunted but that might change quickly. Thanks for your replies.

Trish

Hi Trish,

Glad to hear you have your start date. I also was anxious to start chemo after my surgery because I wanted to feel like I was DOING something to fight against the cancer.

Its good to hear that the nodes they took came back negative, this suggests that your surgeon got ALL the cancerous cells and none were able to spread beyond the breast. Chemo should now obliterate any cheeky bad cell thatmight have had the NERVE to try to go further. This is how I liked to think of it anyway and I imagined chemo zapping any stray cell 'space-invader-style' that it came across!

~Good luck!!

Flo.

Thanks Lindy Lou & Flo. Getting more nervous as tuesday approaches. Hsve no idea what to expect from chemo also run my own business so I have taken on someone new to take some of my work load, I do plan to work a little if I can.

Having gone through chem do you guys think this is realistic ?

Trish

Hi Trish,

Glad to see that you've finally got a date for your chemo. Like you I've found the waiting to be the hardest part. I was diagnosed with BC in November and have had two surgeries since then and am still waiting for results of my second surgery and my dates for chemo.

It's a very difficult time, I can imagine exactly how you feel. I should be finding out on Wednesday (hopefully) when i'll start chemo and what types I'll be getting.

I wish you all the best in your treatment, I really hope everything goes well for you and the treatment isn't too hard.

Best wishes,
Holly x

Hi Holly

Good luck tomorrow hopefully you will get a date tomorrow. I had my first course of TCH chemo today and it went fine. The anticipation was far worse than the actual day and its great to be sitting here with course one behind me. so best of luck.

Trish