Breast Cancer in men

 So you look forward to this date and see how you’re going, and thinking you’re gonna go on a cancer ward but you’re just on a general surgeon ward and… I turns up for the hospital appointment, the operation was about 4pm and [wife] came to see me at 6 and I was just as right as a bobbin. Couldn’t believe how, how well, I felt, you know, you’ve lost all this side of your body and no pain, nothing. Just obviously coming round from the anaesthetic, but felt fine. Absolutely brilliant. [wife] was amazed and, you know, how well I looked. “You look really well” so I said “yeah, I feel really good.” And it were just like yeah, it’s happened, I’ve got rid, you know? A load’s lifted off your mind, really. I’ve come through the other side. Silly, in’t it, what you think? Anyway… get the hospital, the nurses and doctors said “what kind of painkillers do you want?” I said “well, what can I have?” They said “well, you can have anything from paracetamol to morphine, depending how bad the pain is.” I said well, actually, I’m not in any pain, which is unbelievable to think. As I say, you’ve lost all this side and you think there’s no pain. Obviously it’s in, you know, bandages and whatever else that you don’t really know, until they took the bandages off and sorta looking and you’re thinking .. they put a zip in, cos it’s just like, you see this staples from there and they disappear under your arm. 

 I was admitted into hospital and had the operation and from there I remember going down and them putting a needle in me and I thought I was going to, the usual thing, I was gonna be… count to three and you’ll be gone, and I said, “Have I got a…?” and I was gone. So I didn’t get to one, two or three, and so I went down and I remember waking up on the ward because I was first in, I had been told I was first in, I woke up and raised my head and had a look and I couldn’t see anybody else awake and there was a whole ward full of people that had been operated on that morning and eventually they came round and sort of dealt with me and helped me, and from there I was then taken back to this little small unit where there was I think four people in this little unit, and stayed in there and was… I’d been given two bags, bags for blood and residue, to be taken, and then my wife came in and sort of greeted my son and my wife and… I was able, even then I’d been told that the first thing ladies, or you should try and do is raise your arms and I was able to do that and there was ladies that couldn’t do it and I was able to raise my arms straight up straight away, so I kept doing that and then trying to do all the exercises that I’d been told to do at that particular time.

But the next thing, I do remember going to the anaesthetist, speaking with me and the cannula in my hand was already in my hand, and the next thing I remember waking up and I was absolutely freezing cold, I was very cold, in the recovery room. And I was aware of a big pressure bandage across my chest. And they put a, one of these- obviously a silver foil thing on me, and blew a heater into me to heat me up. And then they took me, once I was over that part, they took me back to the oncology unit in a single room, and hooked me up to different machines, and my arm seemed full of things. And I dozed in and out, people came to see me and I can’t remember much about that. And when I did come to a bit, they explained to me that I had this pain, pump thing, pain relief that I- if I was in pain then I could press this pump.

Anyway, the- the drains in my chest and arm began to run clear, after four days, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday… Saturday still draining a bit, and they said to me that I would be allowed home on the Sunday if the drains remained clear for that day. So in fact they did remain clear and they- I always remember, it was very strange feeling, having the drains taken away, cause you could feel them coming out. Ooh! Anyway, they took the drains out and gave me another dressing, put another dressing on the scar, and sent me home.

And then it was just the road to recovery then, over a period of weeks. I did have an infection in the drain, that did cause me a bit of problems, I was quite unwell for a fortnight with that.

And the operation was very successful, the whole breast tissue, everything was taken away, in those days still they took all the lymph glands.

But, you know everything was removed, as far as we were aware at that time, and then I was told to report back later, you know the operation healed up very quickly actually, it was amazing how little pain there was, and in fact looking at me you would notice that I only have one nipple, but it doesn’t bother me in the least actually, it’s a very neat scar, but you can feel my ribs right there. It’s a funny feeling. And I had a bit of trouble with the muscle underneath my arm and its attachment for some time. Probably for about a year. If I used that arm too much, it was the base of the muscle, it used to get very sensitive, because it hadn’t got anything to hold onto. It used to hold on to this piece of muscle here. But it’s settled down more or less now, cause we’re talking twelve years ago now.

And, after a few days, I think the operation was on the Tuesday, and I had drains in of course, two drains, one in my chest and one under my arm. The bandage had loosened a bit and I became very nosy and managed to ease it off mostly and, was just a huge scar right across my chest, which ended under my arm.

And how was your wound?

It was fine, yeah. I just didn’t realise how big or large it were or… were quite long. I didn’t realise that. I’ve not much recollection of that, of the operation or anything. I’ve not much… can’t really remember much about it. Obviously stiffness, I still get stiffness now after all this time because apparently when I go to the doctor’s to ask her about this, it was, it says it’s because of the depth of how far they’ve gone down through and my lymph glands here, I was very fortunate as well I didn’t get any bloating or nothing like that.

I was told that obviously if I had any problems with the tissue area, that I should go back, but I haven’t. It’s still, it’s a funny sensation, for people who’ve not had surgery, it’s a little bit like having sunburn.