[nagdu] surgery recovery question

[lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com]

Hi Tracy,
Sorry to hear about the breast cancer.  My prayers are with you. I know 
several women who have had breast cancer, including a guide dog user, and 
all have made great recoveries and are living cancer-free for many years.

I talked to the lady with the guide dog. She had her surgery back in 1994 
and had both breasts removed and replaced with implants. She had the cancer 
removed in one breast and the other removed as a preventative measure. She 
has alot of breast cancer in her family.  She couldn't use her dog for quite 
awhile as she had an extensive surgery.

Yours sounds quite simple in comparison to hers.  I'd say, you may be down 
for a couple of weeks tops since your surgery is in the right breast.  Also 
it will be alot easier if the cancerous tumor is removed and the rest of the 
healthy tissue can remain.

I'd recommend strongly that you use the Gentle Leader or whatever headcollar 
you have on Ben during your recovery.  With the headcollar, you will 
eliminate having to do leash corrections with the choke collar.  Also the 
headcollar "cools his jets" so to speak and he will remain fairly calm with 
the headcollar on.

I think it will go OK for you.  You take care and good luck and God bless 
you in your recovery.

Regards,

Linda and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:29 AM
Subject: [nagdu] surgery recovery question


>I have been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.  I'm having a
> lumpectomy on Friday to hopefully remove the cancer from my right breast.
> Afterwards, I'm not supposed to do anything strenuous for at least 10
> days.  No heavy lifting, especially.  What I'm not sure about is if it
> will affect my working my dog.  Ben sometimes pulls hard, if he gets
> distracted, but usually not.  Also, I will have to be careful giving him
> corrections, and not really give him a good jerk.
> Has anyone here gone through this?  Did it affect your work with your dog,
> while you were recovering? I'll ask my doctor about it, but I doubt he has
> any clear idea of what's involved in working a guide dog.
> You could write me off-list, if you like.
> carcione at access.net
> Thanks.
> Tracy
>
>
>
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