Mom's recurrence/hormone status changed

FirstEdition

Mom's recurrence/hormone status changed

FirstEdition

Hello everyone, I have been following this website casually for a few months and finally decided to register, for my Mom's sake an, I admit, partially for my own also. Briefly, my Mom's story: She had masectomies in 1996 and 97 respectively, adriam/cytoxan with the first one, has done fine since then(other than lymphadema in left arm), until this June she started getting winded and having trouble breathing, went to hospital, scans showed fluid around heart and lungs. We thought it was a complication from her aortic valve replacement surgery the year before, but lo and behold the fluid had breast cancer cells in it. She ended up having a pericardiocentisis and thorocentesis to drain the fluid, and had to have one more thorocentesis before the taxol/carbo kicked in and has been doing real well on it for 12 weekly doses. Just today though she was having some faint signs of the old symptoms again, and her ankles are trying to swell a bit. I live with her and am very involved in her care and she leans heavily on me sometimes(and vice versa). We had scans last week and see the onc tomorrow, supposed to do 6 more doses of chemo probably. But does fluid buildup mean the chemo has quit working? That is the natural fear...she is triple negative also which limits her treatment options we know. So far at least the ct scans show know lesions or lymph node involvement and bone scan looked clean also. I'm almost afraid to post that for fear of jinxing scan results tomorrow! My mom's name is Lavon. Bless you all, thanks, Rod.

TenderIsOurMight

Hello Rod,



A good place for you to be, here on this board, to lend you much needed support as well as your Mom. Welcome.



Taxol is certainly known to be associated with fluid retention, and with your Mom's medical history of aortic valve replacement, it doesn't seem off to wonder if that is what's causing her current swelling. Thankfully her oncologist appointment is tomorrow and he should be able to help you with this.



I'm glad you posted as many here will have more insight than myself. Yet I did wish for you to know we hear you and urge you to come back and post some more should you wish.



Tender

FirstEdition

Thanks so much Tender, Mom's not too tech savvy but I will share all comments with her. I am usually online quite a bit either at home or in the small used bookstore I own(hence my username). Mom has an antique store right nextdoor, and she has been coming down pretty religiously, even while on the taxol/carbo.