For all the node positive, Stage 2 ladies

1Athena1

You and others are welcome any time - whether I am there or not!

KitCat1

Yes indeed the staging is really something else.......I don't like the way soem docs say " i don't have a crystal ball".. bu things rae in your favor. No one really knows.( tha;st waht scare me the most) I want someone to say your fine.. go on your marry way and forget this happened!! Ya right!!! Well i guess if we all did taht maybe we would all feel better! So I'm with Babrbara,,,,Lets go visit athena in her summer home overlooking DeNile!!  Ya \xox Ps. Barbabra .. i know what you mean about some of these docs.. i have a great radialogist and the first onc I had was always in a hurry.. so I switched.. am happier...... but not the happiest!!

Paula1231

Hello to all Stage II ladies

My Onc specializes in Stage II BC.  She has a really informative study at http://www.cancernetwork.com/cancer-management-12/chapter07/article/10165/1534903?pageNumber=7.  From what I can tell, outcomes are pretty much the same for node pos and node neg.  You may have to register to read the entire study, but it is revealing.  I learned alot about Stage II.

IsThisForReal

River DeNile - I think I visit there quite often...

dutchgirl6

I wondered who belonged to that lovely house on the other side of the river DeNile.  It's you Athena!  I don't think that this experience has really changed me, I sometimes go to the dark side in my mind, but on the whole, I have faced it as just another sh***y thing that has happened in my life, and I am moving on.  I know that the possibility of this monster raising its ugly head is a possibility, but I believe that the treatment I received was the best that could be done to keep it away.  I refuse to let it take over my life.  

Claire_in_Seattle

Believe it or not, there are worse diagnoses than Stage II breast cancer.  I was reminded of this yesterday when I did a 40 mile group ride and one of the leaders had to bail.  She has had congestive heart failure, and has to stop if feeling overtaxed.

Once I knew I was in no immediate danger, I took the position that I would be just fine, but had to get my butt kicked big time.  So my focus was on landing on my feet post treatment, which I accomplished.  Have to say I was thrilled to need no more than Arimidex and a few supplements at the one year point.  Internist said he would see me in two years as he was unable to find anything wrong with me.

I have not changed my life all that much.  I think more diligent about getting daily exercise, and need to watch my weight more carefully.  Unwilling to drink cheaper wine too!!!  I already ate a ton of fruits and vegetables, so no change there.

Hardest adjustment now is to my changing appearance as had very long hair all my adult life.  So needs to grow out, and I am waiting.  I am fit and strong, so no change there.

Right now, back to focusing on my career.  Interviewed for something where I wasn't the right fit...I agree BTW.  The other thing was learning who would be there for me in my life, and it isn't either one of my sisters.  Not a surprise, but haven't forgiven either one of them.

I also learned that I do need church to reflect and pray for myself and others and how much I value the liturgy which for me sets the stage for this to happen.  Think that comes under the heading of "spiritual growth" and that I was getting there anyway.

Fearless_One

Yeah, I am confused about the whole staging thing.   They said I was stage II (2 nodes positive), BUT I had "perinodal invasion" in one or two of the nodes (no vascular invasion).   That sounds really ominous to me and tells me my little tumor was an aggressive little b*stard - BUT they said I am only stage II.   Seems like it would be more serious?    Guess I am not so "fearless" .   Still get scared.

memory

Claire, you are certainly right. A relative of mine has congestive heart failure, and there's no telling what will happen in the future. It's treatable, he could last another twenty years, but who knows about the quality of life?

 Plus, an acquaintance of mine just lost her husband. Died in his forties, a heart attack. Yes, there are worse things.

misfit

I tend to compare my situation to those of people in the past, not the present. It wasn't too long ago that a woman would go in for a lumpectomy and maybe wake up with no breast and a cancer diagnosis. I have an aunt who is a retired nurse and she remembers when the doctors discussed things with the husband instead of the wife (the patient!). I am so thankful for improved tests and treatments. I am also thankful to have access to information and to be able to make my own decisions. I'm not suggesting that everyone should look at it this way, but for me it helps.

One last thing - those of us who had cardiotoxic chemo and Herceptin have the possibility of CHF hanging over our heads, which kind of sucks.

IsThisForReal

That does suck, Misfit, but it's worth the risk.  After the herceptin is done our risk will decline.

sam52

I would be interested to know whether the 'long term' survivors with node -positive disease were estrogen positive or not. Also what grade their tumor was. I think this might be a factor in their individual situations.

Sam

Lowrider54

1999 Stage II node positive, estrogen positive - after chemo, 10 years NED. 

FireKracker

LOW RIDER................WOW....YOU ARE MY NEW HERO.GOD BLESS.YOU GIVE ME HOPE.

BadPatient

I was node positive (1), 2A, ER+ PR- HER2-. Diagnosed Nov 2001 at age 42. Remain NED. Took me YEARS to not constantly fret and worry. It used to define me, this cancer, but now it's just a part of me. And I am at peace with that. I am grateful for my life and the moments I am given. 

Many node negative's get recurrences so no one is truly singled out. Statistics are just numbers of which none of you are. One cannot quantify or qualify their lives under the guise of cancer or statistics.  I figure either we will have a recurrence or not. Which makes statistics pretty insignificant. 

Blessings to you all and don't ever let cancer define who you are or what you are. It doesn't have that kind of power. 

  

mumito

Glad i found everyone here you all inspire me to take a deep breath smell the flowers around me and put my worries away.And Claire I agree about the good wine.Just don't partake as often.

1Athena1

BadPatient, I love you post and your attitude. It is wonderful that you have been able to incorporate the cancer for what it is for you - neither too big nor too small. And congratulations on your good health! You truly give me hope.

Claire - you are right on. Cancer is a scary word but I would rather have stage II than Parkinson's or ALS, to name a few. Let's not even talk about the amputation of a limb.

I wanted to ask you ladies, is there any moment - or emotion, o picture or something someone said --that stands out about your cancer experience? I have two: one, when my bs called and said, in a pained voice "it IS breast cancer." I remember I took my cell phone top a meeting at work because I was expecting his call. After he gave me the news, we rang off and I went right back to the meeting without saying a word.

The other was when my onc tried (unsuccessfully) to persuade me to have chemo. He made a ball with his thumb and his index finger to show me how big my Very Positive Nodes were. I remember thinking "You wonderful nodes, you really kept the cancer at bay." Perhaps I am right. Or maybe I really do have the home overlooking the river DeNile... 

mumito

I have two as well first one was the young ultrasound tech. freaking out when she saw my tumor on her screen then she excused herself to run and find a doctor. The second was the breast surgeons remark about ordering chemo before my biopsy was even finished. All this happened in two days I felt like I had been run over by a Mack truck.To top that off I still had to call my husband who was outof town to tell him my news.

dutchgirl6

Mine was when I had my cone biopsy done, and the radiologist who did the procedure patted me on the leg and said "Good luck and take care".  I knew right then what the result would be, even though I wouldn't get comfirmation from my GP until the following week.

The second was when my surgeon informed me that I had two positive nodes and would be needing chemo.  I thought that the ceiling had fallen on me.  The same day when my DD came home, and my DH told her about my needing chemo, she ran to me and hugged me and cried and said "But you didnt' want this".   It surprised me that she felt it so deeply.

misfit

I was living in a smaller city and didn't have a family doctor so I had to go to emergency at the hospital to get a referral for a mammogram. The doctor I saw told me the lump was probably a cyst. He went out of the room and came back with a needle which caught me off guard I guess. Anyway, the nurse that was with him started laughing and said "you should see the look on your face!". Well the doc soon realized it wasn't a cyst and set up an ultrasound right away but I'll never forget that stupid nurse. I hope she felt bad.

1Athena1

Misfit, your experience resonates with me. With how common bc is, you would think healthcare practitioners would constantly brace for the worst and yet they react as though those sort of things never happen. The first time I saw my bs he said it was surely a cyst and tried an aspiration. When he gave me the final news, he seemed surprised...

dutchgirl - I remember, too, the fear and horror not at being told I had cancer but at learning that chemo would be recommended (nay, pressed upon me). It began my agonizing saga of deciding whether or not to take chemo. The decisonmaking process took a bite out of my soul. It is not easy to go against the grain on certain things.

beblessed

I'm glad you shared that memory cause I was wondering if there were women out there who were diagnosed at a younger age and made it past 10 years my mom is stage 2 and node positive and I have been trying find info so I can know what to expect how to help her and share new info I find from people who have had it but kicked it reading you ladies stories have really made me feel better I hope you all continue to do good and even get better as years pass may god bless you all and take care also there is a study from a doctor vincet tuohy who thinks he may have a vaccine to prevent tumors he said he hopes to start trial next year

mumito

You are a blessing to your mother.Mine tends to freak out when the subject is discussed.But she actually took the summer off from work so she could run the house durring my chemo  treatments.

IsThisForReal

I have something that's been on my mind for a little while now.  I have a copy of my path report, and in one paragraph it was stated that when the sugeon touched the tumor lightly, it began to bleed profusely and therefore she had to manage the bleed.  So, my way of thinking is, if that little sucker was bleeding so hard then more cancer cells probably escaped...no?  Any opinions on this?  Thanks

1Athena1

beblessed, so glad that your mother is doing well. With stage II, you never know. 

mumayan - that is so nice of your mother. This illness has really made me appreciate mine and realize how lucky I am, because I know she has been watching over me in her own way every single day since dx (we live in different countries). It must be horrible for a mother to have a daughter with cancer. 

Is this for real - That is a really interesting point. I have always wondered about cancer cells migrating from the breast due to human intervention (such as a needle biopsy in my case). My only suggestion is that you try a Pubmed search (from the US National Library of Medicine). I would say "ask you onc" but that could go either way. The cancer establishment has such fears of looking outside the box that I am afraid he or she may "pat you on the head" and tell you not to worry about it - whereas you concerns are very legitimate, IMO.  

This makes me think of a story. I really like my onc, but I don't know how  "outside the box he is", although I should be grateful that he still puts up with me even though I end up rejecting most of the treatments the good man offers me. I live in Washington DC and I am Caucasian. I live in a neighborhood, Georgetown, that always seems to have sewage problems. The Potomac River is very polluted, and male fish in it have begun to acquire some female characteristics in their organs. It is believed that the hormones in food and other waste deposited into the river are contributing to high estrogen quantities in the water that are affecting male fish. Following my cancer dx, I learned about this for the first time, and I also learned that white women in DC had the highest rate of breast cancer amongst white women in the country - I think the survey was done by state, with the District of Columbia being counted as a state, but I am not certain.

Unfortunately, Washington is still quite segregated, and my area is very white. In my mind, it seems to make sense, at least as a hypothesis, that white women, roughly concentrated in Georgetown and surrounding neighborhoods, whose tap water tastes like a nuclear bomb and who, like everyone else in DC take their water from a river with high quantities of estrogen, could see their incidence of breast cancer rise because of the river. If black women have a higher incidence of triple neg cancer than er+ cancer then it might make sense that the connection between estrogen and cancer would show up in whites.

My layman's, untested hypothesis of the epidemiology of cancer in my town in mind, I have taken to only drinking filtered water. Yet my onc dismissed my concerns. But how does he know? I come from a family of ZERO cancer anywhere in the body, and I am the only member of my family who lives in the district and gets water from the Potomac.

To make a huge story short, is this for real, TRY your medical team, but PubMed may be a better bet. :-) That web site is: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/cancerliterature (I don't know why the links I post never light up as links, but you can cut and paste it into your browser).

IsThisForReal

Thank you very much Athena.  I have not approached my medical Onc. about this yet, although she is totally on board with me having a blm.  She hasn't said so directly, but it is very obvious. I am just not sure if she would push it aside or not, and therefore prefer to come here for information regarding that before approaching her.

In regards to your water Athena, I watched a documentary on the exact same thing you describe.  IMO, that must have an effect - all the harmones, meds, antibiotics, etc that they found in the water was unbelievable.  My Dh watched the program with me, and was so shocked that he decided to put reverse osmosis in for me.  Now, we live on a farm in Saskatchewan and have our own well, to which we test it regularily.  Because we'd been having some iron issues, I started to by bottled water.  Dh said 'no more' to even the bottled water and insisted on reverse osmosis.  IMO, I think your concerns are valid Athena.

1Athena1

Well, hopefully we will still be here twenty years from now enjoying a glass of good water. I call it my "anti-cancer water" - it's just a US$10 Britta filter. I bet your healthy farm living will help too.

IsThisForReal

Crossing my fingers that it does.  Brita filters work pretty good from what I've read - I used to use one before the iron got really bad.  It made a huge difference.  'Anti-cancer water' - I like that!

I haven't been able to find anything on the cancer cells migrating - I will keep looking though :-)

1Athena1

I am stealing the idea from another forum but it would be good to put this question as an unscientific survey for node-positive stage II people:

--Did anyone feel their lymph nodes enlarged before surgery?

My answer:yes - and I think I felt two. This was one reason why I was panicking to get surgery early. The pathologist's report later found that I had one node at 2.4 cms!

Claire_in_Seattle

Hi Athena,

Why every woman should exfoliate.  Yes, I found the lymph node....and it was also only one....as I was faked out by the breast lump.  Had been something in the breast area half my life.

My immediate reaction was "o shit, I have breast cancer".

A bit over a year later, I am fine.  (Well, I did overdo things yesterday with a long group bicycle ride, followed by a volunteer server gig at a cycling benefit.)

My major risk factor was not having had any children.  But no need wasting time worrying about "why".  Seattle has wonderful water so drink what comes out of the tap.

Blessed....one of my friends was diagnosed in her 30s and is fine now.  She got to Stage IV as did not initially have hormonal therapy.  So she had lesions removed from her lungs.  But with first Tamixofen and now Arimidex, she is just fine, and has been for more than ten years.

I feel extremely lucky as the assumption going in was that I was most likely Stage III.  Otherwise, I would have insisted on having fewer nodes removed.  That is the one thing I would differently with hindsight.

Right now, can't wait for my breast to heal from radiation and for my hair to grow out, but both will happen.  So thrilled to be just fine at the one year point. - Claire

IsThisForReal

I would have to say no.  In fact, my surgeon couldn't feel them either, and the MRI didn't even pick it up, although one was 3 cms. Go figure.