IBC:Just diagnosed:international patient

indiangirl

My mother is 62 yrs old, has been visiting me in U.S from Jan onwards. All of a sudden the breast was swollen, pcc thought it was mastititis, she was on antibiotics for 3 weeks, after that went ot breast surgeon and did mammogram, ultrasound, needle biopsy, confirmed IBC. MRI done waiting on results, should get it by Wednesday. Punch biopsy scheduled for Wednesday. The issue is my mother has visitor's insurance and it practically does not cover anything it is a case of emergency. I am looking for options to help pay for her treatment. Any ideas, pls help. Also have a Medical Onc appt. this friday. Till now paying everthing out of pocket, it is too expensive.

Infobabe

I takes a long time from mammogram, biopsy to real treatment.  I would get her home as soon as possible unless there is someone who knows how this could be paid for here. 

Does she have socialized medicine or insurance at home?  Very difficult situation.  Call Social Services or the embassy for her country.

indiangirl

Thanks infobabe and Bon I will look into it.

indiangirl

I was wondering since we have had the mammo, u/s, biopsy, and are waiting on breast MRI results, what other tests need to be done before my mother gets the chemo. Isn't IBC suppossed to be treated with urgency. I know I need to wait for the results, but is it possible to do all the tests at once and then wait on them or are the tests done in steps. What are the tests that we need to get done.

ibcmets

I think the tests depend on what the oncologist will order.  My onc was very thorough from the start and had me do mammo, ultrasound, biopsy, MRI, brain MRI, bone scan & Pet scan.  I started chemo within 2 weeks after the MRI & Pet scan & biopsy. 

If your Mom has care & insurance at home, you may want her to start treatment at home.  I'm sure circumstances could be different with her, but doctors may not want to start her on chemo unless she can complete chemo here.  They most likely will run Pet scans every 3 months to see how chemo is affecting her the first year.  I had 8 months of chemo to start with once every 3 weeks.

I hope your Mom can get the treatment she needs.

Terri

Kicks

Yes indiangirl - with IBC (Inflammatory Breast Cancer) time is important. I started A/C 17 days after DX; saw my PA, had mammo, sono and biopsy one day and had DX at 8 the next morning. Chemo comes first. Some will go through 2 different batches/types of chemo before surgery, some (like me) had one type before surgery and another after (both followed by rads).

indiangirl

Thanks ibcmets.Kicks,Bon, my mother had her first round of Chemo(TCH) day 1 and herceptin every week for 2 weeks. She is set for second round on June11th. She had her MRI that showed 4 nodes involved, PET/CT showed the cancer is only in the Right Breast. Her EKG came out good. I keep reading the posts to help her out as she cannot read english, We got great information about the chemo. Any ideas when will her right breast start shrinking in size, or will it stay like that till masectomy.

 Also we were thinking about the pros/cons of removing both breats during masectomy. Also when is the bonescan done. Do I need to ask the oncologist to do the Brain,Spine and CNS too. When does she need to do a testing to check the status of the cancer any inputs.

zeenat

I can tell u from my experience.My breast size did not shrink much.I dont think I had a bone scan but the PET scan and CT scan can pick up cancer.I also had the MRI of the brain.

To check the status of the cancer,my onco repeated the MRI of the breast several weeks after the start of the treatment.

I wanted both bresats removed but my surgeon was not in favour of it.I cant remember why but she told me not to at that time.

hope this helps.tc 

ibcmets

Indiangirl,

Your Mom's breast may soften right away from the chemo.  My redness and inflammation carried on until I had BMX a year later.  The first year I had Pet scans done every 3 months.  I started with bone, MRI, brain MRI, Pet and some heart test the first month of diagnosis.    Since all test confirmed same diagnosis, my onc stuck with the Pet scans.  I did not have completely clean scans until 6 months after BMX.

Terri

indiangirl

Thanks Zeenat and ibcmets. I am back after quite sometime, with 2 little girls(5 and 1) of my own, it is kind of hectic managing everything. But my mothers breast is very soft to touch after 2 chemos except for the aerola part but the dimples are still in there. She has cancer in the skin too. Dr said she would repeat the tests after 4 treatments. What all tests are normally done any ideas greatly appreciated.