Chemo before surgery????

t100angel

Hi,

I was diagnosed on 4/16 with IDC. I have been going through testing to determine size and margins. As of now there is no skin or muscle involvement, and it appears as if the nodes are clean also.

I am having issues getting coordination with both a plastic surgeon and a breast surgeon. They are now talking about delaying surgery until all chemo treatments are completed. Has anyone else done chemo before surgery? Were you off work the entire chemo series?

I'm concerned about trying to manage my paid time off at work to cover the unpaid days at the start of my short term disability that will cover my surgery. Any suggestions or input is greatly appreciated.

knittingPT

I did chemo prior to surgery (5 months of it!) I was able to work right up until the last two weeks of chemo. At that point, chemo was being delayed on a day by day basis due to low blood counts. Rather than delay each treatment until the following week if counts were low, I decided to stop working at that point. (also my job is very active and requires a lot of movement/lifting and with the low counts, it was difficult to keep up. If I'd had a desk job I would have worked straight through). After chemo, I had 2 weeks off prior to surgery and then surgery. I am now trying to decide if I should return during radiation or not. I am still within my 12 weeks of FMLA and within the "bounds" of my short term disability. I did have a gap of 7 days before my short term disability kicked in (but wouldn't have if I waited until the date of surgery). Hope this is helpful. I see you posted this a little while back.

mircann

I too am delaying breast reconstruction...but not for your type of reason, mine was because I was so shocked and stressed by this diagnosis that I didn't want to talk to one more doctor and talk about reconfiguring my breast when I just wanted the dang tumor out ASAP...Im leaning towards a silicone implant. But I know what you mean by figuring out the money part of it. I had to use up all my vacation before I could apply for disability ( I didn't have a lot of vacation on the books as I use a lot when my son gets sick etc). I probably wont do breast surgery until October at the earliest or maybe into next year. I just have to double check with my plastic surgeon how long I can put off the extendor stretching process...ugh. Im still gonna probably be short sick/vacation time when I go back to work in  6months. Its not an easy decision to make on all this...especially when we are dealing with so many other things at the same time. Can you talk with your Human Resource person at work or a social worker at your oncology doctors office/clinic about these issues?

What kind of breast reconstruction are you considering?

sharapril1021

I will begin chemo soon after my port in put in next Tuesday.  I will be doing AC and Taxol and was wondering if the side effects are really bad?  I've been told what to expect but I've also heard it's not always the same for everyone.  From other forums I've read that people work through all their chemo.  Would appreciate any input.

knittingPT

Sharapril, I would recommend you look under the chemotherapy thread for there is a LOT of good information there and usually groups forms for people starting chemo about the same time. The November group was extremely helpful to me and we ended up starting a Facebook group and all stay in touch now.

For me, I had more physical side effects with AC but I was able to work during it. I planned it so that I worked the day of chemo and had chemo very last thing of the day. The day after chemo I felt okay (because of the steroids as part of the treatment). The second, third, and fourth days after chemo I was off work (and didn't feel very good) By the fifth day, I felt good enough to work and then just got progressively better and better until feeling normal the day or two before chemo. My job is very physically demanding (I'm a pediatric physical therapist) so it may be different if you have a more sedentary job. I felt much better during taxol However, towards the end (the last couple of weeks), my blood counts were consistently slow in coming back up. Rather than delay treatment by a week each time (to coincide with work schedule), I stopped working. As you say everyone is different but you will start to get into a pattern of what your body does.

KickinBootay

I was diagnosed on 4/14/15 and have been doing chemo AC prior to surgery to shrink this sucker! The only bad thing is that we will never really know the true stage. At the start it was approximately 3.1cm. Pet Scan showed one enlarged lymph node I will be doing my 3rd round on Thursday 8/6 with one hopefully final round three weeks after that. I still need clarification as to what the next step will be, I can feel that it has shrunk THANKFULLY! Im glad that I was able to do neoadjuvant therapy because we know for certain this cocktail seems to be working. I do my treatment on Thursdays work on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday pretty run down but back to work on Monday. Remember everyones different! Attitude is everything I am convinced! Remember stay positive a positive attitude does wonders!