My doctors have said i’m an unusual case.......

Megan_C

I was diagnosed with DCIS and invasive ductal carcinoma. I am ER+, PR- and HER 2- . My surgeon looked over my pathology report and was explaining the results and she said that I was about 30% ER+(she made it sound like 90% would be better). My original mass shrunk well during chemo. I think my doctors decided to treat me the way they did because they weren't sure what was actual cancer and what was DCIS. I am having all the components of treatment.... i've had 8 rounds of chemo, ( 4 of AC and 4 of Taxol) I had a double mastectomy on February 6 of this year with the beginnings of reconstruction, during my mastectomy surgery, 3 lymph nodes were taken and all were negative. Next I will be doing radiation, and finally the second step of reconstruction. after my mastectomy, there was about .8MM left in the sample that they removed. My radiation oncologist wants me to go ahead and get my fills in the tissue expanders before I start radiation. I will eventually be put on Tamoxifen. I'm a little worried about that because I have heard about the side effects.

Thanks!

Megan

Mucki1991

I have not had terrible side effects on tamoxifen, so don't get discouraged and try to keep an open mind when you start it.

beach2beach

I can't really complain, I've done pretty well on Tamoxifen. Dryness is my number one issue with it. Give it a fair chance. I had a few hot flashes in beginning then I was fine. I take it in the late afternoon. Also learned not to take anything else drying, like allergy pills at same time of day. The dryness was horrible when I took them both during same time of day.

AliceBastable

I've only been on Tamoxifen a few months, but so far I've only had some hot flashes. They're not horrible, and each one is brief. They seem to kick in about five hours after I take the pill, and the waves of flashes last about four hours. I never had hot flashes after my hysterectomy in 2008, so I'm finding these interesting in an annoying way! Not having them previously was probably a big red flag that I was still churning out estrogen, though. Oh, and I'm keeping an eye on my temper; I've noticed a few Hulk moments recently.