What's Next after treatments?

Cutie

Hi All,

Greetings. I am creating this topic to share or exchange our experience what we do follow up after treatments. I had chemo ACT and double mastectomy. No hormonal therapy. Then seeing my MO every 3 months. She checks my blood results, physically check my chests to see any bump or abnormality. What do you get to monitor? Do you have to do bone scan? Or any ultrasound, MRI? Can you share what you do to monitor?

Thanks,

Cutie

Sabbymama

Thanks for starting this thread Cutie! I am indeed curious to see how others respond.

I had a single mastectomy (left) and axillary lymph node dissection of all level 1 nodes back in April. 4/23 positive, so 4 rounds of TC and I just finished 15 rounds of accelerated radiation. I just started hormonal therapy with Anastrozole 9 days ago. My MO recommended a follow up bone scan 6 months after my first one to check on some "bone islands" that were detected. She also recommends alternating mammogram/ultrasounds and MRI every 6 months to check the healthy breast. I have a follow up with my RO after one month and I am curious to see which tests/exams he will run. A DEXA was run to check my bone density prior to starting the hormonal therapy and the Zometa infusions (starting in December). Basically, I have been told to have my blood work done periodically to monitor my blood sugar, liver function, vitamin D, etc. and keep up the breast checks, but not to expect any other regular scans. My MO doesn't run cancer marker testing as she feels it can be inconclusive and lead to unnecessary worries.