IBC in both?????

Rosie,

I don't want to increase your worry, but in my wife's case, she was mis dx for a while.  With her, while waiting for a dx on her left breast, the right breast ballooned up over night.  When she got a correct dx, it was in both breast.  One sign, was the clevage area was white, or some what natural, the same was true with the fold under the breast(the purple stopped at the edge of the breast)..  It was as if, the purple color did not go any place other than over breast tissue.  She had a erythema rash above the breast line, but the purple was only over breast tissue.

Rosie, I am so sorry for what you are going through.  You are located within a few hours drive of one of the most well known cancer centers in the USA---Rosewell Park Cancer Center.  Please consider going there and getting diagnosed.  I am confident they will do whatever it takes to tell you what is going on with your breasts....cancer or something else.  Please call them Monday morning and get the ball rolling in the right direction!  Big HUGS.

Carol

Rosie:

Happy Birthday!!

Laura

Gg

I know the Radiation Onc that I talked to about the radiation with xeloda, uses a very new and high tech machine that can administer various strength radiation all in one treatment. It can do focus high dose for deeper lymph nodes or specific tumor sites at the same time it is doing the broader lose dose field.  The idea is to reduce the tumor to a size that MRM can be done and the nodes can be addressed in surgery.  As I understand, more conventional radiation is possible, though is not usually needed as the concurrent treatment has been very successful.

Gg, in my case, the skin involvement on the left breast was too large for surgery.  The doctors did not think they could close the wound, so I went for radiation first.  The rad/onc treated mainly the skin, so the tumors are still in both breasts although slightly smaller.  The skin looks much better and my surgeon thinks they can close the wound. 

On the radiation, I don't think they used newer technology, but they were very hands on.  They used a sort of "fake skin" on top of the breasts to guide the radiation closer to the skin.  I noticed the "fake skin" used on the left breast was thicker than the "fake skin" used on the right.  The rad/onc also told me she was using very high doses on the left breast, so maybe they gave me different doses.  She said her goal was to "sterilize" the skin to allow for surgery and prevent spreading.

 The plan for Wednesday is to remove the tumors with surgery on both breasts including the lymph nodes on the left breast and centinel on the right.  We have not discussed more radiation, but I will see the rad/onc again a month after surgery.

Rosie how are you doing?

Vickie