Thinking of surgery + B17 + CoQ10, but no chemo/radiation

I personally never had a big fear of chemo.....compared to my fear of dying of bc, chemo was really just a disappointing annoyance. Like CoolBreeze, my tumor was Her2++++ and I had Herceptin every two weeks for a year. Not fun but very doable........the first 4 months it was administered with Navelbine which did NOT cause any hair loss or problems to my heart at all. I also had a mastectomy - which in my case was over-kill; a lumpectomy with rads would have been enough..........but I wanted to attack the cancer as quickly and aggressively as possible.

SuperScared - your name says it all - please do NOT let the fear of chemo and surgery stop you from fighting your cancer. There are so many helpful resources out there - don't allow depression to make you stick your head in the sand and give-up. Yes - nutrition CAN help your immune system do it's job - but until you know the size and shape of your own personal BC beast, you can't depend on that alone. Good luck and may God's angels watch over you!

I use Dr. Bernie Seigel's tapes.  You can get them online under his ECaP.com site.  He was a surgeon at Yale New Haven Hospital and pioneered a whole new way of handling cancer with mind/body during the 80s. He wrote several books.  His first and in my opinion his best is "Love, Medicine and Miracles".  I go to his very special support group.  They are in many places in the country.  ECaP stands for exceptional cancer patients.  You can check out the locations on the website if you are interested.  I also found some guided imaging tapes to balance my chakras.  I listen to them as I go to sleep at night and when there's time I also listen to them in the morning to get me centered for my day.  You would love, "The Biology of Belief".  It is written by a reasearch doctor and gives scientific evendence that the mind can have a powerful effect on our healing.  Great stuff!  You can find it on Amazon...Bernie's books and the chakra tapes are there, too. 

I consider faith to be believing in the face of no evidence.  I tell my body every day that it is healthy and vibrant even on days when I feeling neither.  Bernie Seigel says, "Your body loves you so love it back".

By the way, today is my 59th birthday.  I am blessed.

Roseann

Happy Birthday Roseann and many many happy returns!

Superscared, sounds like a good reason not to do an excisional biopsy.

I appreciate everyone's perspective on whether or not one should do chemo, but none of us has any definitive answer about that. CoolBreeze, I'm so sorry for what happened to your best friend's mother. Nobody should ever have to die such a horrible death. But to say if she'd had chemo she would have lived is just not a "given". I know countless people who followed all their doctor's orders, had all the chemo they were told to have, and died anyway, many of them agonizing deaths. Horrifically, nobody has the answers just yet. And to be fair, I know people who have had chemo and who are still alive. Nobody can predict the outcome of this ghastly disease.

As for me, it was my choice not to do chemo or chest wall radiation, and I was Stage IV on Day One. I had 5 lymph nodes involved. I had a lesion on my spine. I had extremely extensive vascular involvement of my tumor. I also chose to have my very large lumpectomy via laser surgery, with no general anesthesia, and virtually no pain, inflammation, swelling, bruising, etc. But that was my personal choice, and I'm 2 years out and not only still kickin', but doing better and better every day. But again, it was my own choice, and I'm responsible for my decision. It's been not only a very lonely road to travel, but has broken us financially, since no insurance pays for alternative treatments. My quality of life is excellent, although I still live with the terrible fear, and am slowly learning to conquer that.

Again, people may not believe in naturopaths, but I saw mine yesterday, and while he feels I still have a lot of inflammation, he doesn't feel there is any more cancer anywhere, and that sure gave me a boost of confidence. It's all what you you beliveve in, and the direction you choose to follow.

Very best to ALL and the paths you choose to follow,

Maddy Mason, Hudson Valley, NY

Many cancer treatment facilities have a social worker - therapist supporting the patients as they start their treatments. I encourage you to seek these resources, so you are interacting and speaking with someone directly. They can act as liason to your doctors to convey your extreme stress levels and possibly give you prescriptions to help you. 

Also, I see in some of your posts your frustration with the doctors in their lack of particiaption with diet, supplement recommendations, etc. This is rather common unless you go to integrated Cancer Treatment Facility such as http://www.cancercenter.com/

They have a separate department staffed with specialists to cover Natural and Holistic support. Your average oncologist or surgeon does not specalize in these fields, and will probably be limited on their knowledge and feedback.  If you are not happy with your current situation there are other facilities which may meet your needs better. 

Amen, Joytotheworld. If I had been more informed, I would have chosen an excisional biopsy.

I'm afraid that I don't have any statistics to back up my statement since the majority of the evidence I've read regarding this matter is "anecdotal" and we all know what low regard the medical community has for anecdotal anything.  Because I didn't do enough research prior to my original diagnosis and treatment, I myself did have a core biopsy done.  Afterwards, once I had done extensive research, I asked my surgeon about the possibility of leakage from fine needle and core biopsies.  He stated that a) extreme care is taken to limit the possibility of this happening but that it was still a possibility and b) that it wasn't really that big a deal in my case since there was only a seven day span between the time of my biopsy and my surgery and c) that it also was irrelevant since chemotherapy would "mop up" any spillage had it occurred.  Since I ended up refusing chemo, this statement wasn't terribly reassuring to me.  However, it would appear that I was probably one of the lucky ones since, once the tumour was removed, the lab report said there was no evidence of any vascular or lymphatic invasion.  Irregardless, had I to do it over again, I would not take any chances and I would have insisted on an excisional biopsy.

Joy,

Thanks for sharing your doctor's rationale for their recommendation on biopsy. I just want to add that the incision site for core needle is removed from the body during the main surgery leaving virtually no chance of leaked cells in the body.

The problem with excisional biopsy is that it does not remove the margins around the mass. if the tumor is found positive for malignancy, they need to go back to re-excise and remove the margins. Then they biopsy the margins and if too close or positive, they need to go back in a 3rd time to re-excise and remove greater margins. A bit messy.That is why the excisional biopsy is used selectively, e.g. when they are almost sure the tumor is benign.

I had surgery and turned down the chemo and radiation.   That was 25 months ago and so far I am doing fine.   Mine was 1.2 c.m. and I it was Triple Negative.    It is a hard decision to make and most professionals don't agree with my deicision but a lot of my friends think I did the right thing.   Who knows.   You can just do some research, make up your mind, go with your gut feeling and hope for the best.   Good Luck with your decision.

Unklezwifeonty,  although it sounds reassuring on the surface that the surgeon removes the core biopsy incision site when removing the tumour, the problem lies in the time span between the time of the core biopsy and the time of the actual surgery.  Some folks like myself are very fortunate in having only 7 days between these two events but I know of many women who have waited 4 to 6 weeks before they were able to get the surgery.  This allows way too much time for any spilled cancer cells to escape to other places in the body before the biopsy incision site is removed.  It can be very much like closing the barn door after the cows get out.  As for having to have additional surgeries to obtain clear margins, this frequently occurs during lumpectomies anyways as they have no idea what the margins will show until after the removed tumour is fully examined.  This is yet another one of those decisions women have to make on an individual basis figuring out what works best for them.  For myself, I just wish I had known all the facts prior to my decision to have a core biopsy.  If I had, I would have opted for an excisional biopsy instead. 

I hear your concern. Not sure I share it. Best to let the patient and surgeon arrive at the optimal answer for the specific case.