Breast Implants pre-dx!

Options
livvienigelmom
livvienigelmom Member Posts: 25
edited June 2014 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Man, I just keep unloading my emotional  problems on this site-----I guess I just found a place where I don't have to feel like I'm bothering anyone and people understand me for which I am so grateful. I have pretty much gone through all this by myself (we moved here from another state a couple of years ago and no family except a brother in another state who just started his family and a husband who works at least 12 hours a day bless his heart now that we have all this to pay for too) and since I ended my radiation a couple of weeks ago I am either desperate for someone to talk to with trip/neg cancer or too depressed to talk at all.

After years of being almost flat chested and being done with pregnancy, I had implants done in November 08. I found my lump on May 28th 09. I did the lumpectomy, chemo, rads....After everything else, I do worry that I will have a contorted breast from the rads and still may but so far so good. Anyone else out there with implants?

· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • helenkilber
    helenkilber Member Posts: 18
    edited February 2010

    You bet!  I had mine done 12 years ago because I was SO tired of having no boobs.  I found my lump in December 2009.  My DX is almost exactly the same as yours except my tumor is a bit bigger.  Everyone assures me that the implants didn't cause it but I still feel a little worry about that.  I think I'm going to do a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction and try to think of it as a free boob job.  Sorry I can't help with your question about the impact of radiation :-(  It would suck to mess up your nice new breasts.  I know my implants made me very happy for 12 years.  Can you get them redone if they go wonky with the rads?

     BTW, I think it was you that had a bunch of second opinions on whether you were medullary or not?  I'd love to get some more detail on that from you.  My path report said 'suggestive of medullary' and I'd love to know given the better prognosis.  How did you go about getting the second opinions? Did they just reread the slides or did you go to all those clinics?  

    Best wishes for your implants!  (And how unfair is it that those of us with teeny tiny breasts should get this thing?  I have virtually no actual breast tissue!)

    Helen 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • livvienigelmom
    livvienigelmom Member Posts: 25
    edited February 2010

    Hi Helen!

        The jury was split on the medullary--my local path says it met all the requirements for medullary but I'm treatin it like the beast. Yeah, I just sent my slides around to a few places and waited for the feedback. The problem is that tnbc and medullary bc are almost identical in criteria. So far boobs are fine after rads---soft and booby---lol! I did the lumpectomy because it is well doc'd that the bilat mast doesn't change the relapse data. BUT you need to do what you feel good doing! :) What about chemo----do you skip it if you have the mastectomies? Stay in touch!!

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • helenkilber
    helenkilber Member Posts: 18
    edited February 2010

    I'm on your page.  I'm treating it same as IDC.  I think I'll send my slides around though.  Mentally it helps to think it is medullary.

    I'm doing AC-T chemo - 3rd AC this Thursday.  So far not so bad.  Emend really prevents the nausea. I don't throw up but I feel like I ate something that is not sitting well with me for about 4 days.  I hear you on the lumpectomy, but there's this part of my brain that says 'if there's absolutely no tissue there's not second primary'.  But I may change my mind.  

    Take care and let me know how you are doing. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • helenkilber
    helenkilber Member Posts: 18
    edited February 2010

    hey livvienigelmom,

    if you can remember the process/contacts for sending those path slides around can you shoot it my way?  save lazy me from finding out....

    H

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • livvienigelmom
    livvienigelmom Member Posts: 25
    edited February 2010

    No prob Helen-

         I called the pathology lab at my local hospital and asked that they send the slides etc to the Mayo, Vandy and Dana Farber in Boston and they did one at a time. The receiving facility always sends them back to where they originated.  It wasn't cheap but it gave me some peace of mind.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • KorynH
    KorynH Member Posts: 301
    edited February 2010

    I have implant (singular). It is w-a-y- better than the expander phase, but dead as a door nail numb. My p.s. tells me it will always feel this way....he said all nerves are severed in a mastectomy and it will never regain feeling. Of course the nipple is gone too and that stinks most of all. Frown So all I can really say is thank God I didn't have the other breast removed. I wished I would have prepared myself mentally for the fact that this breast would never really be a breast again. I had no choice of lumpectomy in my situation (too many tumors), but I was glad I had a surgeon who put my mind at ease about keeping my healthy breast. She (healthy breast) gets a mammo every May and an MRI every November, with clinical breast exams in between.  Breast cancer would have a very hard time getting passed all of that and if or when it does, it will be much earlier than my original one was dx.'d. 

    The implant breast fills out my bra but I really hate this numb feeling. It has been 9  months since implant exchange. I hope that with time I will feel more at peace with what has happened to me but for now "she" is an unwelcome visitor passing off to thepublic as though she "belongs", but I know she doesn't belong.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • fightinhrd123
    fightinhrd123 Member Posts: 633
    edited February 2010

    I had implants in may 07, found my lump may 08!  Had chemo b4 surgery, no cancer at surgery.  Went w mastectomy on one side, because the way it was explained to me was the pocket was already there and they would just slip a bigger implant in! HAH!  I had the bigger implant in and did rads, and its completely messed up!  Bigtime CC.  I go for a DIEP at the end of next month.  I guess about 50 percent of implants dont last through rads.  Anyway, i thought it was very ironic that almost a year to the day of my original b reast augmentation i get breast cancer!

    Laura

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MsBliss
    MsBliss Member Posts: 536
    edited February 2010

    Regarding the medullary issue:  do you know what features you had that they at first called it medullary?  I had all five of the Ridolfi features, except for a small amount of irregular area along the lesional border.  I was clinging to this dx, but every path had a different dx story, of course.  Medullary is a bit controversial because of the risk of undertreatment, but in my case, chemo was not a clear option due to secondary health issues. 

    Do you remember what area your tumor failed with the medullary criteria?  

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • livvienigelmom
    livvienigelmom Member Posts: 25
    edited February 2010

    Hi MsBliss-My ring of lymphoid cells which encircles the tumor was incomplete. It was about 75% complete and the pathologist said it was not complete because we found it so small. He said if we had found it at 2-5 cm range, which he says most are found, the lymphoid "cuff" around the tumor would have been complete. Also, the interstitial growth patterns of the cells were not "mature" at the time of biopsy. Who knows?? Medullary and trip/neg have so much in common I think I would have had the chemo/rads anyways. I was pretty devastated to go from medullary to trip/neg--one extreme to another. Hang in there and let me know if you find anything out about the medullary stuff! Monica:)

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MsBliss
    MsBliss Member Posts: 536
    edited February 2010

    It is an interesting conundrum....because if a tumor is true medullary chemo is not necessary esp if it is under 1cm.  But all medullary except for the rarest ones, are triple negative, so how do you find your comfort zone?  I had a thick rim of lymphoid cells, incomplete too, synctial growth patterns, mononuclear infiltrate, nuclear pleomorphism, etc.  Yet they refused to assign medullary to mine as well.  Then, when I had a RFC (request for comment) done by an independent pathologist and he told me an interesting thing:  he said most pathologists are hesitant to designate a tumor as true medullary because of the risk of undertreatment and that also the guidelines are subject to interpretation.  He also said that two of the features, lymphoid infiltrate and cuffing as well as synctial growth patterns in at least 75% of the tumor, statistically confer favorability, even if the rest of the criteria are unsatisfied. 

    Do you know if other than the lymphoid cuff whether you had synctial growth pattern?

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MsBliss
    MsBliss Member Posts: 536
    edited February 2010

    Yes this medullary issue is an interesting thing....do you know specifically which features your tumor had?

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • livvienigelmom
    livvienigelmom Member Posts: 25
    edited February 2010

    The pathologist actually asked me to come to the lab at the hospital he was so sure it was medullary. He told me all the criteria were met it was simply premature. Oy!

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories