Stage II Forum

Glad to hear it Rachel! Hi to Regina, yes the three of us are FEC-T gals. Overall I guess I have done well, no serious side effects to report. No allergic reactions or swelling, no neuropathy, etc. They each make you feel like crap for a few days up to a week or so, but I started to feel pretty good again the week before each treatment. If you want the gory details of side effects, PM me and I'll give you the run down. I have my last taxotere this week. Yeah!

I'm doing rads because i had a large tumor and I'm under 50, two risk factors for recurrence. It's my choice, since my nodes were negative. My onc agrees with my decision.

Shelley and Rachel: OK, thanks ya'll. I know they radiate after lumptecomy and I had a mastectomy; so I'm just hoping they don't decide that is necessary in my case. Of course, it doesn't much matter what WE want, does it, ha! I see both my medical oncologist and the radiation oncolgist next week, so I'll know more then.

Regina

I know my BS had told me that with lumpectomy (which I first tried) I would need to do rads.  Since I ended up with mx after two lump surgeries did not have clean margins rads were not needed.  My OncotypeDX showed only 2% benefit for me to do chemo.  I too was first thought to be Stage I but moved to Stage II as they found the tumor was larger than first thought because I have dense tissue....what I refer to as "stupid boobs!"

NativeMainer: No problem. I was being a little facetious when I said it doesn't matter what we want. Believe me, nobody tells me what to do without me investigating it first and taking time to make a decision. I was lucky to not have to be in a big hurry to make my surgery decision and talked to 3 doctors before I settled on BMX. Like Rocket, I've decided to be aggressive with this. I lost my father to cancer, so I'm sure my emotions and fear are kicking in also. But I'm trying to look at this academically too and make informed decisions. Thanks for all the input.

Regina

NativeM,

congrats on getting your last drain out!

traci

I have a dear friend who is a nurse who was dx a year and a half ago and still hasn't had surgery.  She says no doctor is going to push her around!  She told her onco and went on tamox to help (hopefully) to keep it from growing) and says maybe she'll have it in a few years after her kids are out of the house.

Goes to show you, it isn't always an emergency, no matter what we think at first, and it is definitely personal decisions for all of us.

Hi All,

I had my hysterectomy/oophorectomy four days ago and yesterday I went out Christmas shopping.  I have had very little pain and am only taking Motrin when I need it.  I can't believe how quick the recovery is from this laparoscopic surgery.  I have more pain from the Arimidex than I do from this surgery.  My belly is a bit swollen and I'm sore and tired, but nothing like I thought it would be.  I'm finally through with the invasive treatments and am so thankful!  I think the biggest battle is fear of reccurence.  I struggle with that a lot.  I had a bone scan, and a head, chest, abdomen and pelvic CT prior to my bi-lat mastectomy and none of the scans showed mets.  I also had 13 lymph nodes removed and all were clear.  I hope that I can trust that it hasn't spread anywhere and that the 3 chemo treatments that I had were enough to kill any runaway cells.  I also hope the Arimidex will prevent any from growing in the future.  I found a website one day that predicted my chance of having cancer spread to my lymph nodes based on tumor size, grade, etc.  It predicted that I had a 79% chance that the cancer would have spread to my lymph nodes.  I think it was miraculous that out of the 13 that were removed, none showed any cancerous cells.  It's easy to trust God when life is easy, but it's much harder when life is difficult.  I choose to trust regardless.  Hope you're all having a great day.

shelly, if you do the ovary surgery, does that mean no meds at all?  I thought that just meant they switched you to an AI instead of Tamox?

Hi Shelley,

Yes, I think we have had similar diagnosis.  I have the benefit of having two good friends who are pharmacists and one of them has had a wife treated for BC.  They both recommended an AI over Tamoxifen as it has been shown more effective.  I refused to take Tamoxifen based on my pharmacist friend's research. My onc heartily agreed with my decision, however, since I was in perimenopause, I either had to receive injections to stop ovarian function or I had to have my ovaries removed prior to starting an AI.  Initially, because I was going through radiation and my onc wanted to start me on the AI right away, I received the Zoladex injections monthly to stop my ovaries and was given Arimidex.  After I completed rads and had received three Zoladex injections, the third of which resulted in a severe allergic reaction, my laparoscopic hysterectomy/oophorectomy was scheduled.  It was by far the easiest surgery I have every had.  Three tiny incisions and very little pain.  I was up and around the very next day feeling well and only taking Motrin.  The third day I went Christmas shopping for four hours.  It was unbelievable!  I have had joint pain from the Arimidex, but it beats cancer recurrence.

As for the radiation, I had 36 treatments.  Doctors were on the fence as to whether I needed it or not, but I chose to receive it because one of my tumors had only a 2 mm margin.  It was a clean, acceptable margin, but too close for my comfort.  Rads was tiring in the last two weeks, and for two weeks following, but overall nothing like chemo.  It was comparitvely very easy.  Each daily treatment was very quick and painless.  I worried about it a lot prior to going, but the techs put me at ease and while it was a pain in the butt to go every day, I had relatively few side effects.  The worst being that I had 3 blisters during the final week of treatment (they were small), and I had the fatigue which was relatively mild.  I didn't miss any work during my treatment phase.  I wanted to be very aggressive treating this cancer and I never want to experience a recurrence so the treatments to me seemed like a small price to pay compared with the regret that I would feel otherwise.  My tumors were in my right breast so there was less risk compared with women who have rads to the left breast as their heart can be affected in the radiation field.  I also didn't have my axilla radiated because I already have truncal lymphedema and mild lymphedema in my right arm.  The rads could have significantly made it worse, so I elected not to have it there because I had no node involvement.

I know these decisions are very difficult, but I can honestly say now, being on the other side of the treatments, that I don't regret any of my decisions.  I made the most aggressive ones and I won't look back later and say, "I wish I had done more."  I did everything that was possible to irradicate this cancer.  If it comes back, then I will deal with it as aggressively as possible again.  I hope to be around for a long while.  I hope all the best for you Shelley.  How many rads treatments have been suggested for you?

I just wanted to raise my head up to be counted in the Stage II Forum.  Wonderful to learn from each other as we all go through this time.  I will be checking back in on everyone.  Hugs, Kara

Welcome Kara!  There is so much to learn with this disease, but we are all here learning right along with you.  Be well!

hello...just wanted to pop in.my dx changed to stage 2 but the sistas on stage 1 are keeping me.lol.this is where i belong. so ill be on both.hope you want a big mouth granny.

wishing you all blessings

K

For those of you who have done research on ablation vs Tamoxifen do you have any sites to recommend? I was premenopausal before my BC and my doctor has suggested I do the tamox for a couple of years then change to something else (can't remember - starts with an A). In reading up on the posts here I see some of you are opting for ablation. Not sure I'd fit the criteria but I would like to research it. And would especially appreciate your input.

    Thx Carolyn