How do doctors find Mets??

This is such a good topic and you'll get tons of replies. Apparently, we present with a complication to our doc and he/she dedcides if further testing is required. So, yep, you do kinda live in fear for the rest of your days, but don't let the fear rule your living. It's in the back of my mind all the time, but strangely enough, I spent a week last summer in the hospital after getting a kidney stone out and having complications, but it never occurred to me that it might be mets!?! Go figure.

My oncologlist has ordered a ct and bone scan, which i got on Friday as my chemo will start soon.   I realize these will only pick up mets over a certain size too.  However, if  you mean after BC treatment is done, I guess they just watch your blood work and probably do those things like feel your internals; liver, etc., and lymph nodes.  Obviously yearly exams at the gyn are important too.   I think we have all heard those horrifiying stories like your friend - a coworker of my husband's just had an aunt who presented with stomach pain right before Christmas.  Went to the ER and was given a week to live; she lasted about that long. 

It's really horrendous to think about, but I think those cases are pretty rare, and there are certain areas that breast cancer cells "like" such as the liver, bones, ovaries etc.  So stomach cancer would usually be a different kind of cell, I think....and having had BC, I'm not sure it puts you at a much bigger risk for developing something so fast and aggressive as that kind of cancer.  Doesn't mean it can't, but it might not be BC related.  If that makes sense.  

I think this is the one issue which nearly everyone struggles with, after a cancer diagnosis. Let me share my story.I had 12 years between primary diagnosis and mets-and in that time had little other than manual exams. I discovered several years ago that I also had the BRCA2 genetic misprit, and so had the second breast removed, along with a hysterectomy. During these years I came to accept that I really couldn't panic everytime I had an ache or pain-otherwise I would end up demented-and more importantly,  felt that it would be allowing cancer to "win" by occupying my thoughts excessively. In fact, during these years I had no cause to see my g.p-no worries that I couldn't sort out for myself and rationalise. The only thing I sought help for was a bowel problem-which turned out to be diverticular disease.

As I was BRCA2+, and my mother had died from colon cancer several years after having b.c., the gastroenterologist decided it would be wise to give me a colonoscopy every two years. In Nov 2007 I saw him to get the results of the latest colonoscopy-and in the course of the conversation mentioned that I had a "tickle" under my left rib. To my amazement, he ordered an xray:several days later, when I saw him for the results, to my horror, I discovered that the "tickle" in fact indicated that the b.c had returned, in my pleura. He immediately referred me on to oncology (we had moved to the other end of the country since the primary diagnosis, so this was quicker than seeing my old team-and I would need to be treated locally anyway). A CT followed-and to my horror, we discovered that there were tumours in my liver and bones, as well as my pleura.

"But we found it early, as I'm asymptomatic, and so you'll be able to do lots?", said I.

"It's not going away- however slowly or quickly we find metastatic disease it makes no difference to the final outcome-it's terminal"

Naturally we were shocked and horrified-it didn't seem to make sense. Finding the tumour early at primary diagnosis does make a difference, but with secondaries, it doesn't change anything. So whether mets are found within days, weeks, months (I shan't say years)-it doesn't make any difference.

This is incredibly hard to understand and accept-but it's true! I feel the oft quoted advise of "seek help if a problem persists for 2 weeks" is a tad of an overkill, as even problems from a common cold can linger this long. But if something is consistently troubling you for a month-then ask for help. I have no idea how long the problem had been presesnt in the pleura-but it was clearly detectable, yet I had no pain nor symptoms, other than  a tickle. Had it been found earlier, would my situation have been any different? No. Despite being slightly er+ I don't respond to hormonal treatment (it was the first thing we tried). So I have been on chemo for nearly 3 years now-and will continue to do so, until such time as it ceases to be effective for me, or until I can no longer tolerate the side effects. I have never asked for a prognosis-and never will, as I may do much better than average-or I may do much worse. Theres's simply no way of telling-in the same way that there is no way of improving the outcome, however early metastatic tumours are found.

I wish I could tell you it were different-but it's not so, I'm afraid. I hope none of you are ever faced with the horror of a stage 1V diagnosis-because hard though having had a primary cancer may be, a secondary diagnosis reaches another level entirely-and just as soemeone who hasn't had cancer can't understand what a primary diagnosis entails, a secondary diagnosis is beyond anyone's comprehension.....until you experience it for yourself-and as I said, I hope none of you ever are able to understand!