Calling all TNs

kelben - I will keep my fingers crossed for you! Enjoy your visit with you doggie friends.  My dog is being boarded right now because we are going on a trip tomorrow morning and we really, really missed him today.  He was wagging his tail when my DH and DD dropped him off yesterday so that made me feel better. Let us know how it goes on the 4th. Take care.

kelben: hope the lumps are nothing.  Let us know and try to enjoy the holidays. 

Had a good day today.  Went to my cousins house about 2 hours away for Xmas dinner.  Was nice to see family.  Tomorrow I think I will go spend a couple of hours at the casino.  Not much to do around here (except clean and who wants to do that).  I am dog sitting for 10 days for my niece while she is in sunny AZ.  The dogs are good company but they don't carry on a great conversation. 

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to ALL!

>Moe, I was in the ER for a reaction to Taxol as well, hives, hard to breathe, fever etc.  Last week after my first infusion of Abraxane, I got my shot of Neulasta and had a whole new, equally distrubing reaction of skin blisters and rashes and PAIN in hands.  I take Claritan, Benadryl, Singular, Oxycodone, Ibuprofin etc. for all of this but right now my hands are tied up in ace bandages tingling from pain that we think is from the neulasta on Wednesday.  Upshot, delayed chemo one week to avoid another neulasta shot, I definitely tolerated and enjoy the short infusion of Abraxane also.  Two to go.  I am trying to squeeze in ski week after lumpectomy and another trip after chemo.  Can someone give me the full drill on a normal lumpetomy with sentinal node removal?  Recuperation times, the drain, etc?  Thanks!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I am looking forward to a better, healthier New Year for all of us  

Kelben - thinking of you and keeping my fingers crossed that those lumps are benign!

Heidi-Too - 4 of my nodes were swollen and biopsied and came back positive, so it is possible I have more.  My last MRI (before I started Carbo/Taxol) still showed 4 nodes, but indicated that they were down by "considerably more" than 50%, so I'm hoping that they all come back negative at surgery lol.

alamik - welcome, and I am so sorry you are here.  I also recommend the neo-adjuvant therapy.  I started on the "traditional" DD AC followed by DD Taxol, but my doctor wasn't happy with the 50% response to AC so she added Carboplatin to my Taxol and spread it over 12 weeks.  I am thrilled to say that in 4 weeks, that combo has knocked out my palpable tumor (I had 2, one wasn't palpable), and with 8 weeks to go, things look good.  This is the benefit of neo-adjuvant - it can be adjusted as you go along to get the best response, which is so critical for us TN's.

Titan - I adore my oncologist - she is just wonderful.  She doesn't sugar coat things, but she is still very hopeful, I always walk away feeling like I will be just fine.  And she is so open to listening to her patients.  I'm very lucky.

I am hunkering down for the coming blizzard (we are expecting 17-24 inches of snow here in NE Mass), so if I don't get on again soon, everyone have a wonderful week!

Passing through to say Happy Holidays to all!  Kelben sending up prayers for you and your family stay strong it's nothing until otherwise told. *smiles*

I notice that many of us TN's are not positive for nodes, at least under this "Calling all TNS" subject.  I read everyone's diagnosis and mostly we are 0/.... nodes, meaning node negative.  Does anyone know whether TN's are mostly diagnosed with negative nodes?  Or are there many positive nodes among the TN's as well?  Is there any statistics out there?

Someone I have heard of, is currently in really bad shape.  Kaiser has stopped all her treatments, however, her daughter who is soon to become a doctor herself, has enrolled her mother in a clinical trial at UCSF.  I have heard that the mother is a TN, had her first set of chemo, then it reoccured, she went through chemo again, and now it has shown its ugly face a third time, this time very aggressively metastasized.  I heard that the cancer is now showing outside on her body in many places.  I had no idea that things could turn so badly.  The family is still keeping hope with this clinical trial at UCSF.

Does anyone have any pointers or any knowledge which I can pass onto the grieving family. I had heard just this past summer that the lady was doing very well, she had all her hair back and she was looking as pretty as an actress.  She was to be NED 3 years this December, when the ugly disease returned.

lovelyface- well, that is a sad story to read during this holiday season (or any other time, for that matter). As for nodes, TNBC doesn't really care if you are node positive or node negative. You can still go Stage 4 with negative nodes.

Nonetheless, I'd still want negative nodes. My husband likens it to being in a car wreck--- wouldn't you want your seatbelt on? Your still in a wreck, but if your nodes are clear you stand a better chance of coming out unscathed.That's *my* statistic.

No pointers here; everyone handles this in a different way. Her situation is just another sad example of the deadly and unpredictable nature of this disease.Very sad.

If you are taking or took a multivitamin during chemo...what kind did you take?

How soon did you make it into the office after your chemo treatments?

Thanks! 

mommafluff - I did not take a multivitamin during chemo but was told I could take one.  However, I was told to stay away from supplements, particularly antioxidants.

I worked every day during chemo with the exception of the infusion day which was always an all day affair for me.  For the first week after chemo, I sometimes worked a few hours less than normal, but for the most part I was immediately back to full time.  I had one bad day each treatment that kept me asleep the whole day.  It fell on saturday every time, so it never impacted work. 

Hello everyone!  I've been super busy with the holidays, radiation and working.  I have 9 rads treatments left.  Thank goodness!  The skin on my collar bone area is all red and rashy - yuck! 

I got some bad news recently about a couple girls that are triple negative. One of the girls went to my onco's office and passed away on Dec 15th.  She was 39 years old... so young.  My friend's cousin is also TN and her bc has spread pretty bad.  She is also young.  I HATE CANCER!!!  My friend who is stage 4 with tnbc got on Taxol and Avastin.  She's been feeling sick, but has been feeling a little better.  I hope this chemo regimen does the trick.  Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!!! 

I was reading through some of the posts this month and was surprised that so many gals are complaining about pain in the joints, particularly in the knees.  I've been having pain in my right knee.  I was going to mention it tomorrow to the rad onco (I see her once a week).  I bet a lot of us are having pain because of the cold weather and perhaps being on such lovely drugs like Taxol.  I've always had bad knees from dance injuries when I was a teenager.  Plus, I climb in and out of my husband's truck a lot and it's lifted (so I'm coming down on the right leg).  Hopefully it's nothing. 

On a positive note, I am going to do my first speech for Susan G Komen this Tuesday.  I signed up for their Speaker's Bureau last year, but got dx with bc right afterward.  I am really excited about it and hope to bring bc awareness and have people pay closer attention to their breasts and health! 

I need to get on a health kick.  I've been eating crappy food and not exercising.  My dh got me a couple Wii games (Zumba and dance).  I know it's super important to be more healthy, esp with the tnbc dx. 

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

lr4993 - thanks so much for the info...I've been taking centrium women and my onc said to take one of these a day during chemo.

Glad to hear that you were able to work. I plan on taking Thursday(chemo day) and Friday off and going back on Monday. I'll just wait and see!

Any other TN's use cold caps? My onc said that it is like freezing your head...how long did you wear this?

Today:

90 minutes of prep for 20 minutes of sleighing. Horse got cold. Oh well.

Seriously, I was dressed up like an Eskimo but my horse wasn't. His quarter sheet kept blowing up on him and that boy was COLD. How do you spell W-I-N-D-Y (wind chill @ 15 degrees).

First day back at the Gym!! Half hour of cardio 10 minutes of free weights, and cutting out most sugars to stay fit.  Thanks for all your ideas, knowledge and input.  I have two Abraxane treatments left and just found chemocare website, looking for a lx-mx site now.  Any ideas?

mommafluff - just an fyi based on my experience - the day after chemo I was fine.  It was weird.  I did my treatments on tuesdays and was perfectly fine until saturdays, which were my bad days.  I took the whole week off after my first infusion because I had no idea what to expect . . .lol.  Turns out I could have worked straight thru, which I did for the others.  Like you said, just wait and see.  You may want to adjust your "days off" plan once you have a feel for what your side effects will be. 

Good luck!  I hope it goes well for you.  I was completely terrified of chemo but ended up having a surprisingly easy time with it.  I am now more scared of radiation, which I start in january.