Hi. New member of the club no one asks to be in.

LLMax00 · June 2012

Hi everyone.

I've been lurking on these boards for a couple of months, but I've finally felt the time was right to share my story and get some wonderful support from this community.

Last October, on the night before my girlfriend, her 11 year old son and I moved into a new house together, I proposed to my best friend and the love of my life of five years. Of course, she said yes -- she just turned 40 a couple weeks prior and thought it was a great belated birthday gift. We immediately set a wedding date for nearly a year later, October 20, 2012.

Our wedding plans took a detour on March 30, 2012. After her first ever mammogram and biopsy, my fiancee was diagnosed with two IDC tumors in her right breast. One 2.5cm in length and the other 3.0cm in length according to the ultrasound estimates. They're both 99% ER+ and 100% PR+. There were also micro-mets in her lymph nodes. She and her Ob/gyn never felt either of these tumors prior to being diagnosed. My fiancee's family history only includes two great aunts that had BC.

The first couple weeks after her diagnosis were hard for both of us, but after a surgeon's visit and two MO appointments her treatment plan got into place. She had a port placed on April 18th and started the first of four two-week neoadjuvant AC cycles on April 20th. The first treatment was the most difficult dealing with the side effects, but the other three have had the usual fatigue. She woke up with a mouth full of fallen-out hair on day #18 of chemo, so we both knew it had to go. That was the second most emotional day on this journey.

My fiancee finished her 4 AC rounds on June 1st. She starts 4 rounds of taxol on June 15th. We're hoping she can keep up the two week cycles, but her MO and I might override her desire to get done if taxol becomes a bigger beast than the AC treatments were.

After chemo, she'll have a mastectomy. She hasn't decided on what the reconstruction route will be, but I'm sure that'll depend on what options are available, on when she has the mastectomy, and how long recovery would be in relation to our wedding date -- which she will not want to move. Right now it looks like surgery could take place in early September. After that, it's five years of tamoxifin.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and encourage her to post here as well.

Anyway, I just wanted to say Hi, my name is Matt and I'm a member of this club no one asks to be in. I turn 32 next month, get my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science tomorrow, and my fiancee has breast cancer.

Kelloggs · June 2012

Welcome Matt from another reluctant member. I got married last year to my soulmate after being single for 12 years. It was a lovely spring wedding on May 14th. On October 18th I was diagnosed with breast cancer. He has been so wonderful through this whole journey and I can tell you are going to be the same kind of supportive partner.

I had a lumpectomy, re-excision for clear margins and port placement followed by 6 rounds of TCH. My husband is a seasonal worker and was laid off during the time I was going through chemo so he was there every step of the way....what a blessing! Just prior to starting chemo I had scans done which showed lung nodules, so stage IV from the get go! But the chemo worked and scans after my last tx showed my lung nodules had completely resolved!

I am finishing radiation now, continuing with Herceptin every 3 weeks for a year and just started my 5 years of Tamoxifen. It has been one hell of a year but I am so grateful for the ladies on this site and my dear husband. Stick by her side and come here any time you need comfort, support, questions answered, or just to vent! We've heard it all and we can relate. Bless you and good luck to you and your fiancee!

mdg · June 2012

Matt...so sorry your fiance is in our club. Right now you are both in the thick of it. One you get through the surgery and chemo life will go on. You will find lots of support and information here to help you both through this. Hugs! Have faith....things will get better.

Moderators · June 2012

((((Hugs)))) to you and your fiancee Matt. She's a lucky girl to have you! Thank you for sharing your story here...while we hate that you're here, we're happy you found us.

Please keep us posted with how your fiancee is doing (along with the wedding plans!).

And congrats on your graduation tomorrow!

--Your Mods

LLMax00 · June 2012

Thank you all for the welcome!

We had a little bit of a bump in the road today. My fiancée had been having lots of watery eyes since her eyelashes started falling out, but it started to get a little painful today.

She called her MO and they suspect it's an infection. Her MO prescribed her neomycin drops. We shall see how that goes.

mdg · June 2012

I had lots of watery eyes during chemo and a bit after. It can be a side effect of the chemo.....

midnight1327 · June 2012

Hi Matt welcome to this club. We have all have the same thing in common here, some at different stages and some at others. But we are here for you and your fiancee. Sorry she is having this happen to her, but boy i am glad she has you, What a blessing you are. Hang in there. I was a grade 3, IDC, her2 postive, did not have to have chemo, just the rads, and 5 years of tamox. just done my follow up mamogram on 18th of may and they have found calcifications in r breast now, the original problem was left one, so have to go tuesday to have a 2nd mamo taken to see how much there is, they said, it was a significant change as that was clear b4, the right one, not what i needed to hear. so we struggle, am still looking for a good outcome nevera less. you do too. bless you. Smile

gwelin_Nigel · June 2012

Hi all,

I came across this true story of a victim.I really can't stop wondering after knowing about the amazing benefits of chanting Vishnu Sahasranama.

I've given the link below.

http://feastforthought.blogspot.com/2007/11/power-of-vishnu-sahasranamam-vanis.html?m=1

I felt I really wanna help the girls. n mothers struggling to survive every day day n night. I know the pain n grieves of friends. Pls have faith n give it a try.its TRUE!!!!

To download Vishnu Sahasranama follow this link
http://www.hindu-blog.com/2009/06/vishnu-sahasranama-mp3-download-vishnu.html

I'm chanting this daily n getting unbelievable results. Hope this s useful to u all.
I post this because I really care for my friends facing this life challenging pain....
Love,
Gwelin

EDB · June 2012

Hello, I too have been lurking around, if somehow not writing would make it all go away! I'm a mom of a great 18 year old daughter who found a lump in her breast 2nd week of May. OB/gyn saw her 2 days later, then an appt for an ultrasound 4 days later, I'll admit I was nervous but not frantic BI-RADS 4 solid mass, then she saw a surgeon who found a lymph node "that concerned" him. CT scans of neck, chest, abd & pelvis as well as labs were scheduled around my daughters finals & graduation from high school! All 4 CT scans showed multiple enlarged reactive lymph nodes in each area. She had a lumpectomy 3 days ago! I'm now so scared I feel like I can't breathe at times! 18 years old! I'll admit I worried about a lot of things, but never breast C, sorry I can't say the world as it is more vile than the most foul words we hear! Basically they've suggested breast C w/ mets to lymph nodes throughout or breast C & non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or benign breast & NHL! great choices huh? My mom had stage 4/4 NHL 5 yrs ago & after a year & 1/2 of combo-chemo she's in remission 3 years now. My m-I-l had breast C & chose a modified radical mastectomy which completely made her C free. So it's in the family but 18? Why not me? Why her? Why? Someone please help me!!!

LLMax00 · June 2012

EDB: Oh my gosh. Eighteen! I'm so sorry you've had to come here, but you're going to be glad you've found this place. I wish I could give more substantial advice, but I think there are some amazing people here that can relate a little better than I. Good luck to you and your daughter!

My fiancee was supposed to start taxol today.

Unfourtunately, her WBCs were too low and came back at 1,000. It was expected though.

See, for her first three rounds of A/C, she got a neulasta shot the next day. Her MO got a little worried after her third round follow up blood work came back with her WBC count at 47,300. He decided against giving her the shot after the fourth round, and the followup blood work after that one was at a reasonable 5,000.

Looking back at her other blood work sheets, her WBC count had been nearly doubling from the first followup to the second, then again on the third. That neulasta must be some powerful stuff. My fiancee's going in two week cycles instead of three -- I wonder if a smaller dose wouldn't make them go up as much?

She took it really hard having to get turned away from chemo today. Her desire to get this done is unbelievable, but this lingering cough and sneezing she has isn't helping much. We're up against the clock a little with our wedding in October, but I think we've got plenty of cushion on the calendar for little bumps in the road like this.

Like I told her, I'd much rather deal with these little speed bumps instead of what could happen if she pushed through treatment too hard.

Oh, those eyedrops she got last week helped a ton. She's not waking up with an eye swollen shut anymore!

sweetbean · June 2012

EDB, just wanted to say how sorry I am about your daughter - have you gotten a treatment plan together yet?

Sending you a big hug!

LLMax00 · July 2012

I thought I should share that my fiancee is now halfway through her four taxol treatments.

They've become more of a bear to her than the AC rounds. She had some terrible bone pain three days after the first round - she says it was some of the worst pain she's had in her life. We're chalking that up to restarting the neulasta shots, since she didn't experience any bone pain after her second round last week. We'll be making sure her MO knows when we see him for the first time since the end of the AC treatments.

The other change is she's been in more of a fog longer than her AC rounds. Severe enough where she doesn't want to drive.

I've told her about this community, and she has lurked around a couple of threads including this one. I'm hoping she'll take part here sometime soon... she's been forced onto medical leave from her job as an assistant director of a daycare center starting this week so she'll have the time! Smile

Question we're starting to wonder about for anyone to answer: in neoadjuvant chemotherapy, when is the safest window surgery must occur? For anyone that had neoadjuvant chemo, how soon was your surgery after the last treatment? Just wondering for planning purposes and what to expect from our MO.

LLMax00 · October 2012

Hi again all!

It's been a while since my last post... juggling wedding plans and my fiancee's fight will do that Laughing

Anyway, my fiancee completed chemo on August 6 and underwent a successful BMX with an ALND on her right side on September 5. She stayed two nights in the hospital with very little in the way of complications.

We met with the surgeon on September 20 to get the drains removed (though we could have had them removed as early as the 15th, but her surgeon was quite booked on procedures).

Unfortunately, she didn't have a complete pathologic response to the chemo but the pathology report said they got wide clear margins and only 1 of 6 lymph nodes were positive.

Very good news indeed. In the meantime, my fiancee has been all over the place. She's started on Tamoxifen and been on the local news here in Dayton, even.

The main reason for my post is this: our story is going to be featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer series on breast cancer! I sent a link of the moderators' posts on the call for stories to my fiancee. She sent information to the Inquirer, got a response back, and we're working out the last details to be put in the special section!

I'll be sure to let everybody know the details on that.

For now, it's full speed to our wedding on October 20th! Cool