Summer 2012 RADS HANG OUT

The good thing is we have very aggressive treatment, I got a complete response with my chemo.

Tina, I feel your pain I thought having a Lumpectomy would be a breeze but I was wrong.

Hope your treating yourself good and I find a chocolate bar always helps.

ali68....chocolate sounds like a great idea!  Anything to lift the spirits!

Belinda.....I think wine sounds wonderful too.  Since my surgeon is out of town I will wait to see what he suggests.

This packing thing is a new level of love for me and my DH!!!  "In sickness and in health...."

NKB alot of those people with recurrences were young and didnt have chemo or rads.  Unfortunately young people tend to have more aggressive cancers.  If anything at all gets left behind after surgery it will come back if you havent had chemo or rads.  That is a risk they take when they think they got everything and didnt do more therapy. but chemo and rads works really well on getting those pesky little sneaky bastard cancer cells.  So even though you had it on both sides you are getting the most aggressive treatment and have an excellent chance of getting cured.  

I did not have a complete response to chemo. I know this since I did neoadjuvant therapy.  I got some response though and injured cancer cells will hopefully be easy to kill off once i start rads.  I am looking forward to getting it started ASAP.  I hate the thought of any of that shit being left behind and starting to grow now that chemo is fading from my system.  I have an appointment with my MO next week.  My case is going to tumor board next week too.  My biggest fear is that they will recommend more chemo.  that is highly unusual though.  I got my port taken out when I had my lumpectomy 3 days ago too, so I sure hope I dont have to go through all that again.  I am getting hair back and dont ever want to lose it again, though I would of course do what i have to do to survive... They just let me know today that they found a fifth postive node damnit.  I hate cancer.

Jpmomof3 - does neoadjuvant therapy mean u had chemo b4 surgery? I am curious as to why u had chemo be4 surgery considering u tumor was small, if u don't mind answering?

Ok now I understand. I hope/pray for u good outcomes from the tumor board.

Nkb, I am right there with you. I am so sick of being sick and tired of being tired. Though fortunately the tired part is improving rapidly... At first I was dreading rads, and still am. It seems barbaric. But knowing that I only had a partial response to chemo has made me anxious to get it started. Rads is my friend. Rads kills DCIS which is more resistant to chemo. Bring it on. I hate the thought of the side effects too and the fact that we can only get so much radiation to any one area of our body. And the skin changes and especially the lymphedema. That scares me. But cancer scares me way more.



My ultrasound showed enlarged nodes and my pet scan showed increased activity in my axilla. The they biopsied the node that I could feel and that confirmed the invasive cancer went to my nodes. I just didn't know how many until my surgery. They consider what they did an AND since they took more than just the sentinel nodes. The modern trend is not to do extensive ANDs anymore becuase they are not shown to change outcomes. It makes sense to me that it is best to get all the nodes out but it has been proven that it doesnt help to do that IF you are getting rads and chemo that is. I probably didn't even need to get those seven out. My surgeon wanted to stop at the sentinel node. But my husband and the pathologist pushed him to take more. The chemo and the rads kills cancer that is left behind. And since anyone that has a positive sentinel node will get chemo and rads these days.



I don't honestly know why they are taking my case to tumor board. The treatment plan is set and it would be unusual to alter it. My big fear is that they might recommend more chemo. It would be unusual though. I just got my hair back enough to go topless, I would be devastated to lose it again. But I would do anything to make sure the breast cancer doesn't come back.

I was told I had to have all my nodes removed because I was grade 3. They said I had 9 cancerous nodes but they thought i had more they were very worried about the spread to other parts.

Onco said she was more worried about the nodes than the breast lump. They did the test to see if a woman my age, no family history, when was your first chid.It came back at 99.06 % for not having Cancer.

I have to find out when I can have the test to see if I pass this on to my three girls.

Stacie, I agree with you luckily my insurance paid for that BRCA test but I would have paid it gladly to know that this wasn't going to be passed onto my girls. I breathed the biggest sigh of relief when that test came back negative.

good evening ladies!  Hope everyone is doing well. #4 done!  They have this down to a science!  Boom - in and out!

Enjoying the olympics, the athletes are amazing! 

Hi all, I've got 28 done, 2 to go!  Over the weekend I just started to have some minor pain.  Nothing requiring any meds, but noticeable.  The redness from the regular (first 22) treatments is subsiding (turning more brown now), and now the boost area is apparent (redder than the surrounding tissue).  A little itchiness as well.  I was told by my RO that I could use 1% hydrocortisone if it got bad, but so far I don't need it.  The boosts go so fast that I can get in and out of the parking structure so quickly that the machine doesn't make me pay (bonus!).  

I started Tamoxifen a month ago and so far no SEs, so happy about that.