2012 sisters

ramols-Sorry to hear about your kids chicken pox shots and your chemo, hope now that you've work things and the timing out, you will start the treatment you want to kill this cancer! The shots I'm talking about is a ovaries suppression drug called Zoladex which shuts down my ovaries and so as to not produce estrogen to feed the ER+ cancer. The shots are recommended for me during the time of at least 2 years while on tamoxifen, it doesn't work together but the injection works to stop further production of estrogen while the tamoxifen binds the receptors of cancer cells that are ER+, stoping them from growing. I think it was recommended to me since I'm so young (35) and my doc thinks I still want the possibility of having kids after the 5 years on tamoxifen, so he shut the ovaries down to stop the estrogen production while I'm on hormone therapy for breast cancer prevention and then after the 2 or 5 years (he'll review after 2 years to see if I need to keep them shut down for the remaining 3 years), once the injection stops, and being so young, my doctor believes that I'll come out of "menopause" and could have kids.

It really wasn't that bad, like the beginning of a biopsy (my biopsy anyway), first he inject the spot with a local to numb the area and then after a few minutes, he injected the drug which I think he had to move around with the needle inside to get all in or something (very similar experience to my biopsy which didn't really hurt except for the local and then I felt pressure for the rest of it). I think I would've taken it better mentally if he had prepared me for it (at least tell me is 2 injections not 1 and in my stomach area).

I think you could ask your doctor about if ovaries suppression is an option for you and if you want to do that. I'm 100%ER+, so I think its a plus for me to stop my ovaries from producing as much estrogen as possible, not everyone does it, I think a lot of the ladies in this thread and also other threads have their ovaries removed as well (most of them are either BRCA1 and BRCA2+ or ER+) 

thanks for the info soya. I am also young - although a bit older than you (37), but have decided now with this that I have completed my family. So it'll be intersting to see if they suggest this or not. I'm not sure if I'm 100% ER+ or not. So much to learn and find out when I go for my MO appt... I am sorry for you that you have the added piece of thinking about childbearing years ahead of you. Fingers crossed that this all works out they way they are saying it will. And thanks for you note about my chemo and son's vaccine. We worked it out as best we can I think. He was vaccinated yesterday and they might consider pushing my start date out one additional week. We'll know for sure once I meet with them on the 18th.

Soyaandpepper...I just finished fertility treatment to freeze my eggs. I applied for a grant through live strong and they paid for all my meds (the most expensive part) the grant had a two day turn around and the whole process took 12days. (I'm 34 and was scared about no kids)



Questions for anyone...anyone on a nuelasta shot? What is that? I feel like I have a regiment of treatment and not really sure what everything is for.



Also, my tumor is in my left breast and is causing extreme pain. Anyone have ideas for pain management.



Thanks for the help.

Lisa, yes the chemo was to kill all the cancer cells.  But cancer is a nasty sneaky pest.  Just like roaches, sometimes a few cells are immune to the pesticide. Because of that, its important to keep the counters really clean, make sure there are no stray crumbs of food laying around for them to feast on. For those of us who are ER+ estrogen is the bread crumb that draws the pests back.  So we use arimedex or tamoxifen and do whatever else seem reasonable to starve the nasty things out.

Cindyl- like the way you explained it!

Tazzy so glad you are up and about. Nice that you can shower and fantastic that you have that WONDERFUL DH of yours. He is definitely a keeper. (Mine was the same way- we are so blessed to have great hubbys to help) I too watched the videos and if you can distance yourself from the fact that "wow I.... was on or  am going to be on...  that table" it's pretty interesting. Hard to believe you slept through it all though huh? Thank goodness But those pain pills help alot atfirst but then you won't need them. Prayers for a continued speedy recovery!

Dakota212 I had the NSDMX with the tissue expanders . I had mine put in during DMX in May and I will be having my expanders exchanged for implants sometime in September.( could have been sooner but the PS is super booked plus has a vacation)  The time that the tissue expanders are in varies between plastic surgeons but they do eventually get exchanged. I have heard that there is some new type of expander/implant that gets filled and remains but I don't know if they are in the states yet. There are several women on here who were able to go direct from mastectomy into an actual implant. As far as being able to go to the direct implant that is something that I believe depends on if you are a smaller size and whether or not you might need radiation. We complain about the TE's but all in all they aren't that bad; I mean I wouldn't want to have them in much longer but they're ok-just super hard as you get them filled and a little weird shaped. lol

Tpoly, nueladta shots are for building up your white blood shots as chemo depleted them. If you heard the term nadir, that refers to the lowest count after treatment before your body manages to start recovering from tx. This is the.point that leaves you the most vulnerable to infection. The nuelasta shot helps prevent nuetropenia, basically, extremly low to even no white count. Now if you do nuelasta, take the regular Claritan to prevent the bone pain that accompanies that shot.

tina_jason-Sorry to hear about your wound and hope that the wound vac will do the trick. It really sucks when you have to worry about one other thing like healing incisions and infections when you already when through a traumatic thing like breast cancer. Sending you healing vibes! 

Tpolychron-Glad that you're able to freeze your eggs for future use and not have to worry about kids later on. I have no kids yet and I've been married nearly 11 years now and no kids by choice I guess. I'm just afraid of not being there for them when they grow up and canot imagine my DH dealing with kids alone. I leave it up to God now as to whether I could have kids after all my treaments, maybe in about 5 years. My DH and I spent the 11 years growing with each other and enjoy our marriage, so right now I have no regrets as to not having kids before this breast cancer.

lisa2012-I know exactly what you mean by wanting to see your tumor, I wanted to see my tumor too, I have my MRI pics and was watching it for days but could not make out anything. I saw the lumps on the US and that was good enough for me.

Tazzy-Good to have you back and your DH sounds like a real darling! Keep up with the meds and soon you will feel fine without it but not for at least a couple of weeks. I watched a mastectomy film too on youtube after my surgery, but couldn't get my DH husband to watch it with me. I wanted to see exactly what they did to me and how they did it, but my DH is really weak when it comes to blood and open wounds and stuff. Sending you healing vibes and happy healing!

Dakota212 not sure what you mean about partially filled silicone but if you are talking about the tissue expanders, the shell of them are made of silicone and they put some saline liquid in them during the surgery. The purpose of the TE is to keep adding saline(called fills) to them to gradually stretch your skin enough to accomodate the size of the silicone or saline implant that you eventually want.  So after your initial placement surgery of the TEs, you go back regularly to have more saline added to the TE until you and your dr agree  that you have reached the size you need/want then you go for the exchange and have your TEs removed and your implant put in.

Tina-Jason sorry you are having wound issues.  As far as wound vac my hubby needed one on a leg wound twice. Ofcourse the leg would be the much more "desirable" place to have to have someone else dress. In his case since we dealt with it so long I learned how to change the vac dressing. Anyway he had to put the pump hose down his leg thru his pants and he carried his little pump around like you said. We called it his camera bag since it was about the same size.  We would laugh though because we would make up comments like "You/I should take a pic of that" if we were somewhere around a group of people just so they would think thats what the bag was. It never failed it would start making it's little pump sound then. But they do work well. He just had a problem because he had exposed bone and it's hard to get tissue to grow over that.  Hopefully it will do the trick to getting yours closed quickly. 

Tpolychron That is great about freezing the eggs for the future. It sucks that you have to deal with this cancer crap so young but I am so glad that you have options like that should you want more children. I'm past childbearing and have no parts left anyway, but I never thought about that possibility for younger women until I started watching "Guiliana and Bill".Kind of anxious for the new season as I'm sure it will focus on their little one thats soon to be born by the "gestational carrier". I usually don't watch reality shows like that but I guess they were showing her going thru alot of the same mri biopsy and lumpectomy and bmx stuff around the same times I was so I got interested in it. My husband said it must have had alot to do with the BC commonality  that got me interested because it isn't something I would normally like.

Well hope you are all enjoying the weekend despite this bc stuff and Tazzy I hope you're chillin out and healing up! 

Dakota212-By the way, I had the NSBMX with 1 step to implants, no TEs or exhcange.

2fried, Guiliana went through surgery the same week I had mine. So of course I was interested in her story. Of course she made me feel like a wimp when she went back to work two weeks later.

Soyandpepper & 2fried~

Thanks for the info, being fairly new to this also for done reason I was under the impression I could get the implants in the same procedure, either way I still feel like that is the route for me. Either silicone or saline this ps said TE's. Oh well there has to be a way some day to make this process easier. The kids and i r at the drive in... Hopefully to enjoy a couple of movies and forget reality for awhile hope everyone has a great night

Juneaubugg, you start chemo this week, right? Will be thinking of you. The first one is the scariest, because you don't know what to expect. After that it gets better. I was so terrified, but I just decided that chemo was my best friend in fighting the beast. As the drugs were running into my veins, I sat there psyching myself up, willing the drugs to kill, kill kill every cancer cell it encountered. It felt good, I was part of the fight, and it gave me a positive focus. 

Tazzy, you sound so good! So glad you don't have a separate node incision. I had the same, and had full range of motion within two weeks. I had four nodes taken out, and maybe it's different if you have more out, but best wishes to you.

Thanks to everybody wo congratulated me on being 'cured' as per my oncologist. It is as if I cannot really believe that.

Jpmomof3, you are so right. My daughter says the same. The dust has settled, and for the first time since December when I was diagnosed, I now have the time to think about it, and process what went down. Was quite emotional, but feeling better today. Maybe the glorious summer weather has something to do with it. On the lake where I live, there are boats, houseboats, kayaks, skiers, and people tubing and enjoying themselves everywhere this long weekend. It's a party mood, really, and it's contagious . . .

Tina Jason, my hair is weird. It is very white/grey, and I have quite a few round black spots all over my head where tufts of black hair are starting to sprout. I am beginning to feel like a Dalmation - LOL! I'll take it - it's hair, and I won't complain. Humour is my saving grace. It is so hot here that I am now going topless most of the time. I just don't care what people think anymore. That wig gives me hot flushes - I'm getting one just thinking of it!

Liefie... my hair is coming back exactly the same ???  A dalmation is a good description.  I was born with black curly hair.   But this is quite 'amusing' I am beginning to wonder if it will grow back in like Don Kings ???

Went to the health centre today - more paperwork and also to get my dressing changed.  Nurse very happy with how it all looks.  Back in 3 days for another change.  

Hope you are all enjoying your days.

Tazzy, we will have to start investing in hair straightener . . . LOL!