Calling all TNs

Loafer, I had Lx and am more than 3 years out now. There are tons of TN survivors out there - they just don't visit the boards so much, so you don't hear all the success stories. There may be reasons to choose a Mx over a Lx but being TN is not, in itself,  one of them. Many TN experts have weighed in on this - including on this site.  http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/ask_expert/2008_07/question_20

Minxie: So sorry you are going through a rough time. I know you will find your way through.    

Greetings from warm NC!



We are having such beautiful weather! It made it difficult to put out the Christmas decorations as I swatted away mosquitos.



I have so much energy today! I am enjoying my week off of neulasta and chemo.



Hugs...

OBXK: glad your feeling so good. Having energy and feeling like yourself feels so good even if its for one day. One thing I'm learning on my cancer roller coaster is not to take anything for granted anymore. Enjoy that weather! I'm in Washington state and even though its not cold, it sure is wet.



Browerl: That is good news for you! I'm doing chemo first as well. Then Bmx in January with expanders at the same time. How are you feeling so far? Are the expanders painful?

Just wondering if any of you that have had a BMX, we're working at the time of your surgery and how much time you took off for recovery. Probably the wrong thread to ask this but being TN, thought I would ask.



Thanks, Erin

Karen, I work in a middle school office. I'm the business clerk. My surgery is not until January 24th. I'm anxious to get it behind me but scared at the same time!

My friend had a single MX and is an executive with the American Academy of Family Physicians.  She took off two weeks, although I suspect she was working from home soon after her surgery.  I think getting rid of the drains before going back to work was her benchmark.

I wasn't working but once I got rid of the drains, I was OK.  I took pain meds for just a day or two, then a little valium for muscle spasms from the tissue expanders.

Hope-2 weeks after surgery really no pain just a little uncomfortable.  I still have a lot of swelling and bruising, so much that the plastic surgeon choose to wait another week before he inflates me any more (he put 300 something in at time of surgery). 6 days after surgery I had to return to the hospitable by ambulance because I got a blood clot in my chest.  It did pass into my drainage tube.  That was way worse then the surgery, the most pain I have ever felt.

I also work in a middle school, however, I work with special needs children therefore, I need to lift them out of wheelchairs and move them around.  I will be out of work for about 8 weeks.  Just because of the lifting.  I am planning on waiting to have my exchange surgery when school gets out for the summer.  Oh yeah and my drains came out 8 days after surgery, it was really nice to get rid of them.

Week after chemo and I am feeling so much better this week. Last week was really rough and just as I was starting to feel a little better on Friday, I ended up with an infection in my lumpectomy breast -- got hard and sore and had a fever. I called the MO office and they gave me an antibiotic. Had my blood work done on Monday and white blood count was low so they would have given me an antibiotic for that anyway. Today I have started have pains in my lower back. It hurts to walk and bend over. Anyone had something like that from the Neulasta? I took the Zyrtec twice a day for 5 days like they told me and didn't have any pain during that time.

They are going to change up one of my anti-nausea meds next week to see if that is what caused the awful headaches. Then they are going to give me a steroid to take along with my Zotran at home. Hopefully it will help.

wow .3 is really low.  Before my surgery (Friday) my white blood count was 2.5 and they said that was too low for surgery. They gave me the shot and sent me home with two more to self inject Saturday and Sunday.  I was cleared for surgery on Monday with a 3.8 count.

InspiredbyDolce: those are some amazing figures! Thank you very much for sharing the article. We are lucky to be living with such modern medicine and studies!

Hey ladies, there is a breast cancer symposium going on this week and the TNBC Foundation is reporting news relating to TNBC on their site. http://www.tnbcfoundation.org/sabcs/index.html.



Some interesting news.

5th sib - I think the measurements here in canada are a little different - my 0.3 would translate to 300 - I believe this is correct. I went yesterday for blood work and they had come up to 2.3 - so I had my chemo, but a 10% reduction in the dose. Last night I didn't throw up at all - so quite pleased about that since last time I threw up 10 times in the middle of the night. Iwill get 4 treatments of taxol every 2 weeks.

Browerl - glad your counts came up with the Neupogen - hope it works better for me this time around - I am going to be giving myself 7 injections!!

Thanks for the hug Cocker.  I faired MUCH better with Taxol and had no night of lying on the bathroom floor with my pillow and blanket like I did with A/C.  The few days of bone pain were WAY better and I had more good days then bad on Taxol so it felt like the bone pain was worth it.  I had lots of warm baths with epsom salts and took pain killers for the first couple days after my neulasta shot.  Then I was good to go.  About 3 days and fine.  Good luck. 

I have turned the corner from this flu and was able to eat today and feel so much better.  Spent an amazing evening with my family at a German Christmas market that we go to every year.  It's here in town.  Then we drove around and looked at the lights.  My 4 year old was yelling "look!!!! LOOK!!!!" and pointing out everything he saw that was lit up.  My 2.5 year old was saying "I don't like it......chop down the tree......chop down the house".  Apparently I have 1 Santa and 1 Scrooge this year