Calling all TNs

Is there anyone on here that has had a true local recurrence? Breast tissue only? No clavicular nodes or chest wall. I had lumpectomy chemo and rads and then boom 3.5 years a lump. It's gone now. BMx and pet scan totally clean but I'm petrified of mets. I did immediate reconstruction last week and feel beat to hell. Chemo will follow when drains out. Any similar creatures out there ?

Sorry to hear this Phyllis. Hope things are progressing well. The calor study certainly makes the extra chemo look like a smart idea. How did they decide on your chemo drugs?

My doctor agreed to the bone scan, waiting for it to be scheduled.  Fingers crossed it's nothing.

I had a true local recurrence as well, one year ago this May. Mine was also found 3.5 years out from original diagnosis. It was right under the skin but over the implant in the exact same spot as the original tumor, appearing after lumpectomy, chemo, BMX and recon, tenacious bugger. The new tumor was 1 cm, no nodes, so they took out my implant and the tumor and I recieved a course of radiation, which I had not had before. Just last month I got my final implant put in.

It was a horrific shock to say the least. I think worrying about mets afterwards is inevitable. Sorry that you all have been through this as well...

Just getting caught up on all the posts. Looks like I missed a birthday! Happy belated birthday Karen!

Maggie-I am excited to hear how your surgery goes!

CS-I hate wearing the sleeves, but sometimes I feel like I really need to wear them. I am suppose to wear them on both arms during the day, but I don't! When I do wear them my arms feel so much better. It is amazing how tired heavy lymphadema arms can make you!

So I had my follow up, my last one with my MO:( He is retiring, I am happy for him, sad for me. He let me off the hook as far as scans go, he said once a year (basically what my insurance pays) so I will be due in August. Now waiting for tumor marker results.

I need to get it together. I do not know what is wrong with me but I have no motivation. Today I finally picked up the phone and scheduled an appointment for pt for my arms and chest tightness. I need to eat better. WHy don't I when I know it is so important? I feel the same way as you do Stupidboob! Your rant could have easily came out of my mouth, in fact I think it has before! I basically feel beat up. Not much to do except move forward, right? I wish I knew how to put cancer in the background, it seems to be my daily main focus and I am so done with it.

Happy day to all of you!

Liz1973 – Just catching up on several pages worth of posts and wanted to respond to your radiation concern.  Perhaps you are not aware that some centers have x-ray tables where you receive your radiation treatment lying on your stomach, rather than your back.   There is an opening in the table and your breast dangles down, thereby minimizing (or maybe even totally avoiding) radiation exposure to the heart.  You may want to check around and try to find this option.  All the best to you!

bak94 I am so sorry you are dealing with all these feelings too...........just plain SUCKS!!!   I am on my own nerves and that is bad.   As far as the eating.....WOW I HAVE BEEN HORRIBLE.   Every night I tell my body how sorry I am but then darn if I don't do it again the next day.   Sometimes I eat because I am hungry, sometimes because I am looking for anything with taste and/or to ease my tummy and other times just do it to do it.   Bored, nervous, just can't take it anymore eating.  I think where I am right now (and I know it is stinkin' thinkin') but it is what it is.....I just feel like WHY BOTHER!!!.    I did all the things I was told to do and it came back anyways.   Just when I was finally getting to where cancer was not my every thought in the day.......it came back.:(.   My mind wants to do alot of things but my body says nope not going to do it.   I have been an emotional wreck these past few days and my body is just doing things that unless you have endured chemo you can never understand nor can it be explained.   It is almost like we are alien to our own bodies.   If you ever want/need to talk just let me know and we can set up a time.    Hope you are feeling a bit better.....
{{{comfort hugs to you}}}

Bak I know how you feel.  I have no motivation whatsoever.  I do what I have  to do but with a complete lack of motivation.  I don't want to go anywhere and I don't really even want to see my friends at the moment.  What am I waiting for, well for it to come back I suppose.  Every little ache or pain has me wondering. I'm irritable and uptight to it seems like everything all the time.  My doctor wants me to have another CA-153 test to see if it is higher than last time and I am dragging my feet.  I don't want to know yet I think about whether it has gone up all the time.  Make sense,  nothing does to me at the moment. I know I should give up the smokes cause I have a cough and I should give up sugar but I just don't seem to be able to  or want to.  I am so over this cancer shit. I can't even tell my family because they worry.  Now this flaming lymphoedema.   My workmate has just undergone a lumpectomy with no nodes.  She just had to have the lump out and three weeks of radiation and because she is receptor positive she even gets to take the pills for five years. I am not normally an envious person but when she text me and said she is sore I uncharitably thought harden up girl.  Thank god I didn't text that to her.  What the hell is wrong with me.  I am sitting here looking at the most beautiful sunset and normally I would love anything like that but I can't even enjoy it.  Cancer sux big time.  My god what a pityfall post perhaps its me who needs to harden up do you think.   

Worrywart what a welcome you got after my rant.  Remember I said my thoughts were uncharitable.  Well they normally aren't thank goodness only occasionally.  Your name fits me all over. I am a proper worrywart and I worry over everything.  Your cancer would not have been any easier for you than mine was for me.  You went through the same thing with just a different stage.  Any time that you feel scared (as I do at the moment hence the rant) you can come on here and we will all understand. Its the fear of recurrence that is the worst and it gets to me every now and again, silly I know because what is going to happen will happen but i guess once you have been there once.......

So you come on here whenever you want to because we even have humour at times.  Annie xx

Well, its been about a year since my diagnosis, and I was reading these posts and remembering...going out to get a wig fitting, buying a pretty silky scarf and a couple of perky hats to wear for when I went bald. WELL,, when I went bald I sure as heck didn't feel PERKY!!! And I've never worn them. Wore cotton bandannas when it was warm, and knitted caps when it was cold. And the wig sometimes so I wouldn't scare strangers!

Glad to be rid of all that, and comfortable with my 1/2 inch to 1 inch long hair. Strange though...it's not growing any more. My nails and leg hair are very slow growing, too.  Anyone else experience that?  Nat

Do you still have the breast?  Or is that the sight of a surgery?  If it's surgery then I have pain all the time in that area...ribs and underarm.  I've never had a PET scan but did have a CT scan at time of diagnosis to determine initial stage before surgery.

I also get rib pain, pain on the side of my tissue expander, pain in my back. If u are getting taxol now, that causes bone, muscle, and joint pain. My pain started after my first taxol treatment. I had no pain when I was getting AC treatment.

Hi, I took Taxol for three months once a week and now I am on FAC once every threes weeks for three months.  I go to MD Anderson in Houston and that is their protocal.  They say that having Taxol first and following up with FAC has been proven to be the best method.  I have BC with mets to the lungs which they removed from both areas.  They were both around 2cm.  They actually took a lobe out of my lung because the cancer was in a hard area to get to.  I did'nt find out about the BC in my lungs until two months after the lumpectomy.  It was there all along, it showed up on my x-ray I had before the lumpectomy.  Don't know if this helps you.  That is just what I was told.  I wish my FAC treatments were over.  I go in tomorrow then I will be down for at least a week.  The first one finally just wore off and here we go again.  I ended up going to the ER on Saturday with severe heartburn and dehydration.  My  BP is really low all the time. 90/56 most of the time now.  I will have to ask my Onc. about that tomorrow.  I had IVs on Saturday and able to come home.  They were quick and efficiate.  The best ER I have ever been to.  Usually you are there for hours!  We left the house about 3:00 and we were back home by 8:30 and it takes a half hour to get there.  Pretty impressive.  I hate CANCER!!!!!!   Hugs and good wishes to all!   

Nettie,



I had rib pain from neupogen shots during AC chemo.

I also have had rib pain since New Year's Eve and my onc says that it is nothing. What I am wondering about is if any of you that had 4 AC dose dense then 4 Taxol dose dense are still suffering with extreme pain in your hips and upper legs. I completed treatment in January and the pain now is worse than during treatment. I also suffer from pain and weakness in my upper right arm (opposite side of mx). It feels like I slept with my arm hung over the bed but this has been going on for several weeks. I have tried Tyleno #3 as well as morphine and neither aleviates the pain in the arm. I recently lost some of my toenails after all this time and that along with the neuropathy in my feet makes it difficult to get moving in the mornings. How long do these extreme side effects normally last? If I had known that I would have this pain I don't know that I would have even done treatment at all. Normally I have a high pain tolerance but lately feel like a real wimp. Everyone expects now that I am done treatment I should be fine. Sigh, I wish.