Diagnosed with DCIS around Christmas (with questions)

vlnmama · January 2014

Hi all,

I had a routine mammogram and U/S (because I have always had very dense breasts, they routinely do both), and the mammogram showed clustered micro calcifications in my left breast. There have been some scattered ones in both breasts for some years now, and they never worried about those.

I was told I would need to get a biopsy of that spot. I had a mammogram guided (stereotactic) biopsy on Dec. 20, 2013. 3 days later I was told I had DCIS. It's been a long, stressful road since then. I had an MRI beginning of January, where they discovered 2 more suspicious areas. So last week Wednesday I had an MRI guided biopsy of both of these spots. So I now have 3 titanium clips in there. The spot closest to the original one is also DCIS, the 3rd, and further one is atypical columnar cell hyperplasia.

My breast surgeon suggested mastectomy of the left breast after finding these 2 additional problem areas, but did say I could try a lumpectomy. Her main problem with lumpectomy is my small size. After doing a lot of thinking (and researching), I have decided I really want to try lumpectomy. I don't think the aesthetic outcome (or lack thereof) will bother me much to be honest. My 2 main concerns about having a mastectomy are (1) the much longer recovery period - I have 2 young children (8 and 9), and don't know how my family would make it through me not being able to care for them for 2 or more 2 weeks. My youngest has tons of severe food allergies and my husband pretty much won't have anything to do with being bothered about taking the extra precautions to avoid a big allergy attack in him. He's also homeschooled, mostly for that reason, which means that he's home all day. Reason number (2) is that I'm a classical musician, and the risk of arm swelling and reduced movement ability scares me. Music is my life! I can't imagine not being able to play anymore. So, after talking with my surgeon again today, she and I agreed to try the lumpectomy (and then radiation). I'm really praying for clear margins! My surgery is scheduled for Feb. 10.

So now for some questions... Right now I'm dealing with a HUGE hematoma from the last biopsy, where they biopsied 2 areas. Both areas ended up with a hematoma, one bigger than the other one, and I already had a small hematoma from the first biopsy a month ago, so now there's pretty much the size of a plum full of hematoma in there! It is very painful, plus I've been having low grade temps also. My surgeon doesn't seem to think it's infected, she said that you can get those temps just from a hematoma. It's been around 100, as high as 100.5, but not higher. Today it seemed a little bit lower, just below 100 mostly, and tonight it's a bit lower than that even, which is a relief for sure. She told me to apply warm soaks, with a wash cloth, which I've been doing several times already today. This has also made it so I can gently express little bits of old blood from my nipple, this also seems to b The first 3 days after the biopsy, I had fresh blood oozing from my nipple off and on! Is there anything else I can do to speed up the healing of these hematomas? My dr said it has to "calm down" a bit (her words) before the surgery, and if it's still the same in 2 weeks, we'd have to delay surgery. I really want to get this over with! Any ideas??

I'm also wondering how long it takes before you are up to doing your normal routines after a lumpectomy. My dr said you're only restricted the first day, and no aerobic exercise the first week, or lifting anything heavier than 10lbs the first 2 weeks. But even with just the biopsies (especially the last one) I was really out of it for a few days. It's been 6 days now and I'm finally starting feel a little bit better, and that's just a biopsy! I'm just curious to hear from some who've been through it, what it's really like. I can't imagine the lumpectomy is less bad than the biopsy...

And then, last but not least, what other lifestyle changes could I make to reduce my risk of recurrence? I've made quite a few already. I used to drink a small glass of red wine with dinner most nights, and I stopped that, only drinking on special occasions. I also used to drink quite a bit of coffee lately, 2 or 3 (smaller size) cups a day. I stopped that too. I switched to drinking green tea and ginger tea, which I really like too actually. But then yesterday I read that both green tea and ginger are blood thinners and that you shouldn't consume either one of those within 2 weeks before having surgery! So now I'm wondering if that's what made me have those hematomas. My dr doesn't seem to think so, but I stopped drinking that for now too. Now I'm having 1 or 2 (still the small size cups) of organic fat free lactose free (I'm lactose intolerant) warm milk (actually half diluted with water) and occasionally ad some unsweetened cocoa powder to it. I also started taking some supplements: DIM with calcium D-gluconate, resveratrol (I know, the irony), found a good new, raw food based multi vitamin, of which I take about 1/3 cap a day, and take additional folate, B12 and B6. Anything else I could ad? I have to be careful and can't take anything, because I also have Crohn's disease. I've considered trying to eat gluten free, but that seems to be harder with my Crohn's. Seems like I keep having to fall back on my white wheat bread to keep my gut calmer, which seems weird, considering they say wheat is so bad for the gut. Can't figure that one out...

Thank you all so much for this board. I've been reading on here for the last month or so, but just now got the courage to post.

Holeinone · January 2014

vinmama,

My lumpectomy was fairly easy, having 2 drains was a hassle but doable. I had a node dissection, that incision is what caused the most discomfort, I have no idea if you will have to do that. My surgeon took a golf ball size of tissue..does not look that bad, I have no plans for reconstruction or implant.

vlnmama · January 2014

Thanks, Holeinone. My doc said she wouldn't do a node dissection with a lumpectomy for DCIS. She does do it with mastectomy though.

wyo · January 2014

whew vinmama- you have been saving up this post for a month LOL. Welcome

In reading your post I see you are someone who is going to attack this issue on all fronts- I think thats a good goal and hear the anxiety in your post. Many folks say the pain/recovery process with mastectomy without reconstruction is actually very doable- everyone is different.

In my very humble opinion I would take a deep breath- you have this under control You have made an important decision on the surgery type and your doctor is with you on the plan and you can go from there.

Hematoma- it happens somewhat frequently- I don't take any herbals or blood thinners and got a huge one simply because the local did not work well, I moved and the breast has a lot of blood vessels in it- still nice and green when I went to surgery and they noted it on the path report. I think mine came from drinking coffee right up until the minute they put in the needle haha.

I will say I am not familiar with bleeding from the nipple but my biopsy was not in that area at all and I had no bleeding from the incision. Lots of people have varied experiences. Keep an eye for any redness,swelling or drainage that does NOT look like what you have been seeing and any temp >101 call that doctor

Lumpectomy recovery- let your body be your guide. You won't be incapacitated but you will be a bit sore and you have to keep moving and drink lots of fluids. Having a young child in the house pretty much is a given you will be active LOL. You will have good days and less good days and if you overdo it your body will tell you. I don't know what instrument you play but a bit of practice will help your recovery and soothe your soul. Can you possibly prepare foods in advance for your son to prevent the epi pen situation?? I am trying not to read between the lines on your husband's thoughts on food allergies but in this case can he help you by just giving him what you say so you don't stress on it?

Lifestyle changes- again my humble opinion but get through surgery and recovery before you embark on a new lifestyle. Making small changes such as limiting alcohol and reducing caffeine are all good things to do now. Green tea in the amount you describe should not affect coagulation unless you were on other blood thinners (coumadin) or herbals that affect the clotting cascade. Once you are in recovery mode you can start to introduce more changes and do research on what lifestyle modifications you want to implement.

Long answer for a long post- come back soon

ballet12 · January 2014

Hi Vinmama, I had three lumpectomies to get clean margins. The first one was really an excisional biopsy (very large 4cm), because the stereotactic core biopsy showed atypical ductal hyperplasia. I ended up with at least 5 cm of DCIS-probably a little bit more, so it took two more surgeries to get clean margins. I did not want a mastectomy, and was willing to have things not be so cosmetically beautiful, and that is what came to pass. I also have relatively small breasts. I found the stereotactic biopsy to be more traumatic to the breast than the lumpectomies. I also had a hematoma, and probably a seroma (which is fluid collection internally). I didn't have low grade fevers, though. I am an active person, and I was able to return, in a modified way, to my dance classes in less than a week post surgery. I had the surgeries on Friday, and I was back to my dance classes on either Wednesday or Thursday. I didn't feel loopy or anything from the anesthesias, beyond the first day. I gradually did more stretching with the arm, but was careful with doing exercise with light weights for quite awhile after the surgeries, because I did still experience mild discomfort. I have no lasting deficits from the surgeries or the radiation (other than lots of scarring in the breast from having had six surgeries--three prior to the diagnosis). No loss of range of motion in the arm. I don't have Crohn's, only mild IBS, and I tried the gluten free for a couple of months, and I have to second your comment. My body somehow also does better with some of the wheat products. I cut back on dairy dramatically (also lactose intolerant). I'm just beginning to get into the supplement thing, but have digestive issues with many supplements. You might want to go to the complementary medicine threads for comments on supplements and diet. I stopped consuming most soy, substituting almond milk. Best of luck with your recovery and upcoming surgery. I hope that one lumpectomy does the trick. They don't need to get clean margins on atypical cells, only on DCIS.

lovestorun · January 2014

Vinmama - I chose lumpectomy + radiation+ tamoxifen over mastectomy. I had a lumpectomy and a re-excision to get clear margins; recovery from those was not so bad. The first few days after the re-excision were a little tougher than the first few days after the initial surgery, but I was back at work within a week, although not at full days at first. I ditched the pain meds pretty quick and switched to regular Tylenol. You just have to listen to your body and work with it, not against it. And yes, drink lots of fluids and take the pain meds with food. Honestly, I think the MRI biopsy I had was worse (mine did not go well).

I'd recommend talking to your radiation oncologist about treatment side effects and impact, if any, on your music, during radiation treatment and after. I finished radiation in spring 2013 still have tenderness and stiffness in the pec muscles of my treated side when I am really active - the repetitive motion seems to be what aggravates it. Fitness is very important to me, and if I go out for a long run (8 + miles), I'll feel it the next day. I need to remember to stretch, stretch, stretch. But buried in that statement is some really, really, really good news - I am running 8+ miles again!

Don't be afraid to ask for help or take people up on their offers of help. I was reluctant to, and in hindsight a few home-cooked meals that I could have popped into the oven, microwave or crockpot would have been nice.

Re: nutrition, here is a study from UCSF that you may find useful. http://cancer.ucsf.edu/_docs/crc/nutrition_breast.pdf The short version: eat real food, lots of plants, and keep moving.

I hope you find this a helpful site. I sure did. There are many good people here.

Best to you -

lovestorun · February 2014

VinMama - for what it worth (and everyone's recovery is different)... I looked it up and I ran a 10K (6.2 miles) 5 weeks after the re-excision, and a 5K (3.1 miles) the week after that. I had to double up on sports bras to minimize bounce. I took a running hiatus during the rest of radiation, but worked throughout. I was more tired than I usually am in the spring, but didn't suffer from severe fatigue. I ran my first post-treatment 5K about 4-1/2 weeks after radiation. Had a fabulous half marathon in the fall.

Good luck with your surgery next week. If you have the time and the inclination, let us know how it goes.

vlnmama · February 2014

Thanks ladies, for the encouraging responses!

I'm feeling much better now, although my breast looks like it got hit by a big truck! The colors are also coming down, so now part of my abdomen looks lovely too! The swelling is slowly coming down too, I actually measured my breast at the point where the swelling was the worst, from the outside to the inside, and it is now a whole inch smaller already, so not bad. My surgeon told me to apply a warm wash cloth a few times a day, which I'm doing. Now that the biopsy incisions are also healed, I'm putting some homeopathic arnica gel on my breast twice a day too, which seems to help quite a bit also.

I've been doing a little bit better with getting some more exercise; I'm trying to get in the habit of doing my adult beginner ballet DVD every evening while the kids are doing their getting ready for bed routine. I was able to do that 4 times out of 5 this week, so not bad. Hoping to go for a walk too this afternoon, since I only got one walk in so far this week.

I have to say that I actually feel better now than I had in some time. So the few changes I have made are for sure doing me some good. And I can't even say that I miss my glass of wine much at dinner; I enjoy my glass of cherry juice just as much! Now my morning cup of coffee, that's a different story! I do miss that one! LOL But I've only had coffee once since I stopped drinking it, because I had a bad migraine earlier this week, and coffee is the only thing that fixes that. And oddly enough, I didn't even like or enjoy it all that much, so it's really more the idea of having it that I miss.

9 more days until my surgery.... Somehow I'm mostly scared about having general anesthesia right now; I've never been under general anesthesia before, only had conscious sedation, and the spinal for my c-section. But everybody tells me it's not that bad, so I'm trying to believe them...

Anyway, thank you so much again; I'm so thankful to have found this board!

Prayers and positive thoughts for everyone here!

ballet12 · February 2014

Are you having general anesthesia for a lumpectomy or did you decide to do the mastectomy? I'm surprised you aren't getting conscious sedation if it is a lumpectomy, although on a previous thread, others did post that they got general anesthesia (not so common). Best of luck to you, for a gentle recovery (gentler than the biopsies).

P.S. I love your ballet exercise story (see my username). I take ballet and other dance, and kept it up right through three lumpectomies and radiation. Just modified a bit throughout that time period.

vlnmama · February 2014

Ballet12,

Yes, I'm having a lumpectomy. I am not very happy about having to have general anesthesia for that! I even asked my breast surgeon if conscious sedation, and she said that a lumpectomy is too major of a surgery for that! Now, after reading your post, I just did some searches online, and am reading that many patients do indeed have lumpectomies with conscious sedation. On Monday I'm going to call both the hospital where I'll be having my surgery, and my surgeon, to see if conscious sedation really can't be an option. I'd so much prefer that. I've had it several times, and each time have done really well with it. Never had any memory of anything, and to me, seemed to be out as soon as the IV meds reached my veins! Each time I've watched that liquid go from the bag to my vein, staring at it as it gets closer, and each time the next moment I was in the recovery room!

Oh, and that's so cool that you do ballet and dance. I'm just a beginner, but truly enjoy it! It also goes very well with my love for classical music.

mdnghtdeb3 · February 2014

Hi Vinmama! I just had a double lumpectomy yesterday with general anesthesia. My surgeon also said that was my only option. I have had twilight sedation in the past for other surgeries and I too was quite nervous about the general anesthesia. To my surprise, it was not as horrible as I had imagined. No sore throat and no memory of even being wheeled into the OR. Best of luck to you!

ballet12 · February 2014

Hi Vinmama, I don't know where you are doing the surgery, but tell them that they do conscious sedation at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Maybe that carries some weight. I've had six breast surgeries (three with the current diagnosis) and five out of the six were with conscious sedation. The sixth, many years ago, was done with local anesthesia. I definitely wouldn't recommend that route, but that's what the surgeon preferred at the time. It was an HMO, and he did the procedure in a "procedure" room, without the need for an anesthesiologist. He actually stopped doing that at some point, and I had three subsequent surgeries with him, in the teaching hospital. The last two were at MSKCC with a breast oncology surgeon.

It is possible that your surgeon wants to do general anesthesia because you seem to have multi-centric, as opposed to multifocal, loci of DCIS. I had multifocal DCIS, so the areas with DCIS were all adjacent to each other. If the foci are in disparate locations, then maybe that's the reason for the "general". You are in a tough spot, because if the surgeon is more comfortable with the general, then he may be less comfortable in the "conscious sedation" situation when doing the surgery. Ask if the rationale for general anesthesia has to do with your particular breast situation or if it is the norm for his surgeries. Does he find that patients awaken during the surgery? He may be leery of that. That did happen to me during a couple of procedures (one was sinus surgery and the other was breast), but I promptly returned to sedation. When I told the MSKCC team about this history, they monitored the amount of anesthesia carefully.

Scarlett40 · February 2014

Hello. I wanted to add my two cents on mastectomy/lumpectomy recovery. I am a type A personality (also had 2 little children- 1 and 3 at diagnosis), I was up and sweeping my floor 1 week after mastectomy. Right after surgery there is pain, but it dissipated quickly. I was 40 when diagnosed and wanted to be very aggressive due to my kids being small. Also, my other breast had 4 benign fibroadenoma's so my surgeon wanted to just go ahead with bilateral. I was fine with this. My diagnosis was DCIS-MI (microinvasion), grade 3, comedocarcinoma.

I hope this helps. I will pray for you!

lovestorun · February 2014

Good luck tomorrow vlnmamma! Here's to clear margins!

vlnmama · February 2014

Thanks, lovestorun! Still a bit worried about the general anesthesia, but there was no way out unfortunately.

AZ85048 · February 2014

vinmama - Good luck tomorrow and please let us know how it goes!

vlnmama · February 2014

So it's 2 days post surgery and I'm doing ok. I had a really tough time with very severe nausea, even from the lidocaine they used during the wire placement. They used a ton of lidocaine, first of all because they had to place 3 wires, and also I had so much scar tissue and hematoma in there from the 3 biopsies that they had a really hard time getting the needles and wires to go through it, and they ended up having to give additional lidocaine in 2 of the locations. Fortunately I had an IV with fluids before the wire placement started, and they gave me a new bag in the middle of that too. But I still got really dizzy and nauseous, to the point of nearly passing out.

Then it was worse after the surgery. I ended up staying in the recovery room for 2.5 hours (instead of the foreseen 1 hour) because I was in such bad shape. They gave me a total of 3 liters of fluids in those IVs, which helped a lot since I wasn't able to even keep any water down until later on Monday night. Fortunately I have some Phenergan suppositories at home, that my dr has Rx'ed for use during really bad Crohn's flares, and they said I could use it when I got home. That helped some fortunately.

Yesterday I was able to eat little bits of light foods. But I've had a nasty pain right in my stomach since the moment I woke up from the anesthesia and it hasn't gone away yet. I have not been able to eat anything this morning yet, so I know my stomach is far from being over this at this point. At least I can drink water. I've been resting in bed mostly, feeling pretty weak, probably from not having eaten much since Sunday evening. Started taking my Crohn's supplements again though this morning, and my LDN last night, so I'm hoping my tummy will start healing again soon.

As far as pain from the surgery goes, that's actually quite manageable. With all the anesthesia and pain meds I had in my IV at the hospital, and it affecting my stomach so badly, I never took anything after that at home, not even tylenol. Been taking some homeopathic arnica though, which I think helps with pain too. I am in some minor pain still, but nothing too bad. Although the strength and motion in my left arm is very minimal at this point. Any exercises I can for that? I have a follow up appointment with my surgeon tomorrow, but my hubby will have to drive me, there's no way I could even reach the steering wheel with my left arm, let alone use it to turn!

Fortunately I have someone coming over and helping with my youngest (nearly 9 year old son), who is homeschooled. I've been doing a little bit of his care since yesterday, such as make his breakfast and a cold lunch, and heat up one of the dinners I have prepared for him in the freezer, and make sure he gets all his meds and supplements, but she has been doing school and music practice with him.

I can see that I have quite a long road of healing left ahead of me, but slowly but surely I will get there. I'm kind of hoping that a lot of my discomfort (even in my stomach) might be caused by the extremely tight and wide ace bandage they wrapped my whole chest in, down to a little over my stomach. I was told at the hospital I have to keep it on for a whole week, but I'm hoping that my surgeon will at least let me wear it a little less tight after tomorrow's visit. This is to hopefully prevent yet another hematoma, since I seem to be so prone to them. But it's so tight I can barely breathe!

ziggypop · February 2014

Hi vinmama -

Sorry I did not see your post earlier, but wanted to tell you how glad I am that you are now through the surgery. I have a lot of problems with anesthesia - if you ever do have to go under again, tell them ahead that you've had problems in the past. Don't start to exercise or stretch until your surgeon gives you the go ahead & he or she should be able to tell you some gentle stretching exercises to do. The ace bandages are a pain - I had to wear one tight after getting a hematoma after a biopsy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you get to loosen it up some tomorrow.

Usually (everybody's different - but usually), recovery goes pretty quickly once you are past the initial few days. That's not always the case & it's important that you give yourself time to heal. So glad that you got this done and taken care of. I really hope that for you this is the last thing you ever have to deal with on the BC front. Many hugs.

AZ85048 · February 2014

vinmama - So glad to hear from you! And happy that the surgery part is over for you. One thing that helped me for nutrition and healing was Ensure. You can buy it in pretty much any grocery store. (I used to mix a can on vanilla with a can of chocolate and that was pretty darned good.) I got to the point where I couldn't / didn't want to eat anything and knew I needed the nutrients to heal well. Just a thought. Sending you a big hug!

vlnmama · February 2014

Ok, so today I got really good news and some bad news. The good news is that my BRACA 1 and 2 tests came back normal (no gene mutations)! I'm so relieved about that!!

The bad news is that my BS didn't get the clean margins that we were hoping for. 2 of the margins were less than 1mm. And one of those was said to look "suspicious" for possible micro invasion or invasive cancer, so they're sending that out to another lab for consultation. I should know more in a week.

I'm really upset about this. Now I'm almost afraid of hoping they don't find anything invasive.

Now what's next? My surgeon said if they do find something invasive than she will need to do at least sentinel node biopsy. And I need another surgery no matter what.

I just really don't know what I should do now. Mastectomy? Another lumpectomy? I am small breasted to begin with, and just plain small overall. I'm 5'2" and weigh 86 lbs!! And every surgery makes me loose some more weight too, with my Crohn's. I'm still mostly living on zofran right now, still trying to recover from all the anesthesia and pain med they injected in me on Monday!!

Sorry to be negative, hopefully I'll feel a bit more positive tomorrow. At least my BS told me I can loosen up my ace bandage a tiny bit when she talked to me on the phone, so I can breathe a tiny bit better, and my stomach ache is a little less bad too, so at least I know that's caused by the ace bandage.

ballet12 · February 2014

Hi Vinmama, sorry that this has been so incredibly physically traumatic as well as psychologically stressful for you. You were right that the general anesthesia would be very tough for you to deal with. About the lumpectomy re-excision vs. mastectomy, I'd say wait until you get the path report. Also, the surgeon would tell you how much more she needs to take out to get wide margins, and if lumpectomy is even feasible, depending upon where those margins are, etc. I hoping for the best outcome on the pathology report for you, and that you will have a little bit of time to heal before the next surgery.

Feel better.

AZ85048 · February 2014

vinmama - No need to apologize in here. We take it all - positive, negative, sad, happy, scared, and angry. Take it one step at a time and don't get ahead of yourself. I went from two mammograms, to a stereotactic needle biopsy, then an excisional biopsy, and finally a BMX. Your situation is different. Everyone here has a journey unique to themselves, so it's hard for us to predict what's right for you. The best thing you can do is to try to stay calm and not get all wrapped up in the anxiety that is exacerbated by waiting. And for God's sake, stay away from Dr. Google. You stressing out is not going to change the results of that lab consult, now is it? And as you've already said, you're making yourself sick. So why not work on getting stronger? First of all water is great for flushing the anesthesia out of your system. The more you drink, the faster you'll recover from that fog. And I've already mentioned the Ensure that saved me after my BMX. I hope this didn't sound too preachy, but we're worried about you. If you hurt, we hurt. Take care of yourself and keep us posted on how things are going, OK?

lovestorun · February 2014

Hang in there vln. I think AZ put it best "We take it all - positive, negative, sad, happy, scared, and angry. Take it one step at a time and don't get ahead of yourself" I remember how disappointing it was to hear that they didn't get clear margins the first go round and I would need a re-excision. It's really hard to believe that there might be good news when you've been on the bottom end of statistics and have gotten bad news. And even when I know worrying won't change the outcome, sometimes it is hard to send those worries to the corner of the room and put them in a very long time out. I hope this week goes well.
And yes to fluids. Water, ginger ale, apple juice, ensure - whatever works for you. Glad the ace bandage loosening has helped.

vlnmama · February 2014

Thanks ladies! I'm feeling sooo much better! I had my follow-up appointment with my surgeon on Thursday. Basically I'm in limbo right now, not having clear results from the pathology. Basically, 2 of the margins are not clean for DCIS (less than 1 mm), and then there's one 6 mm focus that the initial pathology report calls "highly suspicious for invasive ductal carcinoma", but with a clean margin (4 mm). Under that (assuming that's about the same suspicious focus) it also says "focus suspicious for angiolymphatic invasion". Not sure what to make of that. Apparently my surgeon told my husband right after she was done doing my surgery that the DCIS and all the hematomas were completely mixed together. So maybe that's why there's that result? I'm starting to suspect that all these biopsies messed things up pretty badly in there for me, and that they may have created more problems than I originally had! I'm starting to loose faith in conventional medicine again (which I didn't have much to begin with!), and have been interviewing naturopathic oncologist offices the last few days.

I had a free phone consult with one of them (she is a Fellow to the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology, and did an oncology residency in a hospital), and have 2 more Monday and Tuesday. I am most likely going to do naturopathic therapies at this point. I may opt out of radiation, and as far as surgery goes, if I have any more, it will be a full mastectomy (no reconstruction) on the affected side only. I have never done well with conventional medicine, have my Crohn's mostly under control with natural treatments, and feel done being a medical guinea pig! I'm probably going to decide on which naturopathic oncologist I'm going to see early next week, and hoping to get started on treatments the following week.

I'm trying not to stress out, but it's not easy. Going to spend some time in the beautiful Arizona sunshine this weekend, and take some time for myself. I started up my ballet video again (going very easy and slowly, only did the 2 easiest of the 6 DVD classes I was doing before) and will start up playing my violin again (also taking it very easy), and, I will take time to compose again. I had started on composing a cello concerto (my son plays the cello, very well), and I'm going to work on that. That's the best medicine, at least for my mind. I have pretty much full range in my left arm again, thank goodness, and have virtually no pain left.

Thanks again for all the support from you wonderful ladies! Please keep sending positive thoughts and prayers, and I am doing the same for all of you here also!

E.

Diagnosed with DCIS around Christmas (with questions)

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