Positive nodes with long term survival

I'm not quite 2 years out from diagnosis, but I plan on living until I'm 90 and then dying in my sleep. My oncologist seems to think that's a perfectly reasonable plan.

Alyson, I may have to steal that line - "my aim is to grow old disgracefully."

I plan to move forward from my complete healing and hit triple digits. 

Bump

I'm a big fan of it too!

lovujja....

Your goal and prayers were the same as mine......when I was first diagnosed back in 2004 I would go to a chapel every day after work.....

My children were in elementary school (1st and 3rd) and my oldest was in seventh grade.....I would pray to Mary to just let me get them off to college....Just let me raise my children.... as a mother herself I hoped she would understand.

With 17 nodes positive .... a huge tumor.....tumor in my skin and popping out of nodes....it seemed like an impossible prayer to be answered.

Well today....nearly 10 years out.... I have one out of college......one in college and my baby is a junior in high school...... so give or take 15 more months...my impossible prayer will be answered.

I feel incredibly blessed as I have such amazing children....but of course I now want a Prayer RE-do.  I want more time....I want to see them get married etc. ))

So watch what you ask for )))))

I wish for you that your prayers are answered too!

Jacqueline

Wow Jacqueline!  U are an inspiration to me...I have two little girls 7 and 5...want to see them get to college AND get married!  I was looking for what treatment you did and don't see it listed...do u share at all?  Thanks so much!

When I was diagnosed in 2011, I wept too, thinking I might not get to meet grandchildren.  But then Aubrey Rose was born last July, and her presence has filled me with love and hope.  I'm determined to make it too, babs!

Ikc - Awesome!  You are always a souce of encouragement!

Congrats ikc did you do anything to get there? Like special diets, or supplements? 

Footballnut, so sorry you have join us here. But it sounds like you are approaching this journey with a level head. Don't let anyone second-guess your treatment decisions. No cancer is exactly alike, just as no woman is exactly like another. Usually, the tumor size is just that - the tumor, not adding the lymph nodes. Often, even when there are cancer cells in the nodes, there is not a measurable tumor there. The staging is based on the size of the tumor & the number of nodes with cancer. Stage IV would include metastases beyond the breast & lymph nodes.

About grandchildren:  

When I was diagnosed, I also feared not living long enough to see any grandchildren. I didn't want to exert any pressure (only one of our three children was married or even in a steady relationship), so only my husband knew this. But about a year later, my son & daughter-in-law let us know they were expecting! They were really cute about telling us - they took us out for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day & gave me a small wrapped gift. I opened it to see a framed picture of the ultrasound! Took me a minute to realize what I was looking at....

Several months later, I cried (real tears, but tears of joy) on that early-morning drive to the hospital to await my first grandchild's birth! Now he is 7 years old, an active (and smart) first-grader, and I also have three granddaughters added to the mix! (I still need to see my youngest son married & starting a family.)

I believe a woman on another one of my forums sums everything up so nicely...

My own belief/theory/understanding is that there are really only 2 stages of cancer, not 4:  people whose cancer has not spread past the initial tumor (whereby surgery alone would be curative) and people who have circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and  circulating tumor stem cells (CSCs) in the blood (who are thereby at risk for recurrence/metastasis).   This explains for me why most people diagnosed stage 1 do not have recurrences but some do - those that do have CTCs/CSCs in the blood even though they were labelled stage 1 by conventional criteria.

The lab RGCC in Greece can detect CTCs and CSCs in the blood.   They have found these cells even where the initial tumor is only 2mm, leading to the conclusion that cancer goes into the blood a lot sooner than one would think.   My German doctors and the doctor who founded this lab believe that as long as you have CTCs/CSCs you are not cured, only in remission.   This makes logical sense to me.   The more you have, the higher your risk of recurrence, because the more of these cells you have, the greater the odds that one of them will acquire the gene(s) that gives them the ability to invade other organs.

It's extremely difficult to get rid of the CSCs in particular, but they are working on it.   In the meantime, with the right supplements, nutrition and even medicines (such as chemo under certain circumstances) we can kill off or bring about apoptosis of many of the CTCs.  Through epigenetics we can even down regulate some of the genes in the CSCs.   This is why eating right, exercising and taking the right supplements is so important.   This is my understanding of the notion of remission vs cure -  you are cured when you have zero CTCs and especially zero CSCs.   Most people who have had cancer will always have some CTCs and CSCs for the rest of their lives.   The goal is to die with your cancer not from it.  Although they are making strides on getting rid of CSCs and this will truly be a cure if they can do it.

Very happy for you dear, will kick cancer's ass together forever . I am doing very well as well so far but worrying hasn't gone but getting better though.

My oncologist has a current patient with 42/42 positive nodes who is 15 years disease free with stage III. I didn't want to be too intrusive, so I didn't ask specific questions about her, but she said she eats well, practices yoga everyday and has completely changed her diet to a low glycemic index one. Good for her!

Sorry to burst your bubble lily, but may I ask what were you doing prior your blood test? Bc sometimes it is due to the body's demands, or it depends on which blood vessel your blood was taken. Bright red color is expected when it is arterial and deep red when it's venous