Recurrent or residual??

So sorry about the news. If it is in the lymph node then I believe they would consider it locoregional recurrence or failure. I bet your MO will recommend a different hormonal treatment now since Tamoxifen did not do it's job. And you are right you can't do Adriamycin again (that's a good thing though, isn't it?). Sometimes people are able to do the radiation again depending on the area. Our diagnosis is so similar (I had total of 18 tumors ) but I am BRCA1+ so I will be having the oophorectomy in the fall. Hugs. You will be in my prayers.

I will not be having the ALND but will get radiation to axilla, chest wall and supraclavicular. They say radiation is just as effective as ALND but with less chance of lymphedema. But even with radiation there is a chance of locoregional failure. I had LVI on top of everything. Perhaps they will give you a different medicine if you did not tolerate taxol well, maybe abraxane? I am hoping you get some of those super duper newer meds or see if there is a clinical study close by. I found my lump after I stopped breastfeeding, isn't it weird how the hormones make everything go whacko. I also wonder from what I've read that since we are ER+ but PR- if they should test your new tumor to see if the er receptors are functioning. Or test how you are metabolizing the tamoxifen. Did you get the Oncotype test? They would not too it for me because they would have had to test all the tumors and it would have cost too much. Sending you hugs and prayers for your scans!

Sending my hugs and prayers as well. I also had NA chemo & part way through I realized that the chemo might knock the cancer out of some lymph nodes but I worried that it might knock it out of some at the beginning of the chain & not in those further away. I asked and the onc said, "Oh they will take them all out." So I was not given a choice, but that may have been in part because they had already found positive A nodes by US. Anyway - there's never any point going back and second guessing. Please keep us updated as to how you are doing and what treatment plan you and the docs decide on. Many, many hugs. 

Hugs! I am so bummed...I am hoping that the pleural effusion is some side effect from chemo or radiation. I hope you get your treatment all figured out on Wednesday. And please ask if there would be more promising treatments available if you would participate in a clinical trial. Negativity does not feed the cancer however it makes you and everybody around you even more miserable. Try to stick to being positive. But I know it's easier said than done. Please check in here and let us know how you are doing. Sending you hugs and prayers!

Njlane, inks beat me to it. 

Sending calming thoughts and hugs.

Carol

Nijlane,  no need to make any life decisions right now.  Sit tight and get used to this whole idea.  THEN you can start crossing things off your bucket list.

My onc told me at my first 'post-mets' appointment "don't give your stuff away".  A year and a half later I live a pretty typical life, and still work full-time.  Except for achy joints and monthly trips to the cancer center you'd never know I was a patient.  Many women feel the same as I do, others don't.  Take a look at the thread in the stage IV forum "Life does not end with a Stage IV diagnosis"

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/8/topic/818931?page=7#idx_185

But I did make a bucket list and we're starting to cross things off it.  Russia this summer -- I've always wanted to go.  I did start contributing less to my 401k in order to fund the items on my list.  (No kids in the house so few responsibilities.)

Give it four months or so and then make decisions about what's right for you.  Some women quit work, others continue, some start traveling, others stay home with the kids, etc., etc. 

Here's hoping that A/A kicks your cancer to the curb for a good long while.

Isn't recurrent and residual the same thing?  

The way that a recurrence develops is if there is some residual cancer, i.e. some cancer that is left in the breast or in the body after surgery and treatment is complete.  The residual cancer eventually leads to a recurrence.

If there is no residual cancer, then any future cancer that develops is a new primary diagnosis, completely unrelated to the original/first diagnosis.