Told by phone, Invasive Ductile Carcinoma-- little other info

Well... Port is now in. They didn't have mini-power ports, they have to be special ordered, so I've got what they had. It's currently a bit itchy and looks like I'm getting a big bruise... I should tell them, although it's hard to know who to contact. But it's not painful... just can't move neck or arm much, but that's mostly because of big bandages they had to put on to try and stop bleeding...!

PET scan... out of pocket. Good news-- no signs of organ involvement... Bad news-- they found Coronary ARtery Calcification! Out of pocket MO says to get to a Cardiologist!

My sister went with me to buy rather expensive (for me! --I'm a bit of a cheap-skate) wig.

I started taking the steroid pill things DEXAMETHAZONE today.

Chemo starts early tomorrow.

Nancy2581 -- Thanks so much for the good luck wishes! I'm hoping things will start running a bit smoother for me once treatment starts. They say the first Chemo isn't usually too bad. At least the white blood cell count isn't as much of a problem until later (I hope!).

Thanks also for telling me you bruised after the Port. I'm sure it's natural, given that cutting into the body isn't going to make it very happy! --but it's hard to tell what is normal and what isn't sometimes. You are very reassuring. I'm glad that there isn't pain involved so far!

Coronary Artery Calcification means, I THINK, that I have Coronary Artery Disease-- That the arteries are getting clogged and hardening! Usually it leads to things like By-Pass surgery. My dad had a quadruple-by-pass when he was in his 70s... so I guess it's in the family... but I was hoping to have it when I was a tad older!!! He was a smoker, too. And sedentary. And ate whatever he liked!!! And I was neither a smoker or as old, although I'm not terribly good at exercise, and I had a decent diet, but it always could have been healthier. Oh, well!

Heart Disease has been very common. I think it's the #1 way to die in the US? At least I didn't have to have a heart-attack to find it. A friend of mine just went into the hospital with chest pain and he found he was having a heart attack and had to immediately get a stint put in his artery. That may be in my future! We'll see. Hopefully it will wait until after the Chemo!!!!j

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ANYONE --??? -- How do you get those nice, helpful Signatures? I've written a basic one, but don't know how to format it. Does this board use html? Or BBC? DoI have to code myself? Or is there something I'm missing? I see that the DIagnosis part of the Profile can be made public, but don't see the parts there for Treatment, etc.

Thanks!!!!

You all are wonderful!!!!

Thank you, SlowDeepBreaths.

  I'm several hours into chemo now.  They explained a LOT of atuff to me.

The port worked.  It didn't hurt accessing it.  They used lidocaine creme, but didn't even wait a whole hour and still was fine.  They infused benedryl first, which made me drowsy, bit am more awake now.  So far so good.   Hopefully first cycle won't be so bad!

SpecialK and SlowDeepBreaths -- Thanks for the info! I had no idea what to expect after my first Chemo session. I was wondering if and when I was going to start feeling nauseous... I think they gave me some zofran during the chemo. I didn't get a headache even when I took one at night, just in case. But I think I also took a Tylenol, so maybe that stopped it?

The loading doses took a long time! I almost missed the Radiologist appointment because someone didn't expect it to take so long (I told the Radiologist that someone in his appointment department said I'd have no problem at all making the appointment--so it wasn't my fault--I was kind of joking, but really! Not my fault!)

I think the face-flushing is starting to go away. Got a bit red for a while, and was mostly just warm in the face (some on the chest)... it wasn't terrible, though. I'm glad it doesn't last so long, though. I guess I'll get it back again the next time, though. But at least I'll know what to expect, more then.

I'm doing Neupogen for 5 days, I think! So antihistamines during all that time? ... I was looking through my notes and I'm not sure the managing nurse at the chemo clinic mentioned what to take for Neuopogen side-effects... --Oh-- found it. She said to take Tylenol if there's pain. She said to do the shots at night and hopefully I'd sleep through the worst of it!!!

Thanks for the explanation of why the Neupogen makes bones ache. That was interesting. And it's good to know why something is happening.

Oh, the nurse said the Carboplatin can cause nausea. But hopefully, since I escaped being sick this round, it might not be bad the next times.

Sounds like the Nueopogen might be worse, SE-wise, than the chemo! Well, I'll see, I guess!

Thank you both for your help. I've been so busy just getting to this point that I hadn't had too much time to find out about the whole Chemo process. It's great to know what to expect, particularly with this particular regimen.

Kicks -- I've never had kids, so I wouldn't know (and it's one of the things that put me at higher risk of BC, but what can ya do?). SpecialK says that TCH/P chemo isn't too prone to nausea, so that's a relief. The stomach/GIT issues, well, I'll have to see how that goes. So far I'm only getting a slight burning feeling in my stomach that the acid-blockers help with. I'm feeling a little tired, but I think that could just be due to having been running about like a madwoman for a month getting tested and figuring everything out. I'm actually letting myself be able to feel a little tired and slow down, now that some things are more settled...

Yeah... I definitely thought all about the risks when I first found the lump in my breast. I thought: Oh-oh. I'm over 55. I never breast-fed. I didn't have kids before 30 (or at all). I had aunts with BC on both sides of the family. Not a LOT of cancer in the family, but enough... and the age I was--it was just too much to ask that I would suddenly have something benign when I'd never had any lumps or cysts ever before... So the DX was shocking, but not really a surprise. And it's something like 1 out of 6 women these days, right? Crazy, bad odds of it, it seems.

kayb -- My sister has been getting a bit grumpy at me because I only had a cup of yogurt so far, today. I know I have to eat... I'm not feeling nauseous, but my stomach is feeling a bit unsettled. I'll try and eat something more. My sister has stocked up my fridge with almonds and cheeses and snacks. She's really going all out with this! Keeps trying to get me to keep hydrated, etc. She's been here all week, cleaning up and sorting through things. I'm totally spoiled!

Thanks for reinforcing how important eating is right now. I'll definitely try to make more of an effort. Maybe taking another acid-blocker will make my stomach feel a bit more receptive!

I really appreciate your help! It's just so easy just to curl into a ball somewhere and just try to sleep it all off... but I know that's only good for some things... have to keep up with the rest (eating, drinking, etc.) too. Thanks!

exbrnxgrl -- Yeah... the surgeon who did my port placement warned me that most everyone wasn't qualified to use the ports and that it was likely that I wouldn't be avoiding all those needle-sticks that happen outside of the infusion center... I just have to complain about it because I am now seriously in pin-cushion territory after my hospital stay and then another IV yesterday! The poor tech/nurses had to hunt down a vein... I had bandages on both arms before they got one! Ah, well... At least no vein-collapse yet... And of course the dehydration didn't help with the vein problem.

I just had to chat at them (nurse/techs) about all kinds of things. I get very chatty when I'm nervous... I was talking all through the Port placement! Poor guy working on me just had to put up with it. And you can see I am chatty, here, too. It's a great stress-reliever!

SlowDeepBreaths -- Heh... yeah, I was worried that they'd fix up the D so well that I'd have the big C! But so far--not happening. Still too much D, even with me taking a TON of meds. It's beginning to worry me. They are now doing more tests to see if it's some infection or something--but I'm pretty sure it's just the chemo. They just tested me while in the hospital and found nothing... Ah, well. (Maybe if it CAN be fixed by antibiotics, that would be good, too!)

Yep-- 2nd Chemo is scheduled for the 7th! I hope I don't have to delay it because of the D, though.

(weird that I WANT to do the stupid chemo... but that IS the important part... I really hope my SEs don't get worse from here, though... !!!)