TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP

runningcello - she is on Tamoxifen, which for some causes weight loss, others have weight gain.

Suladog, I had issues with my appetite when I first started Arimidex too. Just didn't feel like eating. It has improved. I've lost weight but it has been intentional. I still have four pounds until I'm back to my prechemo weight.

Cheesequake -- I TOTALLY understand your reluctance to do chemo! No one is going to tell you it's a picnic. But, you keep mentioning permanent side effects. Other than your sex life, I'm not sure what you're referring to. My last chemo date was 12/3/14, and I have no permanent SEs. I guess some people develop neuropathy that doesn't go away, but I had minor neuropathy and it did go away. Anywhoo, it really is a very personal decision, and I wish you the best in making it.

I don't think I have any permanent SE's from chemo either. Occassionally I get the tingly toes, but other than that I just got my port out and I'm putting chemo behind me.

Jerseygirl927 I started Prolia when I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. I was osteopenic before chemo which got worse after chemo/chemopause. It did go down a bit on the Arimidex and after 2 years I had the osteoporosis. I feel I should have started a year sooner. In your case, where you have fallen and broken bones I would definately meet with an endocrinologist or rheumatologist.

Agreed, Ashla. The segment of "Cancer: Emperor of All Maladies" which traced Dr. Slamon's development of Herceptin was one of my favorite parts of the documentary series.

TTfan it also depends if you can get your insurance to approve it. I had to fight for it. Pills gave me heart burn. I have LE in left arm and the other is at risk so I didn't want to do the infusion. I still go to the infusion room. They have to check my blood and calcium first. Then I get the shot.

Ashla, have you watched the PBS special "Cancer, the Emperor of all Maladies"? There are three segments and they feature Dr. Slamon in one. It is a fascinating collection of programs!

PBrain! You are back! I have been worried about you.

Ah shucks, thanks. I miss you guys. I think I just needed a big, long break from thinking about breast cancer. It was hard for me to really recover emotionally after the fight was over. Doing much better now and glad to drop in and yack at you!

Thanks Susan! I'm glad to hear you have taken some heat off of yourself. Being a dean is not pretty, or so I hear from others who have done it. My Uncle just stepped down at U of AZ Medical School and he's really enjoying clinical rotations and research again. I think when you are so good at what you do, you end up going to the top even if you don't want to!

I think for me...I don't know...I kind of struggled with how the diagnosis changed me and really even if it did at all. I still make a beeline for junk food before I'll look at chia or a kiwi. I have lost the post chemo weight, but am not thinner in any real sense. I still stay up too late, think I have forever ahead of me, still live like a youth. Burning candles and not seeing my limitations.

But I do know I've changed. I definitely make more time for family and adventures. I do feel a need to move some of the work issues to a back burner; I can't do it all. I am so very grateful in so many new ways. I have my garden going like mad this year after two years of just scraping by and putting Miracle Grow on more weeds than plants. I feel like my old self except for a bit of loss of sensation in the balls of my feet. I'm way more compassionate towards others in poor health, where before I would have been like "get up and get moving! No laying around like a slug!" (I would have made a terrible nurse). I want to help others more and I want to be involved in things, see new places, get out and live. Yet I'm still lazy and a commitment-phobe, I don't know. I feel like I was shaken up in a paint mixer in some ways.

And yet, late at night when I can't sleep, I think about things...like the enormous amount of trust I gave to my caregivers without so much as a question of "what are you doing?" Like how I don't know if I would have cared much if I died when I was hospitalized after my first chemo...it was weird how little I cared about life at that point. Like why did I get this and what did I do to cause it. Like why my sweet dog has to get so old and how much I miss my father who passed away with cancer in 2011.

Yeap, definitely a psychological journey on a paint shaker ;-)

Pbrain- well said .   I can so relate to a lot of what you said.

pbrain,

Beautifully put

Thanks guys! I'm still up...at 2 a.m. EDT. Arghhh! I honestly think it is arimidex. This insomnia is the pits!

So I read something recently and I want to see what others think. Currently in the US, the option, for even small tumors (like mine), is definitely a bilateral mastectomy. Even without a real increase in disease free survival, women are opting to have both breasts removed. The article I was reading said that this was a result of awareness, which has been what we are all supposed to be sending our money in for. One researcher said (and I loosely quote) "the more awareness there is, the more women realize their breasts can kill them." So they opt to just have them taken off.

So do you guys think awareness isn't exactly what we need anymore? I'm thinking put the bucks into better imaging (since I was the dude that had a normal mammo right before my sonogram that showed a tumor)...I find it interesting that we gals can all look at our breasts and think they can kill us. But yet, I still do that every day.

Pbrain, you are so right that this experience has taught us to fear our bodies. When I saw the cover photo of Kaitlyn Jenner, the FIRST thought to pop into my head was "OMG, now she has breasts and female hormones, she'll have to worry about getting BC." Sad we now have these dark thoughts looming over our heads all the time. You are right. Enough money has gone into awareness! We are all very aware. Better imaging that could catch even the sneakiest of cancers and is safe and economical enough for women to begin screening at a younger age would be incredible.