A place to greet and meet newbies to stage III

I've heard of Stage III and/or node positive people skipping chemo and going straight to hormonal treatment, but that tends to be cases of ILC (tends to be slower growing and responds better to hormonals than chemo) or Grade I. If you have Grade III, Stage III, IDC, you really need to consider chemo. Chemo works best on rapidly dividing cells, so you'd probably get a sizable benefit from it.

gaia, glad to hear you had a successful and relatively easy surgery. I also feel that my healthy lifestyle failed me. Or maybe I'd be dead by now if I hadn't lived that way. I can't offer any insight on doing "hormonal onky" treatment since I got the whole smorgasbord - BMX, chemo, rads, Good luck with whatever you choose.

MinusTwo, I figured bc was my punishment for not having kids. Except, a lot, probably most, women who get it do have kids. I agree. We aren't to blame.

Elizabeth, you shouldn't blame yourself. I have never taken any hormones, have two children whom I breast fed, am normal weight, have no family history, have always been active and I am in the same boat. My 91 year old mother-in-law was diagnosed a few months ago at stage IV and is dying from mets to bones and lungs. She never took any hormones either.

hope we can all remember - IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!!! Hang in there.

livedeliciously - but... one glass of wine a day has now been shown to aid heart health in women, prevent strokes, and possibly to counteract Altzheimers. Well, I'm going to have a glass a day. I've already had BC twice, resulting in both lymphadema and neuropathy - neither of which can be reversed. So I'm going to go for the gusto.

sbelizabeth, I took estrogen for 10 years after my hysterectomy for ovarian cancer. I didn't have a lot of choice. Without it, I was pretty much non-functional due to awful mood swings. I'd have either committed suicide or homicide, and I'm not exaggerating. If bc was the price, so be it. I refuse to dwell on it. Since I've had 2 other cancers, I tend to think my body just likes making cancer cells.

live, I love wine too. Not giving it up.

• thanks everyone. Wish I could send you all a bottle.

At one appt with my MO early in this journey we were discussing my diet. One of the question she asked was, "How much alcohol I consumed in a week?". I told her I gave up wine all together along with other things. She asked why. My reply, I thought I was to give up wine, sugar, coffee, etc. . Her response wine is fine -- just in moderation. She still inquires about my diet, exercise and general mental health and teases me if I have had a good bottle of chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon. I let her know early on that my favorite quick get away is an outing to the Napa wineries of Kendall-Jackson or V Sattui. Love my MO she always stresses enjoy life to it's fullest.

thanks for sharing that article. I found it interesting they cited high estrogen level tumors associated with the DDT exposure when that is the majority of breast cancers anyway no matter what your age. The other thing was what does house dust have to do with levels of carcinogen exposure? It was noted at end of article to keep house dust levels down. Maybe this is my excuse to get out of housework!

we were having discussion on the radiation forum about reoccurrence rates and what percentage risks our drs have given us. Mine gave me 20% and others with similar diagnosis have been told 10%. Was wondering if you had heard the same thing or different?

So, I just had my third A/C treatment yesterday. I actually had a pet scan last Thurs that was ordered by my BS. When I was seeing the PA before my treatment he told me my MO rarely orders any kind of scans. They give me a risk of recurrence assessment and then its just a wait and see after all my treatments which include A/C+T then 6 weeks of rads followed by hormones for X amount of years.

I was really surprised by this. After I got my pet scan results, which were neg, I was so relieved. I guess I get why they don't do them. Being a 3c'er I just know that my chances of mets is higher.

My question is, not sure if this is the best place to ask this but, is it better to catch mets early or doesn't it really matter? Will it be treated the same no matter how extensive it is? I find it hard to believe but I am still quite new to the whole BC scene.

Does anybody else share my experience?

Thanks...hope everyone is having a good day.

Julie K

yeah MinusTwo, that's pretty much what they told me. I was just wondering if that's the normal. Guess it is. Thanks for responding

Julie

My oncology nurse said that they would monitor me by my blood going forward. I didn't ask what test they actually run on my blood so not sure until I go back after rad and I'll find out but has anyone else been told that?