Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!

Hello fine ladies! Reading your posts and trying hard to keep up

HH- yes it helps put things in perspective doesn't it? So sad!

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with Auxillary Web Syndrome or "cording". I am doing my stretches and going for massage tomorrow( if weather permits) with a lymphedema specialist but would be interested in hearing about others experience.

Sending lots of positive energy to each and every one of you!

HH- I'm sorry to hear about your friend. But, at least it was without suffering😔

DH and I are binge watching "Making a Murderer" on Netflix. Soooo good

MLP: OMG....I could not stop watching that show. They did an excellent job of sucking you in.

Hi there, Moonstone and Gemma and whoever else was asking about prone radiation - I had radiation in the prone position. My RO (Hopkins) assessed which approach would work best (4 o' clock position ) and prone was best. I now know from this discussion why she went into detail about how my heart did not do the undesired 'flopping' forward. My boosts were delivered supine.

Hope this helps!

Not at all Brightsocks. I worked nearly full time hours, leaving early every day to make the trek to treatment. I was tired of driving, but not tired. I did stop working two weeks before the end of radiation because I had a bad skin reaction and I had 3 weeks vacation to try to use before the end of the year. (no I didn't make it) but other than the sore breast and heat from the radiation I felt good.

HH, I am sorry about your friend. That's so young. Brightsocks, I worked straight through rads with no problems.

hh I'm so sorry about your friend.

With regards to alcohol, I think everybody has to make their own decision.

For me, I normally have one to three glasses of wine on the weekend, not every weekend, depending if we get together with friends or not I am just feeling extra stressed. I am no longer doing this. I will still have a glass at a wedding or on a holiday or something like that, but I won't be a regular drinker ever again.

I personally will make any lifestyle change that seems reasonable, and that the evidence seems reasonable and not hokey, that can reduce my risk of a recurrence.

I was about 80% vegan before this started, but as soon as I found my lump I quit dairy. In my transition (I was working towards veganism and in some Facebook groups) I saw a lot of studies and read a lot of articles about a correlation between dairy and breast cancer. As soon as I found the lump I could just not have dairy anymore. I don't know if it's accurate or not, but since I was so close to vegan and actually planning to go vegan already, it wasn't a huge lifestyle change for me and physically it just did not feel possible to have dairy anymore.

I have been a healthy weight and had a healthy lifestyle both diet and exercise wise for years now, but I fully intend to keep this up and am much more committed to it because I know it will reduce my risk of recurrence.

When I am done my treatment, I do intend to do some research into supplements that can help lower my risk of recurrence. I don't know if I will end up taking anything, but I certainly plan to look into it.

That said, I do know that even though sometimes the statistics look big, if you really look at the recurrence risk etc.…the difference between making these changes and not is rather small. For me it's important enough to make them anyway. But I think it's also relevant to keep in mind that none of them were huge lifestyle changes. I've never been a daily drinker, I have been fit active and had a healthy diet for years, I've been vegetarian since I was 15 and was almost off dairy already.

If making the changes would be a huge lifestyle change that would dramatically impact on my enjoyment of my life, perhaps I would look at them differently decide it was not worth it reduce my risk of recurrence by a percentage point or two!

Chisandy - You are so informative. Thank you. What have you heard about Tamoxifen? I'm taking 40mg a day and am wondering why my dosage is so high as everyone else takes 20 mg a day. I thought maybe it was because I'm a little overweight and tall, but nothing extreme. Women much taller and heavier than med ate on 20 mg. I know they used to give 100 mg/day and found that lower doses of 20 or 40 were equally effective, but why 40? I have an appt with my doc on the 16th, but I want to be ready with questions. Any Info you or anyone else has heard would be greatly appreciated.

Birghtsocks - I drove myself to rads (33 days) and was fine. By the way, boosts are to the skin and area of the surgery and are not scary at all. My dox said they are easier on the skin, and sometimes they do the boosts before the last week of treatments to give some progress skin time to heal. I was fine all the way through. I used Musderm 4 x a day and NEVER allowed skin-skin contact. (I rolled up a piece of soft material to put under or between my breasts at night). Good luck.

Wine.... I'm like Sandy in that I decided that if the wine is not terrific, I'm not drinking it. My husband and I are going to France and will be wine tasting, of course, so he will try the wine first. If it's fab, I'll have a 3-5 oz glass. Yeah, I was bummed because I love Zinn and Pinots, but like Jill said, it's a small concession for trying to avoid recurrence. I just need ro adopt this strategy with sweets.

Mlp I dod the same, I really didn't start cutting down on wine much until chemo. That was kind of the line I drew in the sand for myself. Getting diagnosed was so stressful, and in the middle of my diagnosis and chemo I had surgery, my daughters bat mitzvah, started a new job, and the holidays. I enjoyed drinking moderately as always for that time actually got a little drunk on new years eve! But that was the last time I have drank, I started chemo on January 6. I totally plan to have a glass on holidays or at weddings and things like that, because I'm pretty sure 5 or so glasses of wine a year are not going to change anything, but that's going to be about it! I actually barely drank from my early 20s until my mid 30s. It's only been the last few years that I've learned to enjoy it.

I won't be doing the cleanse on Monday. I will probably be starting something to eliminate carbs for a week or so to kick start weight loss. I can't go without coffee. I only average 5 1/2 hours of sleep each night. I need my morning coffee and I can't drink green or black tea. I have interstitial cystitis, can't eat or drink anything acidic. My coffee is low acid.

LTFly - No dairy, eeek. What do you put in your coffee? I'm trying almond milk, but it's just not the same as cream...

Molly - I'm not sleeping well either. I get hot flashes that wake me up. They're not so bad that I need to do anything, but I do wake up... It's hard to function when sleep is interrupted, and I can't imagine if I were still working! Are you exhausted at night?

I love a good Pinot. Life is too short to drink cheap wine. I haven't had any since my surgery and chemo. My taste buds were off and I didn't want to waste it. Plus my liver was working overtime with the chemo. So in the meantime my wine aged and so did I lol. I'm looking foward to enjoying a glass or two.

Anything in moderation.

No one knows why some of us develop breast cancer or any other cancer for that matter. I think diet would effect stomach, colon and perhaps pancreatic cancer. To me that makes sense. But we are what we eat, right? Smoking irritates the lungs and cause cancer but people who don't smoke get lung cancer too.

On the other hand, I think that we all have " cancer cells " in our bodies. That cancer are normal cells that just proliferate in certain people. Something triggers normal cells to go awry. Our immune system can't keep up with those wild cells. and become tumors. Whether it's genetics or environment or diet. I don't know Maybe wearing a bra causes breast cancer? Although they don't think so.

My point is that many of us lead healthy lives before diagnosis and we got BC anyway. I've been working with cancer for almost 40 years and I've gotten a different perspective now being a patient myself but the questions still remain.

One thing I know for sure life is short. Enjoy it.

I just watched this program on the Smithsonian Channel. It popped up on my Netflix queue. I though my DH might have put it there, but he said he didn't... maybe it was divine . It looks at possibility that breasts are sentinel organs and all the chemical, etc are causing changes in breast development and high breast cancer rates. http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/shows/truly-stra...

Speaking of links, I recently saw this on FB. It's an organization that provides free house cleaning services to cancer patients. I have a cleaning lady already (lucky me!) but maybe someone else could benefit from this. It's in the US and Canada. http://www.cleaningforareason.org

Amy

BTW, we still have mosquito trucks. They make a loud noise so you know to stay inside. Hopefully, it's not as toxic as it was in the 70s, but they are alive and well in the summer in the western suburbs of Chicago!

I remember mosquito trucks in Chicago. Maybe they will more common now with the Zika virus. Mosquitos have always found me delicious.

BC is so prevalent and devastating. There are so many kinds of cancer out there. It's all so sad.

My current dilemma is about recurrence I suppose. I want to sell my house. But do I want to take on a new mortgage at my age? With my prognosis ? In the meantime I am slowly fixing it up ( thanks to DIL trashing it). But I don't know what to do. It's not easy to take my own advice lol.