Reoccurance

I am sorry you are dealing with a recurrence. I had a recurrence this year, and though it was challenging, it was again doable. Have they done PET scan and such? Sorry you are dealing with this again.

Whoa! Do you think they missed the nodes the first time around? Did radiation include the armpit nodes? Mastectomy for positive nodes? This worries me. How about a second opinion?

My friend had BC in 22 nodes. They never did find her primary breast tumor, but did chemo then BMX be ause they knew it had to originate there; it just took a fast track to lymph nodes. She is doing well

Good luck, Mitt1. It is so unfair that getting bc puts us at a higher risk of developing another primary bc tumorI will keep you in my prayers. The close monitoring you were getting as a bc survivor probably helped the second primary tumor get diagnosed sooner than it would have otherwise.

Thanks Kbeee, I just saw your Feb. 1 reply

Oh joy, it's the reccurence club. Mitt1 hope you are doing well. I had ALND and got 10/14 nodes on Jan 19. But clear scans is a good thing. Recovery going super fast even with ooph and hysterectomy (thank you Ms KBeee my mentor!) and I start rads tomorrow. Then I get to do "preventative chemo" again in April. Lucky me. I did a double mastectomy after neo chemo but no rads (clear margins and 2 nodes clear...HA). This is tough 2nd time around but so far it's doable. Hoping with surgery and rads done first, chemo last I will be motivated that it's the last time ever! (actually I will get zometa 2x a year after done with chemo to prevent bone loss and bone mets).

vfh - My onc did tell me that new studies are showing Zometa is showing promise of not only fixing bone loss, now it can (not all the time) but help prevent bone loss and can even be attributed to helping prevent spread to the bones.

Doctors are suggesting Taxotere or Xeloda .... I can't believe that at a world class hospital like the one I'm at - they still say, well, your case is so rare (in axillary nodes with clean scans after BMX and 2 clean nodes / margins 3 1/2 yrs ago) we don't have anything hard evidence wise to go on....wth? Really? 240,000 women diagnosed each year and nothing else like this....what a croc of shit.

They are letting me choose. Because, you know, I have a medical degree too! NOT. I am meeting with the main guy and a new onc to go over the "choice" again in a few weeks when I'm half through rads....just kicking that can down the road for now. It's been a lot to process the last 2 months. In some ways I'm grateful to have some input as I also have ulcerative colitis which I have had in remission for the last 2 years and my colon is great. I would like to keep it...both of those chemos have a rap for messing with the gastro tract. Xeloda sounds easier, pill form but it's an 18 week cycle. That

Sorry, rant over. I am glad they let me switch and do rads first as there is a very high chance for another local regional recurrence so this is something we KNOW I have to do. We also KNOW the bc is still ER+ (90 - 95% moderately down from highly but still the ooph and arimidex should really starve what is left) so I am glad I am on arimidex as of 3 days past my surgery and do not have to stop taking it until 2 days before chemo starts.

.Xeloda or Taxotere are to go get anything that didn't show up on clean scans that maybe floating around after surgery and what the arimidex can't starve. My brilliant surgeon got 10 / 14 nodes out of me including one that was wrapping around a vein. She took the vein out too! Though everyone is scared what jumped in there for a ride. Well, I am banking on metastasizing being hard work and with no estrogen to help those buggers, fat chance of taking up home somewhere else in my body (i hope i hope i hope).

Mitt - so sorry you're joining us here in the recurrence club. KBee was the first to welcome me (back) into the fold a few weeks ago when I was re-dx'd. It pretty much just sucks. Glad to hear your scans are clear, that's certainly good news!!

I had dose-dense ACx4 the first time around, following by dose-dense Taxolx6. I was in grad school and missed only one class, was able to work part-time, and ran and practiced yoga (although maybe a little slower than before). Chemo just slowed me down a little, but I never had seriously bad SEs. No real nausea or vomiting, probably the worse was constipation (sorry for the TMI). Now that I've had my first round of chemo for this dx, a lot of the previous SEs and feelings are coming back and I find myself thinking, "...oh, yeah, I remember that..." It doesn't seem that much more different than before.

*hugs*

I think I handled AC better than a lot of people, but here are some specific things that helped me.

Just before and during the "A" (the red stuff) keep ice and/or popsicles in your mouth the ENTIRE time. It will ward off mouth sores which I've heard can be horrible. I never had any. I had EMEND in my premeds which really helps with nausea. It's the big guns. My MO told me to stay ahead of the nausea, so on days 1-5, I set my phone to alarm each time I was due for Zofran. I took it round the clock and had little nausea and no vomiting at all. The Zofran causes constipation per my MO, so he warned me to take a laxative. I took a stool softener, some senna laxative and just ate foods that would tend to help with that...blueberries, prunes, etc. I had no problems. MO also had me take Claritan daily to prevent bone pain from Neulasta. I already took it for allergies, so that was easy. I take my blood pressure daily. I have for years. For some reason, despite taking in tons of fluids (which is also important), my blood pressure dropped on days 3 and 4. MO had me come in for fluids on day 3 the last 2 AC and it helped. I also walked every day. Rain, or shine, I walked. I walked far. Sometimes I ran (using the term loosely here...a shuffle that's faster than a walk counts as a run). I think between the fresh air and the focus on trying to fit it in to my day distracting me from chemo, it helped immensely. I took daily notes on how I felt...just jotted them in the "notes" section on my phone so I could track symptoms round to round and know what to expect, and more accurately recall things for MO. I only had 3 "bad" days...and those were just days I felt kind of "yuk" and both lasted just a couple hours in the afternoon. I know some people have a really bad time on AC. A lot of people don't. I assumed I'd do well until proven otherwise, and I did well.

The first consult I had after being rediagnosed, basically blew off the seriousness of it. They were just going to put me on an AI and not even consider chemo, despite failing on Tamoxifen after 13 months, and despite having 2 tumors pretty far from each other, one which was growing under my pec muscle with no breast tissue found. My new MO leaned towards chemo and we did oncotype to confirm the need and it came back really high. Having to basically fight to have chemo put me in a different mindset that I was glad to be there. No one is "glad" to have chemo, but I felt it was my ticket to more years with my kids, so I was thankful to be there. I think that helped too. I actually did a half marathon during chemo. I ran a mile (still using the term loosely) then walked a mile. That's how I trained and that's how I did it. It is by far, the slowest one I've done, but it is the one I am most proud of. I did not sign up until a few days before, to be sure I was feeling ok, but I enjoy running; it is my "escape", and so it gave me a goal to focus on other than my next appointment. Find something you enjoy doing and set yourself a goal so you have something else other than chemo to focus on. It helps a lot. And give yourself time to rest. I worked through chemo too; I just reduced my hours some because I have a physical job. Bring something with you to do. Chemo is boring. PM me anytime.

You CAN do this! Set yourself up a reward for various milestones! Chemo is your ally in this dang war. Cancer is the enemy.