Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!

HH - You're gorgeous!!! Ive missed out on lots happening with you all!

Dorothy - Just looking at your information, sounds like youre talking of the Stage not the grade when you say it is small, so that is one factor, its the Grade it seems that is more of how they arrive at your treatment. We don't do Oncotype testing here, I asked my MO about it, and apart from $4,500 said it doesnt give him honestly more information than what the pathology gives him. Grade 3 is automatic chemo generally here, depending on other factors. so youre a 2?? you wouldnt have chemo here plus the small size of it and if there is no node involvement either. Hope that helps. My MO said the fact my turmor was 2.5cm and grade 3 he has no doubt IF I had the oncotype test it would have come back high, based on grade 3.

Hey Moondust! Peachy! JCLC! Molly! Sloan! Peggy! 614! Chisandy! MLP! LTF! Peggy! Poodles! Gosh sorry if Ive missed anyone...hugs to you all, will try and keep up!

LTF - I agree with you, everyones relationship with their Mum is so different, and they dont all work, and its OK. I think youve done an amazing job through all this! One very strong woman!

All of you ladies are, dont ever forget that!

Peggy thank you!!! I am equally inspired by everyone here, very strong, inspirational women!!! All of you!

HI to all you New Comers!!! I'll try catch up on all your stories x

LTF - How many infusions do you have left? Think you're doing so so incredibly well, it really is a roller coaster on every level, just keep nurturing you as I know you do...body and mind.

probably a stupid question, but what is LVI?

Lovinggrouches - LVI is Lymphovascular Invasion, or as my path report stated Lymph-Vascular Invasion

Thanks Grazy!!!

I just read an article that talked about women with dense breast tissue and who had kids around age 30+ have more precancerous breast cells with higher ki67 markers. (Harvard study) It could be a predictor of breast cancer like BRCA 1 and 2. I'm just curious: Who had dense breast tissue, kids around age 30, and a high Ki67 pathology for your tumor? If this is the case, I wonder if we should have mastectomies. Dana Farber Cancer Ctr wants to study this.

Sloan, can you post a link to the article? I never considered mx because it was never recommended. At the time my surgery was being planned, I was a total breast cancer newbie trying follow the path of least resistance. I was hearing ER+, PR+, small tumor, Stage 1, grade 1, etc etc, and thought, oh good, I just have a run-of-the-mill low risk tumor. Even if I had known my Onco score in advance, I doubt if I would have had mx because lx plus radiation is supposed to have the same outcome. I wonder if they have uncovered a new mechanism by which tumors start. The reading I have done says longer exposure to estrogen causes a higher chance for cancer to start. That's the reason (supposedly) that starting periods at a young age, having kids late, having fewer or no kids, late menopause and HRT all increase cancer risk. Dense breasts decrease early detection rate, which increases risk also.

So does the article say that dense breasts plus late kids will increase your risk even past menopause? Now you've got me curious! By all means see if you can find out more info from Dana Farber!

Lovinggrouches, they don't want the tamoxifen to suppress the cancer cells while they are trying to kill them off with radiation and/or chemo. If the cancer cells are suppressed, they might behave more like normal cells and the treatments won't kill them as well.

Mel, it's okay if you don't keep up all the time - it takes a big effort to stay current with this group!! It's great to hear from you!

Like my MO said, sometimes too much research is worse. Honestly, if you trust your MO talk direct, every case is so individual. Its quite natural for women to have dense breasts under 50, think thats why they dont usually recommend a mammo til after that. I have 1 relative only my Mum, no history of any sort of cancer in the family. I havent met the criteria at all in terms of what 'they say' risk of breast cancer at all. Nor medically can they explain a recurrence AFTER Rads and 4yrs of Tamoxifen. I trust my BS implicitly after my 4yrs of constant care and he's been soo right every time my MO only came into play in July last year. He said theres no way of predicting at all another recurrence, I was unlucky in the 5% awww. But honestly, truly Id just talk to the MO. I'm only going to do Mx because Ive had a recurrence and the MO BS and I all agree its the only thing left I can do.

Chisandy - I actually have to agree with what you are saying. I am a Holistic Practitioner and NEVER EVER would I say it should be used solely. I am a HUGE advocate for conventional medicine and it CAN be used with lots of other complimenting therapies if people desire. As for those people saying it was TOO LATE for the alternative therapies to work?? Disagree, its never too late for any alternative therapies, but people must realise they should be used in CONJUNCTION WITH medicine. Unfortunately, it was just too late for this dear person in terms of the illness, very sad indeed. Nothing to do with medicine or alternative therapies.

On having children late and menopause late. I had my first period at 13. First child at 24, second at 27. Breast-fed both about 12-18 months. Menopause at 45. I was on birth control pills until I was 35 or so (can't remember - DH had a vasectomy). I did do 2-3 years of HRT because my doctor THOUGHT I should (before all the studies came out against it). My breasts were dense prior to menopause and still are. No breast cancer family history unless you count my paternal grandmother's sister's daughter (it metastasized and she had chemo, whiskey, repeat, for years - she also smoked like crazy). So I think I don't fit that profile either but here I am. First mammo at 40.

I'm not into alternative medicine at all. With a boatload of allergies, including antibiotics like Sandy, I'd just be adding to my woes with "natural" remedies. If it works for you, good - that's your choice. But for me, I'll stick to Western medicine though I might consider acupuncture. And there's certainly no harm in adding yoga or meditation to reduce stress which can depress your immune system. We all have to decide what is best for ourselves but for me, I'll treat my BC with Western meds.

Melclarity, as Dr Susan Love points out, a 5% chance of recurrence is meaningless except as a statistic. If you get a recurrence, it's 100%. So it's either 0% chance or 100% chance of recurrence for each of us.

HUGS!

Sloan- info for your informal study- started period at 13-ish, first child at 29, second child at 35. No history of breast cancer in family. Dense breasts. Had ovaries removed in 2013 due to repeated issues with cysts. Cancer found during routine mammo. I have been overweight for years and am trying to get more of the weight off to reduce estrogen storage. I'm going to look up your study as well. Please keep us posted on what you find out from DH.

I guess I'm in trouble lol! 6th woman on moms side of the family to get breast cancer. Great grand mothers 2 sisters had it, 2 of grandmother's 2 sisters and a 2nd cousin. Started period at 13, have never had children. I have struggled with weight ALL my life! Had d and c about 7 years ago and had ovarian cyst at the time. Went on 1300 calorie strict diet, walked 2 miles a day and went to the gym for 2 years and never got below 190 pounds. I gave up and have gained 22 lb back in the last year. Now having menstrual problems AGAIN and paranoid about female cancer because of the palb2. At least now that I've recovered from the surgeries and can exercise again, my stress reducer is going walking every day about 2 miles. I hope I can still do that during my radiation. I only had the one mammogram, didn't read anything about dense breast tissue. Thanks all for the advice. Yale don't know how much I have learned from reading all your posts!!!

I started menses at age 17. First child at 22. Only breast fed him for a few weeks due to a uterine infection. Second child at 31, breast fed her for 19 months. Third child at 37 breast fed him for 7 months until he became critically ill. Very dense breasts even after surgical menopause. Used HRT for 3.5 years of estrogen only after Hysterectomy. Family hx of breast cancer. My sister had modified radical mastectomy at age 24 or so. Maternal uncle had BC in his 40's and maternal Aunt in her 70's. We have a recently discovered genetic mutation.

How true, Peggy! Cancer does what it wants, apparently, despite what we do/don't do.

Sandy, I sympathize with your frustration at the anti-western medicine stuff invading your music space! I totally agree with your western medicine outlook. I do take a few things that haven't been conclusively proven to give benefit, such as glucosamine/chondroitin, but I won't claim that it is helping my joints because I really don't know. The SFSBM podcast and Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast are two of my favorites!

Here's my history: menses at 11, two miscarraiges at age 35 & 36, first and only child at almost 39. Breastfed (and/or pumped) for six months. Dense breasts. No family history. Overweight my entire life until a few years ago. Highest wt 200 in college, average in the 160's-170's. Now I'm 124 with about 19% body fat and intend to stay that way! On "the pill" since age 16. At that time it was the higher dose pill. The only time I was off the pill was during my mid-to-late 30's while having a child. My periods never stopped into my late 50's. Finally at 59 my obgyn took me off the pill for a month to get a decent hormone reading and said I was in menopause. After a few weeks of hot flashes, I went on HRT until the day after my 61st birthday when I received my biopsy result.

Recently the lovely country singer Joey Feek passed away from cervical cancer at age 40. She is another example of someone who let God be her pathologist. God does many jobs well, but not that one!

Moondust, when I started on the pill at 18 back in 1963/64 all we had was Enovid 10s. Then came 5s. Then a whole bunch of different birth control pills. I never did as well on the new ones as I did on the Enovids which seem to disappear. I'm amazed at how many of us here seem to be entering menopause so late in their 50s. Obviously being 45 didn't help me in that respect.

Poodles, I can see why you are surprised you waited this long to get BC. The odds certainly were stacked against you from Day 1.

HUGS!