Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!

Mags, never thought of it that way, but now I will think of "life's good" every time I see my initials. My nickname that all my close friends and family call me is Sissy- I consider yal like my family!😘

Thanks, all! Sandy, wish you could join on Saturday, as well...but, we will be so glad to see you on Sunday. Come on up as soon as you are able. Do you think you will be there for a late lunch? Let me know what you need and we will try to help out..

Moondust- thanks for the high five...will be getting the steps up soon and appreciate knowing you will be looking!

PLEASE be sure the surgery and chemo are ok together. I had a tiny splinter in my finger after 4th round of chemo and in 4 days had a HUGE staph infection which needed surgical intervention, major antibioitcs and still I haven't regained all feeling and movement...a splinter! My MO brought it up on Thursday and said- wow, we tell patients EVERYTHING that could happen during chemo but YOU, well, we couldn't have imagined you would have what you ended up with....and, seriously, that was the worst SE of chemo for me....I was tired and nauseous and, fod tasted weird and I didn't want it for a few days or 5 after each treatment- the finger infection for 3+ months was the worst thing! Just be careful about anything invasive please.

Thanks, HH and Peggy. I will have the surgery next Friday if it's okay. I am not too worried about infection - I'll be able to recover after surgery for a few weeks before I would start chemo, and I think the antibiotics will do their job by then. I'm just worried about any effect on how fast my bone will heal. From what I've read, the bone near the tooth will heal over a few months. I don't want to end up with a weak spot where that tooth is! But I will find out and thanks for the advice!

Hello everyone:  I have not been able to login to BC.org for almost a week because this week was a "doozy" for me.  I had car trouble (my car got stuck twice) and I worked so many extra hours every day.  (I also have a 2 and 1/2 hour commute to/from work.)  Work is overwhelmingly busy and stressful now.  I leave my house at 6:00am for work every day and I usually get home between 6:30 and 7:00pm. I was not able to get home until about 9:30pm every night this week.  Needless to say, I am totally exhausted.  I feel like I have not slept in years.

There are too many people to respond to so I apologize for not recognizing anyone aside from LovingGrouches/LifeisGood/LG.  I want to let you know that I was medically induced into menopause and I felt fine right away.  I have minor hot flashes but they are easily dealt with.  The main problem for me is weight gain (which totally sucks.)  Menopause has not been difficult for me.  I had no perimenopausal symptoms at all when I was diagnosed with bc at the age of 49.  I got my period every 28 days like clockwork.  My body was definitely not prepared for menopause.  I took 3 rounds of Zoladex injections - ovary suppression - and then I had the oophorectomy.   I needed to be medically induced into menopause because I had to take AI's.  I am a poor metabolizer of tamoxifen so tamoxifen would not have worked for me.  Also, tamoxifen does not work as well for lobular carcinoma as AI's do.  I thought that medically induced menopause would be awful but I had no trouble with it.  I was totally ok.  You may have no/few menopausal symptoms.  I am wishing you well.   I am glad that you made the decision to have the radical hysterectomy. It may alleviate your worry.

I am sending hugs and health to everyone, and I am wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's here.

HH, Joining you all in NC just isn't in the cards. What with trying to sell my house here, preparing for DH's memorial and getting ready to move, I have plenty on my plate. It also would be expensive. Flights from Detroit are more expensive than anywhere else. It's usually cheaper to fly across the country than to fly from Detroit. I'll be with you all in spirit!!

HUGS!

Dorothy26, you certainly did get blindsided! Wow. I can see why you feel like you just got your dx again. Take a breath. Start listing the questions you want to ask Monday when you see your MO. What are your options? What does your MO think would be best for you. Gather all the information you can and then decide what is best for YOU! We're here for you!

HUGS!

614, I am sorry you are working so much and it's stressful. I am glad you checked in. Dorothy, I am sorry about the oncotype score. I will be in your pocket for your MO appointment. I see my MO next week and am trying to get into see my BS as well. I have had a sore area under my arm that kind of feels like a lump but not really a lump. More like a ridge that was rather small and now is bigger and tender. I had mentioned tenderness to my PS but it suddenly feels bigger so I want my BS to look at it. I am wondering if it's inflammation or something like LE. It is annoying me now because it hurts most of the time. Hopefully I can also meet with the scheduler to get my surgery scheduled.

Hi Molly, thank you for your kind words. I will be in your pocket also next week for your upcoming appts. Sorry to hear about your sore area and hope you get some answers.

• Dorothy, sorry to hear about your surprising score - what a curveball. I'll be thinking about you at your appointment tomorrow - keep us posted.
• Molly, I hope your sore underarm area clears up quickly and isn't anything to really worry about - thinking about you, too.

Grazy, yes, its indeed a curveball. Thank you and I will let you know.

Glad to hear your Mum is back home recovering and that your treatment has started. Did they advise using the Glaxal Base cream? It worked very well for me...used it 4 times a day.

Hi Dorothy - my RO said she prefers that I not use anything on my skin right now (at the beginning). I asked the technicians about that at my first treatment and they said some ROs at the centre prefer that some patients not use anything at the beginning. She's probably afraid people will show up to appointments with product on their skin. My husband ordered some Miaderm for me which was delivered to his US office - it's about three times the price in Canada, hence I'm sure no one here uses it. I only had treatments on Thursday and Friday of last week so obviously have no issues; this week will be Monday - Friday so I was thinking about applying it after my appointments or I may wait and see how things are after 7 treatments. I hate to disregard my RO's orders, but I don't want to run into trouble either. The technicians said that they rarely see patients with significant skin effects and if they do, its more in the underarm area with redness. We have a little more than half the number of treatments our US friends get, so maybe that accounts for less skin "damage", I don't know.... Out of curiosity, do you go into TO for treatment? I believe you live north of the city?

Hi LG, thank you for your kind wishes. I know Moondust is also waiting for her second MO opinion to see if chemo is an option after rads. (I deleted my previous post to you by accident :-)

Thanks for your details, Dorothy - very helpful. Very interesting that you were instructed to apply product before treatment in addition to afterward - I thought skin was supposed to be absolutely free of any creams, etc. before treatment. You'd think this sort of thing would be standard across the board, but the radiation therapist did say all of their ROs have their own opinions on the matter. (Lubriderm sensitive unscented is what I use on a daily basis as a body moisturizer, and have for a very long time, so I can just keep that up too.)

Grazy I had what the techs described as a pretty significant reaction. Booo.. I finished on Dec 23rd and still have a distinct tan. I got the most relief from aloe vera gel from Walmart of all places. The green stuff. And when the skin blistered and peeled I made sure to put lots of polysporin cream on it (no ointment cause you have to rub it in and then your clothes stick to it and bind). The techs also told me that I would continue to suffer for 10-14 days after the last boost but I didn't find that at all. I felt a lot better about 5 days after.

I hope it all goes well for you but if you do have negative side effects I think you have received some really good ideas about treatments for it. FWIW my center recommended using glaxal right after the treatment from day one. I didn't like the glaxal and it didn't really do anything positive for me, in my opinion (;-))

Take care and best wishes for week two. And Three, and Four