Is anyone forgoing regular Drs appointments?

It, is such a stressor!! Waiting and then Pondering what will happen bringing everything Back that one went through....I do my BEST to have a healthy lifestyle...it seems like this never ends...The BEST thing is CALM....meditation, yoga and such.....Liz

Hi guys. You don't have your stats posted so I'm not sure what goes on at your appointments but...being stage one my appointment lasted all of 5 minutes with an examination of my foobs and axillary region. Sort of a waste of time in my opinion!

No, because that would not be wise.

My regular every 5 months check up is coming again week after next and I'm incredibly anxious about it. As usual. I agree with everything posted here...at least my MO works with my ND and my NP/GP. But as we all know, just feeling fine doesn't mean much with bc. I quail every time my MO comes in the room because I know she's going to share blood work results, and I'm usually hyperventilating by then. I don't like taking Xanax, but I do on those check ups. I already meditate daily, yogas weekly, etc. but yes, I wish there was a better way to be monitored than these agonizing visits. Somehow I've got to reconcile that I'll have them for the rest of my life.Haven't gotten there yet.

Claire

I just love my oncologist and he is very good. He was my second opinion doc. I am 7 years out and its never a burden to go...I get checked out, have an exam and I'm then out of there. I think it would be very difficult if I didn't have a good rapport with my doc.

Last year I went for my yearly follow up with my BS. She had me take my top off, put my hands on my hips and she looked at my chest. That's it. No manual exam. I know that having had a bmx greatly reduced my chance of local recurrence, but jeez, shouldn't she have at least felt around a little. You get all stressed out for the exam and it turns out to be no exam at all. Next year she is sending me for an MRI, which will come with a big helping of anxiety, I'm sure.

Personally, I'm a helluva lot more worried about the possible consequences of letting things slide than I am of what the docs will find or do at each visit. It is what it is. But I'm pretty vocal about my preferences (within std-of-care parameters), priorities and comorbidities—and since I'm both a doctor's wife and a lawyer (not to mention a lifelong card-carrying hypochondriac), my care team respects my wishes.

As to those sexually-transmitted viral "communicable cancers," if you refrain from getting amorous with dogs or hamsters (and practice safe sex with humans) you should be fine. As to germs in waiting rooms, hand sanitizers are your friend (and coughing or sneezing into your elbow are your fellow patients' friends).

it's the dogs getting amorous is the problem, it's their vd, if they get cancer from sex can transmit it to us as it's a contagous kind??

when the dog gets the cancer vd whose to say it's then not transferable'

You cannot catch HPV any way except through sexual (oral, anal, or genital) intercourse with another human being. Your dog, by definition, cannot have HPV because that's “human" papilloma virus. It can only have the canine variety, which cannot infect or affect humans. Unless by “sleeping with" your dog you mean something more intimate than cuddling up in bed (and even if you do), you're still safe.

“Contagious" sexually transmitted diseases cannot be spread by mere physical contact or “droplet" (airborne) infection. Your dog is valuable to your well-being, especially when you are ill, so don't worry—feel free to be a good “mama" to it.

I, am down to going once a year...but I think that will Change....my BS spends a lot of time with me in talk and examine...but I always have the jitters when it comes that time to go....Liz

No, Abigail—not all “contagious” diseases are spread in the same way. There are all kinds of contagion—e.g., contact (door handles, shaking hands), droplet (airborne), blood-to-broken skin (needle stick) and sexual transmission. HPV and CPV are sexually-transmitted viruses. “Close contact”—even CPV if two dogs snuggle together without mating--does NOT spread them!!!!!!!!!!!

You can catch toxoplasmosis from cat feces, tick-borne diseases from animals that have diseased ticks that bite you, and rabies from the bite of a rabid animal—but you cannot "catch cancer,” not even the virus that predisposes to developing it, from an animal!!!

instead of deet perhaps a few essential oils in a carrier oil base, say geranium for the c arrier and laverndar, peppermint, rosemary for the others in a spray bottle

WOW. Thorough. My doc does the whole lungs, palpate liver/belly, and feeling scar tissue, chest area but no xrays, labs or ultrasounds...yet.