If you are not Stage IV but have questions, you may post here

that was my initial diagnosis. During surgery, found 1 cm TN tumor and a micromet to a intramammary node next to the er+ tumor

Thanks Deanna - I really appreciate your imput. I’ve been on meds for hypothyroidism for three years and in normal range - the chemo put me way out of that range.

I had my weekly appt with my RO today and she said what I’m experiencing can be “fairly common”. It is more mentally draining than anyth anything.

Thanks again

Hi indahood...I'm Stage 4 so I'll give you my thoughts. Bear in mind that these are my thoughts and in all likelihood bear no resemblance to those of your friend. Firstly, if you haven't seen her in a year it's possible that there has been a change in her thinking during that time. Speaking for myself, a year ago I had been diagnosed for four months and until recently I've been in denial. I have a very confident, positive attitude but reality has dawned upon me that I will never be cured, that I will live with this disease until I die, either from it or from something else before cancer takes me. Because of my cancer I've had to move out of my home and into a small apartment because my husband and son work full time and our house is large with stairs. They travel for business so a lot of the time I have to look after myself which is impossible in a large house but just possible in the tiny apartment. Only just. My husband is past retirement age but has continued to work because we don't know what is in front of us financially. We may have to spend a lot of money to have a carer look after me if I progress. We live on a knife edge from scan to scan every three months to find out whether I'm still stable. Fortunately, so far so good but it's never out of the back of our minds.

This is the difference between having curable disease and incurable disease. At Stage 2 you have every hope of remission or cure. At Stage 4 we will never be cured. Our hopes are always for stable disease and the very very best we hope for is regression but it depends on our prognosis, the site of the mets, the amount of mets and whether we are responding to treatment or whether treatment is at least controlling the disease.

Your friend might not feel like discussing her breast cancer with anyone or perhaps with you because of fatigue, sickness or just plain being fed up with having cancer and not wanting to talk about it. Sweetie, the fact that you are both having chemo at the same time doesn't give you common ground when one is at Stage 2 and the other is at Stage 4. Also, at Stage 4 cancer has taken over our lives and has done so usually for a long time and the last thing we want to do is talk it over. We're either too unwell or we're looking for diversion from it.

She also more than likely is no longer into going for coffee. A lot of us have stopped doing that. In my case it's because I have mets in my bones and I'm in a lot of pain and chairs at cafes are uncomfortable and leave me in worse pain for several days afterwards. Sadly, a lot of us can no longer drive. I can't because of the opiate pain meds I need. We have low white cell counts from our treatments and are told not to be in crowded places for risk of picking up an infection that leaves us in hospital.

I've spent a lot of time considering your situation, Laurie and trying to express it carefully. This is only my take on it but I think it's probably how I might feel if I were this friend at the moment. I hope this helps you sweetie.

Hi to all my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2015.

Now from past 3-4 months she feels something tickly in her throat and frequent throat clearing.Tickling feeling make her cough hard but nothing comes up.This is continued from past 3-4 months and tickling occurs 4-5 times a day everyday.She tried gurgling but of no help.So her onco ordered pet/ct which showed reccurence in the same breast and one lung noule in each lung the nodule on the left lung same side as bc showed mild fdg uptake.Both nodules are subcentimetric.

Currently we are waiting for biopsy results from her new 2cm mass .Also both lung nodules are ground glass.The one on the left side was there in ct scan of sept 2017.And the right one is pleural based. please help.

Thnq chrissy.We are waitinng for biopsy results but the mass on the breast lit up badly with max suv=6.3.I hope all comes good. I am too much worried.

Wintersocks, I'm so sorry about the worry and stress you're going through. My first thought is that I agree with the new GP -- mets pain probably would be increasing and not remain intermittent. And as sorry as I am it's happened to you, her choice of the word "drifted" is stellar and a bit amusing because it seems to put the blame on you, rather than them "dropping the ball" or letting you "slip through the cracks," more commonly used euphemisms here in the US.

So if the blood work you had is clear, I do not get where the "possible mets to chest wall" is coming from, or why IF that is a possible concern, you are being referred back to a GP. Something isn't adding up. I'm not a doctor, but the intermittent pain sounds like something possibly to do with your spine, which an MRI will divulge if they include the spine. And your onc sending you back to a GP for a complete physical doesn't sound like he is overly concerned about mets, so it just doesn't quite make sense to me.

At any rate, you are so right about needing to be our own advocates! I'm glad the new GP can see you quickly, and I hope you get an answer to your pain that has nothing to do with mets! Please keep us in the loop, and In the meantime, try to enjoy and celebrate your son's 24th birthday!

Lindahood, I'm going to offer another explanation for your friend's absence, which is simply that she might have something major aside from mbc going on in her life that's taking up her time and energy at the moment and putting seeing friends on the back burner. In other words, nothing at all to do with you personally, but she just has other demands (an illness besides her own in her family, for example) that needs the often limited amount of energy we have. The other explanation might be a sudden turn in her own health, in which case she might be totally focused on trying to get things back on a better track. I would probably just try to give it some time, but continue to communicate that she's on your mind and you look forward to getting together when she's up to it.

genny, great news on your MRI! So happy to hear all is clear and that you're feeling better!

Hugs to all, Deanna

MRock

Thanks for this, I was wondering about lymphedema too. I did have it very mildly when I was first dx. I saw a nurse about it and she gave me a sleeve, It was so tight that I abandoned it, I didn't realise lymphedema can cause that kind of pain I just though the limb swelled. I will mention that tomorrow. I may pm you tomorrow once I have seen the GP.If that's ok. Thanks for taking he time to tell me this.

dlb823

Yes, 'drifted' is a little amusing isn't it? say 5 years ago I would have been back to the onc but the NHS is in a real state here you might have read about it. I think the Onc is advising the GP what to do next. I think it's cost cutting and it's not making me feel good. I think it will be the GP who decides whether an MRI is indicated. Thanks for this too.

So, I will update tomorrow

Lauren, it's very hard to say if this will turn out to be a tiny metastatic spot. Hopefully, it's not. But what might surprise you and is excellent news is -- even if it is a tiny spot of mbc, it would be considered ogliometastatic, which is not viewed the same as other metastatic recurrences, and is actually treated as curable.

I hope and pray your biopsy is negative, but I hope this information will ease your mind.

I'll check back here to follow up with you tomorrow. Hugs, and I'll be thinking of you, hoping for only good news. Deanna

Hi Wintersocks, we hope to hear it's "just" lymphedema. I've sent you a private message. Many hugs

Wintersocks, I went back and reread your original post after MRock suggested lymphedema as a possibility, and agree that it very well could be that. Read up on truncal LE as well. It's not always just in an arm. And not sure if it was mentioned, but heat can exacerbate LE, so if you can connect any of the pain flares with something like hot baths or hot tub use or even an intense work out, that might be a further clue to LE. Deanna

I finished chemo a couple weeks ago but am concerned about this growing spot on my leg. It's not painful. Itches only a tiny bit. Blanchable. Not a bruise. Is this a skin met? I'm confused/concerned. Any experience/feedback on this would be appreciated. Thank you. Top picture Jan 29. Bottom picture today 2/15

Lauren, I’m so sorry. Your outcome is never what any of us wants to hear. But it sounds like you have an excellent onc and are handling the situation as well as can be expected. Feel free to continue to reach out to us if we can help. And just know that many women in your situation quickly reach NED and stay there.

Dear Ladies

Thanks for your thoughts, I saw the GP and she said nothing looked amiss after a physical exam; but she wanted to refer me back to the onc within the next 2 weeks, She turned the computer round to show me what he had written and I could only see 'poss mets to Brachial plexus' - which is a bundle of nerves I think in the general breast/ shoulder area.

The Gp said she did not think it was mets as it was not getting worse and I can go for a few weeks with no pain at all then it comes back. In his notes he wrote I may need a bone scan with isotope?? Meanwhile she has put me on amitriptyline to help with the pain. All my blood tests are normal = I don't know what to think now!

Katie, lung nodules are VERY common. If you give the person on the street a PET/CT it is likely they'll find nodules. I have one and it hasn't grown in 10 years so it's not cancer.

The nodules can be inflammatory, or infectious or some other kind of cause. What doctors usually do is wait for 3-6 months then scan again. If they haven't grown they aren't cancer.

The wife of a colleague of mine had this problem. A whole bunch of lung nodules. They did all sorts of tests and never did figure out what caused them. Eventually (a year later?) they disappeared from the scans.

So they may not be cancer, particularly if the breast lesion was nothing.