Just diagnosed, 1st appts with BS and Onc tomorrow

Welcome, Allieben. I am so sorry about your diagnosis and what you are going through. I know you have had a very bad shock and have a lot of fears. There will still be some anxious times ahead, wondering about results to come.

Clinical Staging is a guesstimate. Pathologic Staging will be determined after your surgery. Your Oncologist will be able to tell you after your next Pathology Report has been issued.

Grade 3 tends to respond well to Chemotherapy. Even if yours is treated much like Triple Negative type with Neoadjuvant or Adjuvant Chemotherapy, afterward you may also be offered continuing treatment with an anti-hormonal medicine because of your tumor's being hormone receptor positive. Your Oncologist will make considered recommendations for the best treatment for your case.

Your Surgeon will generally describe the surgery options appropriate for your case. If you are already decided on a particular surgery type that is feasible for your case, then your surgery can be planned and scheduled.

Because some of your tumor is known to be invasive, in connection with your treatment surgery, at least your sentinel lymph node/s from your axillary area on the side of the diseased breast will be collected for Pathology Lab examination. Ask (and remind) your Surgeon and the Hospital people to do whatever they properly can to make the pre-surgery tracer injection procedure tolerable for you.

You will feel much better -- more in control -- when you have a treatment plan. For now, remind yourself that you are doing all you practicably can about it, and that your Health Care Providers are watching out for you and will take care of you. If you need something meanwhile to help you about anxiety or to get enough sleep, ask your Doctor for something to help you that way.

Whatever it takes, you can do it!

Good luck, Allieben.

Hi Allieben, just waving hi as I too have am only weakly receptor positive.
We can chat more when you hear what your doctors have to say.

hugs

Hi Allieben. Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy has some definite advantages. It can shrink a tumor to make lumpectomy a feasible surgery option; and its shrinkage of a tumor before surgery can help achieve clear mastectomy margins, too, in cases in which the tumor may be in close proximity to the chest wall or the skin. Another advantage is that there will shortly be indications of whether the Chemotherapy treatment is on the right track with apparently effective medicine/s.

It is important that you and your household members all do your best not to catch any communicable diseases that may be going around -- such as respiratory illnesses. Chemo treatments are sometimes delayed (from *otherwise ideal* scheduling) because of sicknesses like that. Your Oncology Clinic will likely expect and require you and your accompanying support person to be apparently free of any such illnesses whenever you visit there. Further, it would be helpful to know (or at least have a high degree of confidence) whether any symptoms that may arise -- such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. – are most likely side effects of your treatment and not just as likely to be from some communicable illness you have acquired, see. I strongly recommend that you discourage and avoid non-essential in-person visits. I strongly recommend also that you and your household members do your best to keep out of crowds and also that you get and wear protective clinical use masks and gloves whenever (any of) you must be around others, until you are all done with any and all Chemo treatments and follow-ups therefor. On the bright side, your wearing protective clinical masks and gloves in any public places will usually get you more "personal space" -- and that will help even more to reduce your risks of catching anything that might necessitate delay or interruption of your treatment plans.

Pharmacy drive-thru pick-up windows are best for getting your medicines now. Other shopping is best done by mail order or in the supermarkets at like 2 a.m. on Tuesdays, provided, however, that those Tuesdays are not the first day/s of the month/s. You get the idea.

Get psyched-up, not psyched-out.

We are here for you.

(((Hugs)))

Allie—well poop. I can’t imagine how shocking it must have been to hear what you did. All I can say is there are *tons* of women here who’ve had great success with neoadjuvant chemo. And Friday—wow. Not much time to get your head or life in order. But maybe also not much time to freak out? Do join that March 2018 group. There is immense support/empathy from women going through what you are at the same time. It also might be comforting to check in with some of the older chemo threads. I always find it heartening to hear from women who are out the other side—there’s a great “You can do this!” vibe.

And so you can. I’ll be thinking about you Friday. Let us know how it goes.

I finished chemo for triple negative last week. I had 4 rounds of AC (every 2 weeks) and 6 rounds of Taxol (every 3 weeks). My MO would have stopped Taxol at 4 rounds if I was having bad side effects.

The good news with negative is chemo usually works very well. My 3cm tumor is pretty much gone. I had MRI before my last chemo and my tumor could barely be found. Met minimal sub threshold measurement.

I had my port placed the day after my first meeting with doctors, it made getting chemo so much easier. They are taking it out when I have surgery soon.

Chemo has been manageable. I never threw up or really felt nauseous. Just tired. I nap quite a bit, so I have energy in the late afternoon/evening

Allieben--thanks for checking in. Good to hear you're hanging in there. I finally had my initial consultation with an MO yesterday. Got a lot of good information but not quite everything I needed to hear before making a tx decision. She's going to do some research and get back to me. The waiting continues. . .