Been fighting TN for 3 years now....carboplatin now

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goose14
goose14 Member Posts: 17
edited June 2018 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

I am so frustrated right now! Been fighting TN for 3 years straight... There are only 4 more chemo drugs available I can try.. I have 6 tumors on my left chest area... The biggest tumor is 3 inches long by 2 inches wide by 2 inches high!!!! I want surgery to remove it but oncologist says no, lets try carboplatin. Oncologist is also sending me to the University of Michigan Cancer Center to see if there are any clinical trials I qualify for and to do what is called FoundationOne testing to see what chemo drug will attack and kill this cancer... This appt is next month. Not sure I will survive this tumor growth for another month. I just had my 2nd carboplatin today. I am getting 300 mg of it weekly because my liver can't tolerate the full dosage that is given ever 3 weeks... I am so frustrated because this tumor is by my collarbone and shoulder joint and it is impeding my arm movement and on a pain scale it is at 5-6 out of 10...The tumor is dark red and hot to the touch.. I keep telling the oncologist to send me to the surgeon to get this thing out of me, but all she wants to try is chemo drugs. I feel like she is not listening to me!!! I also get decadron during chemo treatment and i'm diabetic and this steroid shoots my sugar levels up into the 300s every week for about 4-5 days... then they drop down into the low 120-150 level, just to be cycled back up in two days time. I don't know what to eat because of the sugar levels being so high. My primary dr won't treat the diabetes because he says it is from the steroid. I don't care, 300s for sugar levels is dangerously high, it needs to come down. My A1C is 7.2.... I know i'm venting but I don't know who else to vent to... I see my primary dr on monday... Also my oncologist pulled me off my lipitor (cholesterol med) because of my liver enzymes were high. Now I have to worry about heart problems due to cholesterol! Not sure what my primary doctor is going to say about that. He may have to talk to my oncologist. I asked to be put back on my lipitor but i got no answer today! Oncologist put me on fish oil!!!ll

Has anyone tried carboplatin only and have success! I am reaching for straws here! I know I will be on chemo for the rest of my life and that is looking bleak over the long haul!

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  • Trishyla
    Trishyla Member Posts: 1,005
    edited June 2017

    I'm so sorry you have to go through all this, goose14. It sounds like hell. Unfortunately I have no advice to offer, just lots of hugs and well wishes. Hope you get the snswers you're looking for.

    Trish

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  • Sheliahm
    Sheliahm Member Posts: 32
    edited June 2017

    Goose14

    I'm so sorry you are going through all this. I have stage3 with a recurrence to the chest wall and superclavicar nodes. I had tiny nodules all over the breast/chest wall. I haven't started carboplatin yet but will be starting in about 3 weeks. Now I just finished my last dose of cisplatin which is carboplatin cousin and almost done with radiation as well. The nodules on breast disappeared. However it seemed that the nodules appeared right outside the irradiated area. They been there for a while and seemed stable. So I'm hoping just like you that carbo works. This cancer is a sneaky little son of a b***** and it doesn't help being triple neg. Please keep us posted and I'll do the same . Sending hugs and positive thoughts your way.



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  • KPW3
    KPW3 Member Posts: 147
    edited June 2018

    goose14,

    I saw your post on the Abraxane board and I hope it works for you. Have you looked into clinical trials? You mentioned that you thought this was the last option. Look on https://www.breastcancertrials.org/

    You might find something on there.

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