What to ask at your 3 month follow-up?

Options
Anonymous
Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
edited April 2019 in Diagnosed and Waiting for Test Results
What to ask at your 3 month follow-up?
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • Jen2Mom
    Jen2Mom Member Posts: 47
    edited April 2019

    Now that my life has settled down, I have my surgery, radiation behind me and 1 month of tamoxifen on board, its time for a checkin at the MO tomorrow and I have no idea what to ask...my mammaprint results came in "fabulous" so I feel like whenever I mention "is there cancer floating around in my body and spreading" I get brushed off because of my mammaprint results and HER-. I am going to ask about a bone scan, I never had one and hear lots get them especaially if you are on hormone therapy...but what else should I ask for? What blood tests and scans should I be looking for her to perform?

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • edwards750
    edwards750 Member Posts: 3,761
    edited April 2019

    Jen - I never had a bone scan. My MO scheduled blood tests only to see how Tamoxifen affected the rest of me. I didn’t have any tumor marker tests either. She said too many false positives plus I had early stage BC and Grade 1. 8 years out in August God willing.

    Congrats on completing your radiation.

    Diane

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • 2002chickadee
    2002chickadee Member Posts: 129
    edited April 2019

    Hi Jen, I would ask about your follow up plan with your MO and your other cancer doctors (seems like a lot of different follow up appointments to me, I bet there is a more and less efficient way to approach them), I would ask about blood tests -- mine checks liver levels, but I'm on a different hormone cocktail, and I would ask about Vitamin D (also checked and a supplement prescribed by my onc). I would also ask about who needs to check your breasts and at what intervals (I know you had a BMX, cancer can recur on mastectomy breasts though and they won't do mammograms to check). I don't think you need a bone scan on tamoxifen, but certainly worth asking.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • gb2115
    gb2115 Member Posts: 1,894
    edited April 2019

    above poster had good suggestions.

    You probably don't need any tests or blood work. They are going to ask about how you are doing with the tamoxifen. You don't need bone scans because of the tamoxifen...with the other meds they scan to check bone density, which isn't an issue with tamoxifen. They aren't brushing you off....they just can't justify constant checking for things....tumor markers aren't necessary for early stage disease, and any other scan is overkill unless you are having symptoms that require investigation. My oncologist said any symptom lasting 3 or more weeks should be brought to her attention, then they investigate.

    I hope that made sense. Basically they can't tell if it's spreading throughout your body until it happens and you would be having symptoms. So the routine follow up appointments are monitoring for symptoms.


    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories