July 2020 chemo club

Trynryan, that’s fantastic news! I am excited for you! 👍🏻🥳🎊🎉 Wishing you all the best as you heal and recover.

Melbo. That whole thing sounds terrifying! It can be so hard to have to be your own #1 champion for yourself within a medical system. Way to go for doing it and not backing down, speaking up for yourself and being assertive in all the ways that you were.

It obviously shouldn't be so hard to get the right medical attention, and it always stinks to feel like you are not the #1 priority for your doctor/nurse -- I have had this experience too.

I admire you for advocating for yourself. I think sharing stories about how much women end up having to fight to be heard in busy, complicated, overstressed medical settings can give us all more confidence the next time we need to speak up to get the quality of care and attention we deserve.

Sharon

iamloved — I am only three weeks out from my last chemo, but I have already noticed several improvements - most noticeably food and water taste okay again. I have some scraggly looking hair trying to grow in, but it’s very short and extremely patchy at this point. My nails have gotten progressively worse though and now all of my fingernails and most of my toenails have red spots under the nail and ridges on top. Hopefully I don’t lose any of them.

I am going to have my port removed tomorrow. Apparently it was too risky to leave itin place since I have to stop taking blood thinners two days before my surgery. I’ll get to use it one more time for herceptin and Perjeta infusions tomorrow morning and then I’m walking to the surgeon’s office to have it taken out.

Great news ladies!

My dad was just asking me yesterday how the doctors can tell if the chemo is working for me. I had to explain to him that since I had my surgery prior to chemo, we're really just hoping to kill any remaining cancer cells hanging out there. No real measurable way to tell which is so weird. I'm so happy for you ladies that are able to see the impact chemo has had on your tumors!

My last infusion is Monday 12/14. So far I've been able to avoid any real neuropathy and main side effect has been fatigue. The fatigue seems to have gotten worse lately. My nails have also become sore over the last few days. Sounds like I'm not alone. Really hoping not to lose them!

I've been more emotional than I normally would be. I feel rather short-tempered and overwhelmed - not like me at all. Hoping to get out of this funk soon!

Melbo, I am glad to read the port has been removed and I hope the area heals quickly. That sounds like a frightening experience.

So jealous of all of your pCRs! And early surgery dates. My tumor has shrunk by about 50% - so not great in my mind. But my breast surgeon says that it's A+ and is still planning for a lumpectomy with rads in early January. I'm now thinking I should push for a double mx. Anyone else have to make the decision between a lumpectomy and mastectomy?

Susie, wishing you a great outcome with your surgery and radiation in January.

I had a 50% reduction in tumor size, too, and I was disappointed it wasn't more but the surgeon said the breast MRI showed decreased enhancement so the size alone isn't an indication of pCR. We will know after surgery. (I am excited about everyone’s pCRs!)

I wondered, too, about mastectomy vs. lumpectomy. Recurrence rates and survival rates are almost the same for lumpectomy and radiation or mastectomy. I wanted a mastectomy to avoid radiation, but the surgeon said not to make the decision based on that because many women still need radiation after a mastectomy. He's not recommending a mastectomy.

Whatever you decide, wishing you the best possible outcome with a quick recovery!

hi ladies!

So great to hear everyone’s PCR! susiemommie and shar20-will both of you move to the Kadcyla medication?

I had my bilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction on 12/1. I am doing and feeling great. I was off pain medication after 2 days and moving around good. I received my pathology report and was almost a PCR. I had 1mm left of IDC and .3 lett if DCIS. I started off with 1.8 of IDC and 7x4 cm of DCIS. My MO is recommending the continued plan and not to move to Kadcyla. I was a mess hearing this news in the office since I had a small residual but it seems like it’s good news. She did offer the Kadcyla if I want to be overly aggressive with treatment. I will think about it.

I posted this on the triple positive board but I’ll add over here too. As I mentioned here, I had 3mm of DCIS remaining, and DCIS is considered a pCR but my onco is stil considering Kadcyla for me—she wants to talk to a friend who’s a BC researcher to get a second opinion—but she said that her consideration was due to my relatively young age. The more I think about it, the more I’d prefer to switch to Kadcyla but I’m not sure if it can be justified to insurance.

Thanks Shar! I'm definitely excited for this phase to be over with!

Woohoo!!! Congrats BrittonKB

congrats! That’s awesome news.

Such great news for everyone!!!

I’m getting ready to have surgery Friday. I live 2 hours away, so we are traveling tomorrow...I won’t get my surgery time until sometime tomorrow, I’m scheduled at 2:00, with the blue injections at 9am Friday, but that could all change.

I’m ready to get this over with, the sooner I get that pathology report, the sooner I can move onto the next step!