Canadians in British Columbia

I so miss slamming down phones. When I first realized I couldn't do it I would just stare at the cordless in frustration.

Will be thinking of you during your treatment. Such a hard time to be going through this. Not that it is easy any time but really not fair to have a pandemic piled on.

Hi Dee,

Your comments about your MO’s strategy is helpful on piecing together my own MO’s approach. I mentioned on another thread that I was surprised to hear that my MO wants me to stop Xeloda after six cycles, holding it in reserve since I responded well. I was a bit taken aback as many have been on it for years. In his view, it will only drag me down and he wants to try another endocrine treatment (appears he is leaning towards Aromasin). Sounds like a similar strategy to keep things in check as long as possible while limiting the negative effects. I have to admit that I am a bit relieved that I might not need to stay on Xeloda long term. It’s beating me up a bit more with each subsequent cycle and I am only on #5!

Wishing you success and minimal side effects with the new treatment.

Pat

Hi SaraJay, I don't know any acupuncture people. Might your medical team or the cancer agency have a list of potential people to try?

Dropping by to say hi to everyone, hope you're all keeping well.

I'm doing ok, just a bit of brain fog once in awhile. Watching a lot of TV shows/movies. Sometimes feel very tired.

acepp,

My biopsy said 8 mm, however it was 2.1 cm with 3 mm node involvement. My surgery said chemo will be recommended, and my oncologist also said, however I insisted on oncotype test which I had to pay myself, it turned out low score which means low risk and no chemo benefit, the oncologist said no chemo.

Well prepared for chemo, however, investigate the chemo benefit with the oncologist, whether it needs or not, the good thing is that we know what is the right choice.

Pray for you.

acepp, hi, welcome to the boards, sorry you find yourself here!

Yeah, no cold caps at BCCancer. I never cared but someone who was dx'd same time as me in 2017/18 did and was told nope. I've heard some reasons are that it's not an easy small system, requires outside equipment/space/ etc and the agency cannot give up the space.I use icepacks for my feet and hands to prevent neuropathy from taxanes and gotta admit that even that, in some of the stations, requires wriggling to get stuff to fit (it's a small cooler on a luggage cart). Some centers are way more crowded than others and I think also, that they need policies that are province wide, so here we are...

Good news indeed about nodes and margins. Chemo is not so bad. I've been on it continuosly for almost 18 months this time. I even made a reel about it: https://www.instagram.com/p/CR-Jkvtlvjo/

How is the surgery recovery going?

Kentiana, are you in Ontario or BC - because you're posting on the BC thread so I'm confused.

Oncotype is covered by all 10 provinces. There are some eligibility criteria - it's usually limited to lymph node negative. Also in some situations, when the oncologists feel that clnically they'll be recommending chemo anyway, they don't always want to send out for the test because it wouldn't help with decision making in those cases....

Here in BC, it was my oncologist who ordered the test, not the breast surgeon. hth!

I have a question for those who are getting chemo at BCCA in Vancouver. Are you having problems getting your appt times ahead?

I have repeatedly asked to please get my chemo appts times ahead of time. I travel from Vancouver Island & need to make travel & accommodation arrangements. They used to call me on Thursday for Tuesday appts, now I can't even get them to answer the phone. They seem to feel that calling me on Monday afternoon is more than enough time for me to make ferry reservations and find a reasonably priced hotel room.

I am so frustrated, it feels hardly worth doing this trial when I could just have chemo in Nanaimo & not bother with the trial drug.

Welcome dowgmum. Sorry you had to join this club though. Can you download the results here? And enter your diagnosis etc in the profile?

I found this site to be a life saver mentally and info wise when I was first diagnosed.

I don’t have an appointment with an encologist yet and am not booked for a follow up with my surgeon until January 4th as he is on holidays. I just kept checking My Health for the results and they were just posted. I had entered what I could but didn’t have it set to public lol….I think I figured it out now. I feel like Covid and the holidays are why I haven’t even had a call from my family doctor yet. 

Thank you for the reply cathy67. I’ve only had my second shot but I’ll ask about a booster as soon as I talk to my doctor. 

HI Dawgmum, sorry you're going us here. It is a great resource though... so ime after the pathology comes in, then they send the referral to the bc cancer agency & you'll be called to make an appointment with an oncologist. Fwiw, my pcp took a step back and is not involved in my cancer stuff at all. She has been great for everything else, supportive care etc and she reads all my cancer agency updates etc but once it was confirmed as malignant, cancer agency took over all that.

When you see the oncologist they'll go over the results and the treatment plan. But first they may want to do the Oncotype test to determine the benefit of chemo based on the tumor characteristics. In that case, things will be delayed and they'll need to send a sample to the US and wait for results.

Hang in there, once the treatment plan is in place, most people feel a lot better.

hi cathy! Thank you, love. Happy New Year to you too!!!

hi everybody,

Just joined this forum. Got my diagnosis 3 weeks ago. Seems like things are moving fast but at the same time the waiting is torture. I’m in Burnaby and will meet with an oncologist this week. I met with the surgeon last Friday and have most of my pre treatment tests and scans completed. Bone scan on Monday.

I’m diagnosed with IDC , ER/PR - HERS2 +. Still not sure how this effects my treatment but sounds like chemo before surgery to shrink tumours and hopefully a lumpectomy rather than mastectomy.

Nice to know there is this wonderful group of strong women that I can turn to when I have questions.

Cheers

Thanks Wrenn.

I’m lucky enough to have a daughter who is an RN. She’s helping to translate some of the jargon.

I’ll go in and see if I can figure out adding my diagnosis as your right, it’s a drag repeating it constantly. I’ve been spending a lot of time reading through others experiences and while it makes me feel like I’m in the company of a group of very strong soldiers, I am shocked at the varied range of and intensity of the side effects. I’m hoping mine will fall into the more tolerable range.

Hopefully the oncologist will be sharing an actual treatment plan with me on Thursday.

Cheers.

Yoma,

Sorry that you had to be here. In addition to the medical treatments, there is also mind caring service in BC cancer center, they have some programs for the patients, not sure if they still offer right now. I contacted them after I got my post surgery report, I received 1 on 1 consultation help, and then small group art activities, all those really help.