I'm not ok

Here is a song for you, bettysgirl:

"I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" by My Chemical Romance

(Be sure and listen to the uncensored "E" version, not the clean-language version, or whatever it's called.)

bettysgirl,

No sure when you found out you have mets but it sounds recent. I think we can all give a big nod of agreement on most of the things you are not ok with. It may be cliche here but the beginning truly is the hardest part. My mets were an incidental finding so I never had pain or symptoms though I do have very achy joints from Aromasin. Things were tough in the beginning, including a week long hospitalization and three chest tube insertions for a pneumothorax that occurred during port installation (irony; I never ended up having chemo) and four weeks at home with a portable chest tube. It was quite a nightmare but as moth said it is weird but it gets better. The money thing stinks and it makes me furious to think that the US can’t figure out how to have health care without bankruptcy for all its citizens. Take care

There is a lot of questions at the beginning that they cannot answer - they need the test results to determine the treatment plan.

Genetic testing would most likely be to check for BRCA mutation because those cancers can be treated with a medication called a PARP inhibitor instead of / in addition to chemo.

They need current hear function tests to determine what type of chemo or other treatments they can prescribe. Without a fresh result they probably feel uncomfortable prescribing a chemo like Xeloda which I know is being considered for you.

I know it's so frustrating at the beginning but they really can't put together a treatment plan without a good clinical picture.

oh & in another post you mentioned that the ER/PR are weakly positive - yes, that does mean that it is not as likely to respond to hormonal treatments and that's why a chemo like xeloda is being recommended. ER weak is often considered to be more like triple negative - which is a more difficult to treat cancer.

@bettysgirl

Thanks for your post. I’m not okay either.

I’m exhausted with all of it right now. And trying to just hang on

bettysgirl-see if you can find another MO who focuses on MBC. I found there was a big difference when I switched away from MO who dealt w/initial cancers of all types to hospital that is up to date on Mets. MO shouldn't back off giving you pain, anxiety or sleep meds when needed. In fact they should prefer to regulate all that since it affects your total treatment. Covid thrown in there too, just awful. Can you update your diagnosis in your profile to show stage 4?