Swollen armpit, collarbone lymph node & neck lymph node

Say what? Mine was a lower stage than yours, diagnosis and surgery nearly at the same time as you, and my MO still sees me every six months. Or do mastectomies not get followed like lumpectomies?

JoJo - I agree with Alice and MinusTwo. I am surprised you were released from your medical oncologist. I was a stage 2B when I was diagnosed in 2010 and my medical oncologist never released me. I still had to do mammograms on the side I didn't get the mastectomy on and a blood test. My MO visits were the same as MinusTwo except after 5 years, they stopped doing blood tests. I did get a blood test at 9 1/2 years from original diagnosis but that was only because I said that I was worried. I had the blood test at the same time I told my MO about my swelling on my collarbone area. For what it is worth, the blood test never picked up that I had cancer so evidently it is not reliable for all of us. Who is performing your biopsy? Is it being done using a MRI guided needle? In your situation, I think that I would call your oncologist's office and make sure they have the CT, are aware of what is going on and if they think that a bone biopsy might be needed and I would call asap so you can try to get the oncologist involved immediately.

Jo-Jo2018, what kind of "random doctor" is doing the biopsy? Interventional radiologists are the usual biopsy doctors, I guess surgeons if it's an excisional biopsy. I hope you're having it done at a good hospital/medical center.

Jo-Jo, I haven't commented in your thread before but I've been reading and following. Good luck with the biopsy on Tuesday, and fingers crossed that that results are favorable.

With regard to breast cancer follow-up, as Lilly said, every place has their own protocol. Here are the follow-up guidelines from the NCCN. Note that no mention is made of which doctor should be managing the follow-up. For many people it is the MO, but if you have been having the appropriate follow-ups managed by your PCP, and if your MO is brought into the loop should there be a problem, then I don't know that it matters which doctor you see.

I doubt your oncologist would have caught it sooner. They only do extra screening for recurrences when we have suspicious symptoms, so your oncologist wouldn't have done anything differently anyway until you noticed the current swelling. Like the others said, I was surprised you weren't going. But primary care doctors are aware of our cancer history and know to flag anything unusual for follow-up. Yours sounds like she was on it! Several of my questions about weird symptoms were first handled by my primary care doctor, and she was the first one I saw when I started having the symptoms that turned out to be a recurrence. She sent me to pulmonary next, and once it was positively identified as being cancer, then I went back to oncology.

I was going to my oncologist regularly but my recurrence symptoms were still identified by me, in between visits. I had actually seen her only a few weeks before the symptoms popped up so the cancer was almost certainly already there at my appointment. We just had no idea. It would not have changed anything at all though even if she had been able to know it was there.

Thanks Jo-Jo for the update. So relieved to hear that you are i such good and capable hands. Happy for you

Glad you are in good hands and hope that the results are negative

When I had gynecological problems almost 15 years ago, and didn't have a doctor, the GYN practice affiliated with the medical center I used assigned me one randomly. Turned out he was head of that department. Just letting you know, the hot shots take their turn in the rotation, too, and there's not necessarily any other meaning. Actually, thinking back, I've had that happen a couple other times with different medical issues.

I’m so sorry Jo-Jo2018. Have they told you yet what the next step will be?

Jo-Jo, I'm sorry. Sending you hugs and support.

Sending you hugs Jo-jo. LaughingGull is right, this is such a nasty disease.

Thanks for the update. I'm sorry cancer is back. I'm glad that you were able to get in and diagnosed quickly and I hope that the treatment plan will be swift and that everything is easy to kill.

big hugs.

I'm so very sorry that you have to deal with this. As others have posted, I had such hopes that this would turn out to be a nothing-burger. I haven't re-read this thread but didn't you say you had scans and no spread except for the nodes? I believe that does not make it stage iv. Do keep us posted and my heart and thoughts are with you.