FrequentFlyer

Hej Victoria,

Same story here: 39 years old and couldn't find much info about triple negative in my home country. Actually they didn't even tell me that I'm triple negative in the first place. Like Pearl I used to think not needing those hormones was a good thing.
Came across the term "triple negative" while looking for general information and was quite shocked when I learned what this really means.

Kära hälsningar från Tyskland

You had lymph vessels and nerves messed with. This takes time to heel.
I'm almost 2 months post surgery and my underarm was awfully sensitive for the first couple of weeks. I didn't even want to come near it and it's just now that I feel comfortable again with touching it when washing and putting lotion on it.
It does get better on its own, but takes time.

I only ever use the textile prothesis for initial use which they gave me at the hospital.
It's this one
http://www.anita.com/us/en/0,1,0,0,39059__products-detail.htm?brand=146&ovs_ber_wgr=105&ovs_ber_fgr=1491
but I think US manufactures offer similar models.

I even use mine with my old bikinis and no-one would ever know.

Not sure if larger sizes work as well, but at least mine stays put in most of my old bustiers (same word in English?), so I don't even have to bother with mastectomy bras and the like.

Hi! Mind if I join you?
Just had my first treatment a few hours ago. No problems so far, although they had to redo the simulation and tattoos, because the tech did a "recalculation" or whatever that it called.

Barbara1, I wasn't given any numbers when I asked. My tumor was at 8 - 11 hrs on the left side so I too am worried about my lungs (and heart). I'm not into sports, though. They would only tell me that a small part of my lung would be irradiated,too, but that would be normal.

Although my insurance will pay for a taxi (German luxury, he he) I'll try to walk (30 to 40 minutes) to and from rads as often as possible as I badly need to get back in shape.

Not sure yet which lotion to buy. The rads team recommend a rather expensive medical lotion, but I guess I'll try something normal first as my skin is used to being exposed to the sun.

I did travel while on chemo (TAC - supposed to be one of the most aggressive chemo regimes they have). Even went on a beach vacation by myself to the Canary Islands and had a really good time there although I did need to rest a bit more than usual.

My onc said it was ok for me to travel as long as my white blood counts were above 2000. (The lower they are the more easily you could catch a cold which could then turn into pneumonia or some other nasty infection.)

As long as your mom feels up to it, go for it! Just don't take it for granted that it will work in any case and keep in mind that your mom might tire easily and need more assistance than usual. If she's determined to travel although she feels rather weak, make sure she gets as much help as possible with packing, at the airport, on the plane and so on.

Do try to put as much time as possible between the last chemo round before the flight and the flight itself, i.e. if she has them every 3 weeks then the 3rd week would be much better for traveling than the 1st or 2nd.

I'm sure you'll have a wonderful wedding with your proud mom sitting right beside you!

There are 2 main methods used for HER2 testing:

immunohistochemistry (IHC)

and

fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH):

IHC is more widely available, cheaper but also less reliable than FISH. IHC results may also vary slightly from lab to lab.

IHC shows how much of the HER2 protein is present in the tumour sample. The HER2 level is graded from 0 to 3+

* 0-1+ = normal level = HER2 negative

* 2+ = moderate amount = further testing should be done (FISH)

* 3+ = higher than normal level = HER2 positive

FISH measures the amount of the HER2neu gene in each cell. This gene is responsible for the overproduction of the HER2 protein.

FISH results are either negative (= normal levels) or positive (excessive amounts, sometimes called gene amplification). 

Hello!

I am new to this board and need your help.

I had a single mastectomy (MRM + ALDS level I to III + a large part of my pectoralis major) 3,5 weeks ago. To cover the missing pectoralis a TEF (thoracoepigastric flap) was done. Therefore I now have a huge incision looking kind of like the upper half of a circle plus the TEF incision about halfway between my armpit and my hip.

While my arm doesn't feel as tender as right after surgery, most of my left side (body) plus shoulder plus part of my arm still feel as tight and hard as right after surgery.

Tight means it feels as if my skin on the left side was shrunk or as if I was wearing a corset.

Hard means the tissue right next to the incision and where the TEF was  done isn't as soft as on the other side when I touch it. 

(I used to have a total of 4 drains and the "hard" feeling had been there even before the drains got pulled.) 

This TEF thing seems to be rather uncommon (I couldn't have reconstruction right away as I'll also need radiation) and cannot be compared with a normal "small" mastectomy incision, but maybe I'm not the only one with this problem.

I know this was major surgery and takes time to heal, but is it really normal to feel this tight and hard after 3,5 weeks with no messurable improvement?

Radiation will start in about 2 weeks, so I'm getting a bit worried. Unfortunately a checkup at the clinic where the surgery was done is out of question as it is too far away from where I live and my local doctors aren't really familiar with this TEF thing. 

So, is it time to start getting worried?  

TIA,

FF