Best Of
Re: Bone Mets Thread
@tallnterrific Hello and thank you for relaunching this thread.
Under Xeloda for more than a year and a half, the latest Pet Scan shows a resumption of activity on 3 dorsal vertebrae, for the moment non-infiltrating. I don't feel any pain or discomfort. Next Scan in 2 days, we will see if radiotherapy is necessary on these metas. My markers are rather stable. I can continue the Xeloda.
I was able to have a great summer, hiking, gardening, and now picking mushrooms in the forest. Nature boosts me, I love being there as often as possible.
I wish everyone a beautiful fall.
Re: How long have you been Stage IV?
it will be ten years MBC de novo Mets to liver for me this coming September 2026.
katedsweet1
Re: So...whats for dinner?
I went to the waterfront festival at our marina/clubhouse. Wept, but no heaving sobs. Nice wine and had a cheeseburger there. Sat with good neighbors and stayed for several hours. SO hard, but I did it.
wallycat
Re: My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
@intolight I can empathize with needing QOL for sure. I will be 55 this year and things really have changed in my day to day life. Since I am 90 percent on my own, my choice, I decide what I see for myself, if I did have to change treatment, I probably would not take it as nobody is helping or able to help, long story and not mine to tell.
As usual, not much on agenda, washing throw blankets I think, other washer can take care of the regular cloths, I did find couple of delicates so used the small salad spinner to wash those up, dry mostly in spin dryer and hung over the shower rod. I have to use a step to reach up there since my toilet leak required layers of floor to be removed as part of the fix.
Laundry, floors and deciding what I want to eat. I have thoroughly filled up my fridge
MEAL 1 Decided to go all out and use rice cooker as a crockpot, just smaller. I put in 1/3 cup quinoa, added 2/3 cup water since instruction say 2 to 1 ratio of water to quinoa and 2 tbsp of chia seeds pre soaked, no water for them and finally 1/3 cup rice and another 1/3 of water. Added some queso crema, has bit of jalepeno and some sour cream and lime crema, just squirted them in. Will post if good. It will take long time but I don't really care.
RE MEAL 1 Learned that it is not great to add so much stuff to a dish. Not only does it take too long to heat up and that is not the fault of the device, it is working as it should but I found just too much food. It did taste alright but just too much to eat, chia seeds could have been the issue. Disposed of the rest after the first meal. In future, stick to 1/4 cup or less of just white rice and just put on the quick rice setting. I must also unplug it when need it powered down. I will use it, still non stick which is good. Could probably treat the mexican rice the same way, I will see.
I hope all have a good day and in pockets for all.
Re: Abemaciclib Verzenio for Stage IV
I don't take Verzenio anymore, but I did for about 2.75 years. What dose are you on? I started with 150's and got real fatigued. After a few months, my oncologist lowered it to 100's and it was much better, and I was able to tolerate it pretty well, until it quit working. I also got some stomach pain and weird stomach feelings from time to time, but never really had the D problem. I think part of the reason I haven't had real big problems with diarrhea and nausea/vomiting with any of these drugs is because I eat fresh unpastuerized sauerkraut every day and also probiotic plain Greek yogurt. Just some thoughts. Others will weigh in too, I'm sure and you will get a variety of ideas and possible helps. I really hope this works well for you. It can give some people a really good run, so keep trying and good luck!
Newly diagnosed with Stage3
Hello everyone,
I am new here and am looking for a place for encouragement and support. My journey started back in Jan/Feb 2026 when I felt a rather large lump in right breast. Mammo in April was inconclusive, diagnostic mammo and ultrasound in May were inconclusive and just showed very dense breast tissue. MRI with contrast in June showed areas of concern. Biopsy in July showed positive for invasive lobular carcinoma in right breast, ER+, PR+, HER2-. The waiting game was awful. I had a bilateral mastectomy (on left as prophylaxis and right because of size of area) and 4 sentinel lymph nodes tested. Margins were negative for carcinoma. 1 came back positive for cancer so additional lymph nodes sent for testing. Pathology results show 5 lymph nodes with macrometastatic carcinoma and 2 lymph nodes with isolated tumor cells. The tumor was 10cm. I met with my surgeon yesterday to discuss these results and further treatment. He informed me this is Stage3 cancer, ordered a PET scan, and sent a referral for medical oncologist. I just turned 40 in November and my mammo from 2024 was clear. I am a bit scared. I am married with 2 young kids and am so scared this has spread further. Anyone with a similar diagnosis that can give any advice or encouragement?
Re: Abemaciclib Verzenio for Stage IV
Hi all, Just finishing my second week on Verzenio. The first week was great and silly me thought this will be a breeze. The second week, not so much. Interestingly, I only had one bad episode with Big D that I blame myself for not being prepared- I got cocky. 🤷♀️🤪 Multi-symp Imodium does the trick.
However, for the past 2-3 days, I am being plagued with serious fatigue most of the day. It comes on like an hr after the morning pill. I lose all incentive to do anything and I find myself napping on and off all day if I have nothing to do. I have an aft wedding tomorrow - I’m hoping the prep and being with friends all afternoon and evening will keep me going 🤞. I also am finding that I get serious low blood sugar symptoms - shakiness and hunger pangs- if I haven’t eaten in a few hours. I have to start eating little meals rather than just lunch and dinner I think.
Am I alone with these side effects? I see my MO on Tues so will be asking him and team as well. Just wondering…. Praying these se’s disappear with time 🙏
Hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday night!
eddiej
Re: Faslodex Girls Thread
@Rosebessie I am having the same problem with the lumps. This happened for the first time last week after 18 months of injections. A nurse I had never had before. I messaged my onco to ask if these painful red lumps are due to being injected in the wrong place or what? Is the medication not disbursing? She said no, I was just having an inflammatory response, use ice pack 3x/day and Tylenol or Ibuprofen. That helped a little but one side is still hard. I hope this doesn't happen again!
tbos805
Re: Faslodex Girls Thread
@Threetree I am at the beach this week and I am really feeling the foot aches and pains. That combined with the high humidity which makes my already challenged breathing harder. The drs still haven't figured out what is causing my shortness of breath. Next week I start heart test since everything the pulmonologists did came back fine. Part of me still feels the issue is mild lung inflamation from Ibrance and foslodex. Not sever enough to show on scans but enough to irritate my cough variant/exercise induced asthma. Just makes it hard to do the things I used to do.
Re: All about Xeloda
Yes, I have been tested for mutations and I have none. I don’t want IV chemo but I’d try it anyway. I also have a referral to Fred Hutch cancer center (where threetree gets treatment) that I can take advantage of if I want. My oncologist encouraged it. And here I am worrying about stuff that hasn’t happened yet! I’m just going to try to hold off until I get the scan results. Maybe it’s all ok.
aj