Best Of
Re: My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
Mara - Thank you very much for the good wishes re my emerging liver problems. They are much appreciated - and happy cooking to you!
Re: Zometa side effects
@benlin Wow, you are a warrior. Such a long fight. I totally understand why you are tired and feeling done. Do what is right for you.
Re: Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
Jackie - glad to hear today’s appointment for the pacemaker went well. Sorry to hear about the cataract affecting your vision. If the DMV places a restriction on night driving, do you think you could ask to be retested in 6-12 months once surgery is complete?
Reader - sorry to hear about your kitty. Pets are family members and hurts to lose them.
Cindy - wow! That lake looks so good. I’m sorry you can’t be in the water but I could happily sit there all day.
Petite - nice to hear your cholesterol is normal (I’m envious).
Went to the DMV to renew my drivers license and take the vision test. It is now required to make an appointment and I was in and out in 25 minutes.
Then went to the gym and got in a good workout. So now that I feel good about myself I will head to the GYN Onc tomorrow for an appointment to get yelled at for all the things I should be doing that I’m not doing (ie. I need a referral to a GI for follow up on a pancreatic cyst that was an incidental finding on a CT last year). The cyst was stable on the most recent CT so there should be nothing of concern. Next week I have an appointment with the MO and I expect I will be discharged from her care since my blood counts have returned to normal. Then I am hoping no more appointments for awhile.
harley07
Re: Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
Hi, Ladies. I am so behind, again. May cholesterol is normal. Finally!
harley, love the Harley. I use to ride on the back with dh. That was many years ago, but it was a lot of fun.
canary, beautiful fruitcake!!
Chris, I like your haircut. I have been growing the Pixie out, but it sure takes a lot of work to style my longer hair
hello to all that I missed - Cindy, Sandy, Jackie, Carole, betrayal, Christine, reader
petite1
Re: Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
Ah Cindy — just a bit of vacation. Sad about the swimming as the water looks so mightily inviting and then you can't get in the lake. Hopefully, though if close with iced drinks and a whiff of a breeze.
We finished up today fairly quickly. My pacemaker was fine and I didn't need any adjustment to it at all. So, will be a yr. for the next check on it. I also made an eye appt. but likely will have to do some finagling at the DMV or accept having night driving curtailed. No one has said but I have a feeling my vision issues for the most part are due to a cataract — and as things stand it is not likely I could get it dealt with before my birthday. The lady at the vision dept. told me that they wait till a month after cataract surgery to retest you — for glasses so since I can't even get the first eye appt. till August and my birthday is in Sept. I couldn't possibly make it thru a surgery and the month wait after. Guess I might as well take the stipulation of no night driving anyway and just move on.
I can't tell you when the last time was that I drove at night for sure. It usually has only happened on rare occasion when we go to the store late afternoon and dawdle around after getting there. Still I think there's a Murphy's Law thing that says something about you will only need to drive after dark or even want to after you have been given a restriction on it by the DMV. Well, I likely will go and ask them about it and see what they have to say.
We were both a bit exhausted ty the time we got home as neither of us slept well so needed a nap. This happens to me almost always when I HAVE to do something the next day requiring that I be on time. Today was 10 a.m. It started to rain when we were ready to leave Marion (those few big drops that begin the rainfall) and were 30 feet from the car. Stayed dry, but boy could you feel the big drops when one landed on you. It poured a little just as we were halfway through town ( Marion) and by the time we were leaving it has lessened to intermittent wiper use. We then outran any rain and that was it all the way home.
The rest of the month is clear — no long drives or even Doc appts. Despite having to have a couple of appts. and a couple more coming up — it has been pretty good to have little if any medical appts. at all. It sure seemed earlier like I was seeing some medical personnel all the time almost. Great to have a nice break. I think I was caught in some cycles where you have to be tested a lot —- for 5 yrs.
Looking like we are about to get the downpours that we had in Marion here now. It is quite dark out — so getting ready for another good dousing. Had one yesterday a little later than it seems this will be. Hope you have all have a really good day.
Question about prognosis for HER2-positive ER/PR-
Hello,
I am a close relative of a young woman who was recently operated on for HER2-positive, ER/PR-negative pleomorphic lobular breast cancer, with a Ki67 of 12%. The tumor was large, 93 mm, and 6 out of 11 axillary lymph nodes showed metastases. Blood-based testing has also indicated evidence of spread.
The tumor was detected relatively late, partly because of her naturally large breasts. It became hard in connection with a mammogram, which initially led healthcare providers to believe it was an injury.
She has undergone a radical mastectomy, and we’ve been told that all visible disease was removed. She is now scheduled for adjuvant treatment including dose-dense EC x4, followed by Paclitaxel x12, dual HER2-blockade with Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab, radiation therapy, and possibly also Kadcyla (T-DM1).
At an earlier consultation, a doctor used what I suspect was the older version of the Predict tool to estimate prognosis. It gave a 5-year survival estimate of around 40%, but this was presented without context or explanation, almost as if it was a curiosity rather than a serious assessment. It was deeply upsetting to her, and left both of us very concerned. However, we believe this no longer reflects outcomes with today’s standard treatments, as newer tools like the updated Predict model have shown different results.
She has since changed oncologists, but understandably does not feel comfortable asking again about prognosis. That’s why I am reaching out, to hopefully receive a clearer, more balanced perspective that I can share with her, if appropriate, so that she doesn’t have to raise the question herself.
What we are looking for is an honest, medically accurate response. If the answer is difficult, I may choose not to share it with her, but I want to understand, so that I can support her in the best way possible.
muschen
Re: My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
Had a frustrating day yesterday. I was travelling to go see a specialist at Memorial Sloane Kettering about cryoablation. The appointment took me 2 months to get. Spent all day at the airport-we boarded the plane, then got off, boarded again-my flight kept being delayed then finally cancelled after 6 hours. Then I waited in line for 2 hours to get rebooked, was going to fly to Indianapolis, be in the airport all night but still be able to make it to NYC in time. Well-at midnight, that flight also was cancelled, so I had to cancel my medical appointment. Now trying to rebook it.
Threetree-I am very interested in histotropsy-sounds like it might be very promising.
Shanagirl and Irish Love-You two have been through a lot! Hoping things get better.
Hello to everyone else-I'm too tired to name everyone but in your corner for a good day and good weekend.
Re: Ibrance (Palbociclib)
I tend to get bloodwork done early in the morning because it’s an hour drive to my cancer center and I am still working full time and I have 3 kids. Going later in the day means driving in to bad traffic and missing all of the evening activities of my kids. I usually just get up at 5:30 and show up when they open at 7:00 and get home and start working by 8:30/9.
alden722
Re: STEAM ROOM FOR ANGER
I am so fricken ticked off! Going without dinner tonight as my dimwit moron of a hubby thought i was going to have dinner at 2:30 in the afternoon! I told him to eat by himself as I don't eat dinner that early and he knows it. So tonight I am going to bed when I am darned good and ready only having had two pieces of toast for breakfast and a handful of popcorn all day.
m0mmyof3
Re: Chemo or not?
ER+/PR+/HER2- tumors are not rapidly-dividing, especially if they are Grade 1, Stage I, node-negative, clean margins and low OncotypeDX. 11 is a low score, and even before the range of "low-risk" scores was expanded upwards a few years ago it was considered low risk. A 1% benefit of adding chemo is more like a "rounding error," because nobody can accurately say "zero." Chemotherapy is "cytotoxic:" by design it kills rapidly-dividing cells; and in the case of a tumor like yours (or mine), it wouldn't even work—it would do more harm than good. Stick with your doc's recommendation of endocrine therapy and you'll be fine!
Note: I had 4 nodes removed, all negative but only 2 were "sentinels;" the others were stuck to them. If the sentinels are negative, any nodes further down the line would be too. (BTW, in women >65 with this type of IDC, sentinel-node biopsy is now considered an option rather than a necessity—this from the same surgeon who pioneered SNB (my surgeon, BTW).
chisandy