Success Stories!
Comments
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This is not about a bc success story, but it inspired me anyway and I tought I would pass it one. On another non-bc board I participate in a lovely young women posted that her husband had just been diagnosed with a invasive tumor involving his liver, and GI tract. At the time of his diagnosis his prognosis was determined to be very, very grim, basically just a few months to live. His kind of tumer does not respond to chemo and the extent of his tumor invasion was so extensive they didn't give him much hope at all. He was started on Gleevec and now only 3 months later, the secondary tumors in his GI tract are completely gone. The liver tumor has completely resolved also and his primary tumor has shrunk from over 10cm to 3cm and docs are confident it will soon be gone also. I felt so joyful for her and her husband and it certainly lifed my spirits about my own situation.
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Love the stories of hope! My aunt had stage 3 breast cancer 26 years ago. Had a mastectomy, chemo and rads. She got a new primary bc in her remaining breast 26 years later and is now 1+ years NED and cross country skiing at age 76! She is a true inspiration and has helped so many people cope with cancer over the years. Now she is helping me.
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Did your Mom have positive nodes? Did she know her ER status? Beth
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do you happen to know what grade the cancer was?
thanks in advance0 -
I know someone who is a stage 3c survivor for 10 years. She had something like 40 positive lymph nodes. So there is hope. I pray for all of us that more and more advances continue to be made so that we can all be long term survivors. I myself am a stage 3c survivor with 21 positive nodes. I was diagnosed in Feb. of 2005. I hope to be here for many years to come.
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Here is an inspiring story published at BusinessWeek
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/03/0315_women_nominees/source/10.htm0 -
My paternal grandmother was dx in 1953. Had unilateral mast only and lived to be 97 with no other health issues. My mom is a 7 year survivor of left mast and no chemo. They caught hers early and no positive nodes.
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When I was in the hospital last September after complications from my 4th TAC treatment......I needed to have a pick line inserted into my neck because my veins were all shot. They had two doctors and a nurse come into my room and just layed back my bed and proceeded to do the procedure on my neck. This wonderful compasionate nurse bent over my bed and just whispered to me that she was a 13 year breast cancer survivor. I smiled back at her with two happy tears running down my face. I like to think God put her in my room that day and her words gave me a very calm feeling.....she held my hand during the procedure.
Love,
Terry0 -
An amazing success story is about a former co-worker and friend of mine who in her mid thirties had bc, had a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation---five years later had a recurrance {aggressive], had another lumpectomy, chemo. Our place of employment closed in 2001 so she went back to school and is now an LPN and will 57 in May---cancer free. She is my inspiration.
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I have just finished reading one of Betty Ford's biography. She was diagnosed with bc in the 1970's around the time her husband became president. She did not mention her stage or anything, other than she had 3 positive modes and mast. She is now 89+ years old and doing fine!
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My aunt had positive nodes, did not at that time know her er/pr status, but was actually closer to stage 4. Her second time, she was er/pr+ and is on tamoxifen. She is doing really well. She did not have positive nodes this time, she kept up with mamm, ultra sounds... and got it early--no chemo or rads this time. My neighbours' mom had a mastectomy 30 years ago, no chemo, rads, and no new primary. There are so many positive stories---there is a lot of hope.
Ginny0 -
My best friend had IDC 14 years ago. She had a lumpectomy, chemo and rads. Since then she has been in excellent health with NED. I would like to know if there are any long time survivors out there who had Stage I, ILC, lumpectomy and rads. Thank you!!
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I have to agree with you IllinoisNancy -- seems all the success stories are about mastsectomy's.
I had stage 1 tumor, and decided on mastectomy. Didn't like the recurrence odds. So decided I wouldn't take a chance with Stage 1.
Very difficult to find any studies on Stage 1. Seems they always mix in Stage 2. That is deceptive to both Stage 1 & 2 women.
Maybe the Stage 1 long term lumpectomy survivors just have no need for discussion boards????
Regardless -- it is great to read these long term survivor stories!!!0 -
I think the original statistics are so good for stage one that even though we have all read about the bad outcomes most are doing so well that cancer is past history until proven otherwise.Beth
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I think because on this site there are many stories of metastatic disease, stage 3 or earlier stages which advance to stage 4 that too many women forget MOST WOMEN DO NOT die from breast CANCER.THE NUMBER IS WAY TOO LARGE WHO DO, BUT most do not especially if 0-3 nodes which is the group the majority of women fall into. I am even more interested in the long tern survivors who defy the odds, 4+ nodes, large tumors ect because they are the most at risk.Those women should be studied because their bodies are probably the key to discovering how to treat mets or prolong indefinitely stage 3.Remember 200,000 women are dx, not including in-situ- each year. About 44,000 die.Too high, but a 75%+ expectation of survival looks good to many.None of you who gamble are playing with those odds of winning.Beth
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Thanks for your replies ladies. I need to hear that some people go on and never get BC back. It is like a dark shadow that hangs over me. I just want more assurance than the doctors are willing to give. I pray all of us will live long happy lives.
Nancy0 -
Wow
I love this thread!!! Please I would like to hear about HER2+ success stories.
Debi0 -
My mom is a 17 year BC survivor. Stage IIIa ? or IIb? 5cm tumor. No nodes. She is still around pushing my buttons. I am 2.5 years out. Stage IIIc.
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Thanks for posting franci... I too am stage 3 with like a million positive nodes on both sides. Bilateral Lobular on right side.. ductal with lobular features on the left.
Thanks for the little bit of hope.0 -
I love the stories, but would like more about multi-node positive women.Women do survive breast cancer- so it is not unique that women dx in the 50's or 60's survived. They may have had no or only 2 nodes.The cancer could well have been confined.Those of us with larger tumors or multiple nodes have a special interest in long term survival since we are more dependent on whether chemo or hormones work. Many early stage women were cured by surgery and radiation, they just did not know it.
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bumping up so as not to lose.
Michelle0 -
nm46, I totally agree with you. I am her2/neu with 5 positive nodes and I would REALLY love to hear from more women with positive nodes that have done well. I do know I talked to a 19 year survior at the ACS once when I called. She was a much older women and she did have a couple recurrances and is stage IV but she says she feels good and enjoys life. She was a joy to talk to. Its a shame that some of the women that have done so well don't occasional POP in here to let us know how well their doing and give us some extra hope. But I do realize how they just want to move on and not focus on it.
I can promise if I do well I will ALWAYS come back and let others know I'm doing great after having a bad prognosis. Its so important for so many of us.
Chelee1 -
I am a new poster but have read these posts for a year or so. I was disgnosed with reoccurence to the bone in 10/06 after being cancer free for 8 years. I am doing well on femara and zometa now.
I just wanted to post because I have meet two ladies that
I consider success stores. One is a lady who lives nearby
who is in her early 70s. She took arimidix for bone mets for about 7 years and went off the arimidix and has been doing well, dancing and living her life very well.
Another friend of my family back in Tenn had lung, liver, brain, and bone mets reoccur in 2001. She did chemo, and is now on falosdex and zometa and is doing great.
Both of these ladies give me inspiration and hope and I wanted to post these to give others hope and feel I have contributed to this website. This website has helped me
tremendously.
Lanab1 -
Hi - I'm 52 now. Was diagnosed Dec 1999 with infiltrating ductal. 5.2 cm. tumor, Stage IIIa, 9 positive nodes out of 21, Her-2/Neu positive, estrogen negative. I had a mastectomy on the cancerous breast and a prophylactic mastectomy on the remaining breast about a year later.
I had 4 rounds of adriamycin/cytoxin, 4 rounds of taxoterere, 25 hits of radiation, followed by 52 weekly herceptins. About 2 years out, had a prophylactic hysterectomy.
Took 5 months off from work during the chemo but other than that have been working full time. Been married 26 years with 2 kids I've gotten to see grow to be 20 years and 17 years old.
Feeling blessed. Keep the faith! 0 -
I was just emailing a friend's mother whom I discovered is a two-time breast cancer survivor. Here is the story as she tells me. She was first diagnosed at age 31. She opted for lumpectomy, chemo and rads. Seven years later, she had a recurrence in the same breast. Because the breast was already radiated, she had to have a mastectomy. She had only the BC side removed with reconstruction and another round of chemo. I asked her if she was given tamoxifen and she said she was borderline er+ so they did not offer it to her. She seemed not really sure about all the details because she is a 25 year survivor from the first diagnosis (18 from the second time)!! I don't think they offered herceptin then and I didn't bother to ask if she was because she seems not to remember too much about any of it anymore!
She has never (knock on wood) had a recurrence in the other breast or anywhere else.0 -
That's a wonderful story! But just curioushow were you able to get Herceptin so long ago?
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Nagem, I am sorry I didn't make myself clear...I don't think she got herceptin. I don't even know if she was HER2 positive because she frankly doesn't remember. I suppose back then, women just didn't ask their docs a whole lot of info either.
I did ask her about tamoxifen and she said she wasn't offered it, that she was er borderline. To my mind, that meant they weren't sure or thorough about testing for hormone receptors back then.0 -
I am interested in long time survival rates of young women.
I was diagnosed at age 26, her2+++ cancer, and I am about to hit my 3 year anniversary.
I want to hear more about women who were dx at my age- that went on to lead long cancer free lives.
thanks for all the success stories.0 -
My gyn was 31 ...not quite as young as you, but 31 with two small children.
She is 54 today....and my gyn
She had bilateral mastectomy and chemo. I don't know if they tested her tumor for hormone receptors. She said she'd never been offered tamoxifen back then because it was just coming out and being tested---so not sure if that is why or because she wasn't er positive...
in any event she is doing very, very well..just got back from her second honeymoon in Italy.0 -
keeping alive for new...
Michelle0
