MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish
Comments
-
with my new insurance, I have to have a referral from my PCP to see my oncologist ;>/ so I have an appointment with PCP next Tuesday.
0 -
Good Luck, Eph. I truly think it will not be anything cancery, but you deserve to have your mind at ease.
----------------------------------------------
They'll kill ya if you let 'em Dept....
After I reminded them that I was supposed to get my CT done before my OV, the MO's office made me an appt. for my CT and sent me the form letter of instructions. Conspicuously missing was the check mark next to the instruction to take the pre-meds needed for my contrast dye allergy and my Rx to go along with that. Ooops! I mean, that's only been in my chart/records for three years running now, and I never did have a full-blown deadly anaphalaxis incident where I stopped breathing, so it's easy to see how that little detail got overlooked, right?
What am I going to do in a few years when my senior dementia kicks in? I won't be able to micro-manage all my healthcare "professionals" like I do now. It will be curtains for me, for sure.
YES! I do write a lot of these disparaging posts about medical staff (in pretty much the same way that I disparage those Taco Bell workers that try to short me a soft taco or quesadilla almost every time) but it's not like what I write is fiction. It's ALL true...SCARY AND TRUE!
0 -
I too, am fairly certain it is nothing cancery but I do need to know.
I am glad you pay such close attention to detail in your medical stuff E. I on the other hand am a sheep to the slaughter!
0 -
Might as well just jump in here....I have been diagnosed as stage IV with a recurrence to my cancer side (at 6 o'clock as well, Eph!). I am now on Arimidex and will be starting rads shortly. I found a lump in October and it took them this long to take me seriously. They kept saying it must be scar tissue. My masts were 7 years ago! Glad/sad to be back. I'll try to catch up with everyone. Where is mac? How did her house turn out?
0 -
OMG, Barbe, OMG!!! You have stunned me thoroughly. You don't have your Dx listed anymore but, as is shockingly the case for some, I remember you had a Dx with a "good" prognosis. That, and with Mx recurrence is supposedly like less than 5%, just leaves my brain spinning. The part of all this that is positively eerie is that for as much as you had a good prognosis, you always did take the stance that recurrence was VERY real after the 5-year mark and didn't you even have some kind of statement on your tag line about "not so much IF but WHEN?" (Maybe that was another?) You always felt that the early stage gals were under-treated and sometimes under-monitored...Do you feel that happened in your case?
I am not posting as much, but I will check in for your updates. I do hope the Arimidex is an effective first line of treatment for you. Please let us know you do with the rads. Will that be the 3 week Canadian style, or something else? Where are your mets located?
0 -
Hi Barbe....No one knows right/
I was also Diagnosed with a new primary in the other breast in August 2015... this was more than 10 years after.
BMX....chemo I just finished the treatment.....
Sheila
0 -
Sheila, that is also mind-blowing! Not because once we grow one BC, there is a slightly higher risk that we could do it again, so getting a second primary is not unheard of---but you also had a P-Mx. That is really supposed to take the odds down to the lowest of the low. Yet, like Barbe, you must have had a thimble's worth of breast tissue that got left behind. Enough to cause trouble! Sorry to hear that. I did not know and am out of the loop with many I started on the threads with. So, did you have to have the radiation like Barbe will have? How long? Are you on Arimidex now, or what?
I truly like to think I am done with BC, but these events are just classic rude awakening material. Freaks me out a bit. Oh, what a world!
0 -
Mine wasn't a new primary, Sheila, but a recurrence of the very rare Papillary Carcinoma I had. So that's why I'm stage iv. I felt a lump growing between ribs on my chest and it wasn't confirmed until they finally took it out with just local freezing. I got to see it - it looked like a tiny heart (human heart - not Valentine). Nice to have faced the beast! I "knew" I'd get it again, you're right elimar...don't know why, just knew.
0 -
There, I've turned on my diagnosis lines.
0 -
ugh and ugh!!!
0 -
Elimar....I really didn't want to make this public for one reason...
We have a long term survivors here like myself I felt like slap on the face DX second time with a new primary.....
No I didn't get radiation...
Last mammo picked it up and it wasn't like maybe,,,they said it was cancer....
Stereotactic biopsy confirmed it.
First I decided to have another lumpectomy which I did but wasn't sure about that decision week after my decision was clear..I wanted a BMX.....SN had micro cells...so MO said he wouldn't be comfortable if I didn't have chemo....
Had 4 cycles of TC every 3 weeks and finished it on February 1..
I will start on the pills next month..We decided to take a 1 month vacation from everything.
This was my second journey...thank You all for reading.
Barb..I wish you the best like i do with all my other sisters here......
sheila
0 -
Sheila, my heart is with you. I know I felt like I had already "paid my dues" with my first cancer, so what the hell??? You are in my prayers, sweetie.
0 -
elimar, you don't need breast tissue for the cancer to recur. Just thought I'd mention that. Think of the ladies with lung, liver, brain mets, etc. Once your body has created the perfect storm, it knows how to do it...
0 -
Thank You Barb.
Sending heart felt hugs from
one sister to another
Sheila
0 -
Elimar...You're right i did everything in my power to get rid of the beast again.
Now I just want to see my GC to grow up
22 months old girl
6 months old girl
Baby boy who is due next month.
I'm grateful to be here. They are my inspirations........
0 -
So true, Sheila!! I had 4 grandsons and finally got my girl last November...it's amazing isn't it?
0 -
I saw her picture on FB..she is adorable....
And the life continues.........
0 -
Sheila and Barb, so sorry...I hope and pray for a cure some day!!!!
0 -
0 -
Thanks, Sheila and Barbe, for elaborating. Two different scenarios, and both just not fair after all you have been through once for it to happen again.
Barbe, you are saying Stage IV but you also are making it sound that it is a recurrence to just the local (or maybe regional) area? Do you have mets elsewhere? So is the plan to try to disappear that lump with radiation, and the Arimidex? Is surgical removal not an option?
All I know is that if I offered up my two breasts as sacrifices to the cancer demon, I would really feel gypped to still have to deal with it yet again.
On a related note, my BFF who is Stage IV (and who I write about on here from time to time) had failures with Arimidex, then Tamoxifen, then Faslodex, but now is having success with Xeloda. Her tumor markers went from the 500's down to 43 over the last 6 mos.
The other day, my husband asked me when I would stop thinking and talking about cancer? I guess never. Even tho' I feel like I have moved on, I guess I still do talk about it, maybe because of my friend, or maybe because of my own risk, or maybe because I've heard enough incidents of it returning. It does still occupy my thoughts more frequently than I would like. Is there any chance that my future dementia will erase all of the cancer thoughts first? It probably doesn't work that way. I'll probably forget my husband's name before that. Life is just full of irony.
0 -
A recurrence of the SAME cancer or mets makes you "late stage" or, as we know it, stage IV. Getting a new primary is a real piss off! I have lesions on my liver and two kidneys they are watching to see if they respond to Arimidex. I also have big nodes in my neck and left axilla as well as one in my abdomen they are watching as well. The onc said there is cancer all over inside me just waiting to settle. He said a CT won't confirm areas that are too small now.
0 -
I have an ultrasound & diagnostic mammo on Friday. PCP felt 3 possibles. y'all y'all are all I am telling till I know something definitive.
0 -
This is this PCP's 1st time in feeling me up and to her credit she said the likeliness of 3 masses is remote. But, I just have a feeling. Hope it's incorrect.
0 -
Eph - fingers crossed that she is in fact incorrect. Hope you don't go crazy waiting for Friday.
0 -
Eph, here's hoping, along with Minus!
Barbe, that sucks big time, I am very sorry to hear that...
0 -
Praying for everyone.
0 -
NM That's a new avatar, yes? I now can't remember what your old one was. I wish that the avatars would stay the same up to the point of change and then from the point forward the changed one takes effect so we could disregard relying on our steel trap minds-hahahahahaha!
0 -
NativeMainer, I, too, immediately noticed the new "you." Why you don't look "Maine-y" at all, (she said cryptically.)
Eph, Don't let 'em scare you too easily. Will be awaiting your report. My own line of thinking is maybe you have, like, one actual (B9) lump in there and the two other possible ones are just some dromedary humps of excess Cheetos consumption that should change if you can only keep your hand outta the bag long enough.
Barbe, Thanks for clarification. I (perhaps wrongly) have "local recurrence" and "mets" as being more different in my mind, but in any event my real question to you was if mets had travelled to other sites of your body? Sorry to hear that they seem to be on the Grand Tour and visiting many locations. Looking back, it was a good(*) thing that you chose Mx and skipped rads the first time around as they can be used now.
(*) I was going to write "lucky" but that just does not apply in any cancer situation, does it?
--------------------------------
Hahaha! What a morning. I went for my "eyes to thighs" CT this morning, and it was as boring as ever. My pre-meds kicked in and I didn't stop breathing when the contrast dye went in. (The cocky little daredevil in me usually take half the meds they tell me to take, so there is always an element of suspense to my visits about possible reaction. Puts the scare into my husband, too. I admit to playing into that, mwahaha. As it was, the steroid dosage was sufficient to keep me up for all but 3 hours last night. My personal drug protocol has always been "less is more," but don't anyone else follow in my footsteps here. You all do what YOU need to do to keep breathing, o.k.?)
Asserting Oneself Dept.: So, since this should be my last follow-up scan (cross everything!) I requested that my MO ask for a really comprehensive report on this one. You know what I mean...not just "stable" and "unchanged" and "unremarkable"--but sizes, shapes, fatness, you know, detail. Well, when I got to the CT room, I mentioned that that is what I wanted, and the Tech started to blubber that he was not involved with all that, and I needed to let my MO know, blah, blah, blah... My sassy little imp retort was exactly, "I have already done that; I am reiterating it to you so please note that for the radiologist who will be reading the scan and making the report. This is what I want and I AM paying for it, so please put my request in."
Swear to God(ess), and continuing my Taco Bell simile, I am pretty sure I can get ALL the levels of hot sauce, if I request them. Let's see how my imaging center does. Will I be one burrito short this time? Stay tuned.
I understand that I probably come off a little evil when you read my behaviors at so many of my follow-ups. "Well, I'm NOT evil, I'm just misunderstood." Hahaha, what a lie! I am evil, but only HALF EVIL.
Also, US on thyroid nodule. I asked if there was a way to tell from US if I had an enlarged parathyroid? She said it was hard to tell that. My own foreboding is that I might have something going on along those lines that will require closer scrutiny and my making the acquaintance of an endocrinologist one day soon. Oh, boy!
To finish on a positive note, I had a great nurse. She was about my age, got the needle in my vein on the first stick AND gave me a hair complement(*) to boot. That's a double-plus on the ego-meter because I had just chopped my own locks. Ooo-la-la!
I'm typing a lot. It's the steroids.
(*) Not to be confused with the BEST hair complement I ever had in my LIFE (so far, because I know I could do better one day) when I got a thumbs up for my 'do from a JFK conspiracy theorist, on the grassy knoll, in Dallas, TX. And not just any old theorist, but one who had been in a six-part mini-series on A&E back in the day. Now, I don't know what kind of credentials THAT would give anyone for commenting on hair? I have just always assumed it meant that my hair looked somewhat better than the blood-soaked gunshot hair of JFK, from the Bethesda pics. Well, that's definitely something.
0 -
eph, prayers being pounded your way! elimar, the CT would pick up the parathyroid, wouldn't it? My adrenal gland was mentioned in my report..
I was destroyed my first brain scan when they said "unremarkable"......BWHAHAHAHA
0 -
Barbe, The CT was the first to notate "nodule" on thyroid, but apparently it is not the best imaging for that (hence the US) and I guess neither can differentiate if the enlargement is actual parathyroid gland (usually size of a grain of rice) or not. I first mainly had the US to determine if it was a nodule on the thyroid (B9) or if it was enlarged lymph node (not so B9) and the US ruled out the node, so that was good. (You missed some concerns I had with my parathyroid about 6 mos. ago, stemming from slightly elevated blood calcium, which I have had on a few draws now. I have a lot of info. on this now, and waiting for my next CBC in two weeks, after which will decide what might come next on this.) The US tech mentioned nuclear med. imaging to differentiate, but I honestly don't know if that would be a must. If my concerns continue, I hope to find some endocrinologist with "mad expertise" in the area. This is something that has not concerned a single one of my docs to pursue further than periodic scans. YOU know yourself, that sometimes that is not enough. I may have to push to get definitive answers. So that's that story.
Bwahahaha, as well! I would be so destroyed too. (I would feel my bad brain would deserve some kind of remark...)
0
