MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish
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SAB, At first I thought they looked more golden because of the sun, but you are right. They are Viszlas, and acting just as shameless as a Weimaraner!
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hahahahaha
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Haha-Love it!
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Speaking of em-bareass-ment...cmblastic must be done with hers by now. Where is she? I've never know a mothership to detain anyone on these routine procedures.
Do you think she just went to a buffet lunch then right back to work, or should I worry?
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LOL You're on a roll. I think she will check in soon. There's still some Cheetos left.
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I got in the pocket too late, and there were just a few crumbs left. No wonder I am anxious.
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Well I got the results of my oncotype DX test and it was a 9!! Yeah! The oncologist's assistant said I would not need chemo and yet he comes in and says if it was him he would get chemo. I told him no and then he started pushing radiation on me because I had one positive node! WTH does he get some kind of bonus for every patient that takes chemo or rads??? If I had 7 nodes removed and only 1 tested positive for cancer and I had a DMX WTH would he be radiating?
They both sort of talked me into Femara. I'm one of those annoying logical patients and I'm asking myself this: if I was taking Evamist (an estrogen replacement) when I was diagnosed and I haven't been taking the Evamist in the last 5 months isn't that effectively discontinuing estrogen? If I'm 56, had a partial hysterectomy in 1997 and had to start taking HRT do I need to kill off any little bit of estrogen I have left? I'm going to call the assistant tomorrow and ask her. His nickname is Dr. Doom and I'm not talking to him anymore if I don't have to.
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Ok, Im baaaaaaaaaack. . . What a way to lose 5 pounds!! But I'm pretty sure I have gained them all back in the last few hours. I really appreciate all the company in the bag--the other peeps in the waiting room were a little jealous and kept telling me to keep it down!! I felt really special when they put a big yellow flag on my bed to say not to stick me in my left arm. I think that was the only place they didn't stick me. . . . My MIL thought my doctor looks like Ichabod Crane
Not quite an alien. . .but close.
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However the anesthesiologist looked pretty good.
Or maybe that was the drugs. . .
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They must have given you some good medication. I'd go annually if I could have the Johnny-drug.
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annually? quarterly sounds more like it!
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chiluvr,
You need to ask the doctor WHY he is recommending the radiation. He may have a plausible reason. Ask. Some BiMx patients don't get rads, but there are women that do. I also have a natural tendency to want to avoid everything, but hear what he has to say to make an informed decision.
Radiation is primarily used to prevent LOCAL recurrence. It is not interchangeable with hormone therapy, which IS systemic and you would think it would cover your entire body BUT it goes where the blood flows. Your surgery site has many blood vessels that were severed and the circulation has been disrupted. One of the most common places to get local recurrence is right next to your surgery scar tissue. Keep that in mind.
Discontinuing Evamist is discontinuing HRT, that's that. If that were the only source of estrogen in your body, that might be fine. But, even with a full hysterectomy and/or totally in menopause, the body can produce enough estrogen (from body fat) to provide quite a feast for an ER+ B/C to grow. So, the idea of the Femara is to prevent that from happening by blocking your body's synthesis of estrogen.
Is the doctor you are mentioning your Medical Oncologist (MO)? You don't seem to be getting much basic information. Why don't you run those same questions by the assistant tomorrow. That's the kind of info. they should be giving you. If "Dr. Doom" is your MO and you decide to take the Femara, keep in mind he will be monitoring you several times a year for 5 years. If you have a problem communicating with him, you would likely be better off switching to another if possible, or it might be a rough 5 years.
p.s. Congrats on the low Onco score! Most MO's won't recommend chemo if it will give you less than a 5% reduction on the probability of recurrence. In other words the benefit does not outweigh the risk (of the possible side effects.) What you should ask tomorrow is this, "What is the absolute percentage of benefit that doing chemo will give me?" If it is not 5% or more, most (but not all) women forego the chemo.
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Thanks Elimar!
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WOW! Elimar ... you are so knowledgeable. thank you for all the information you gave chiluvrt. it helped me understand many things, too!0
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Welcome back Claire! I was there all day....but awfully glad to see you here again. Purse was getting really crowded.
Hey I could handle Dr. Depp doing anything to me LOL. Bring him on!
I start boosts tomorrow, so happy. The peeling might actually start to subside.
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Chiluvr1228 - I agree with Elimar - talk to the assistant. But also consider talking to another oncologist. Their "job," to my mind, is to help you understand what's going on and help you get on board with the plan. You have what seems to be an adversarial relationship with your current oncologist - he may think that because you opted for a double-mastectomy for a small tumor that you are the type who would do ANYTHING and everything, which you apparently are not.
There are two things you're trying to do here: first, treat the cancer that was found, and then second, prevent more. Surgery treats what you have - bigger surgery does not guarantee that you can skip other treatments aimed at protecting against recurrence or mets, which is the part of cancer that's dangerous. Radiation kind of does BOTH. That one little node signifies that the cancer successfully made an attempt to leave the breast and set up shop elsewhere. It might be what is causing a recommendation for radiation. Also, even with a bigger surgery, if you didn't have good margins because of where your tumor was located, you might need radiation (I had a lumpectomy, but I would've likely had to have radiation anyway, due to where my tumor was - tucked high up between skin and chest muscle - no good margins possible) to prevent a recurrence if any little cells happened to be missed. Doctors can't really get every little bit of the tissue - breast tissue goes all the way up to the clavicle and down and under the arms and even sometimes down to the waist. At least 5% of it is said to be left after even a really skillful double mastectomy. In addition, there's at least one woman I've heard of (on the ILC forum) who had a recurrence of ILC in the SKIN in the area where her tumor had been removed. So THAT is what you'd be having radiated. It's important to understand WHY they are suggesting it, so you can make a good decision.
The Oncotype of 9 helpfully takes chemo off the table (I had an 11), but some women still choose to do it. I didn't - it wasn't really offered, although my oncologist sat down and explained to me what the possible benefit would have been if I did do it. The small benefit wouldn't have outweighed the side effects, in my case.
The other thing it might be good to do is some reading - like Dr. Susan Love's The Breast Book. Doctors don't get a "bonus" or anything on the number of procedures they "trick" you into having. The Breast Book is written by a very less-is-more doctor, and it has great discussions of the WHY'S behind all of these treatments. Understanding what you're dealing with and/or having a great relationship with an oncologist you trust is essential. All of this stuff is a big pain in the butt - the best we can do is learn what we can and buy in to whatever treatment protocol we're implementing.
Good luck with all of this!
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Elimar & Kleenex - very helpful info for someone going through the process of having to make decisions re treatment.0
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glad you returned from the mothership claire! did you get pictures? it was too crowded in the bag to see if they gave you any
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Is that your way of asking if she'll be sending us Christmas cards this year, j-62?
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Elimar, I love the dog pic, and I have looked at it often to get a much needed laugh. That being said, Claire has blown you outta the water. That pic is crazy hot! And glad you're doing well!
I met w/my oncologist last week, but he didn't say anything about an oncotype, he just said recurrence %. Those aren't the same are they? He just said chemo was needed, rads were not.
chiluvr, w/a nickname like that, Dr. Doom, who would blame you!
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yes elimat, i wanted to mentally preapre myself and start the drinking!
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chilurv1228- pm me with who is dr doom? just in case we share the same doctor!!
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stjude, Oncotype is a 21-gene assay, a tool to help with the decision whether chemo is needed. It gives a recurrent score (RS) that puts you in a bracket of low, intermediate or high benefit from chemo. Also it gives a percentage for distant recurrance. It is for early Stage, node neg., ER+ women. Sometimes they do it if just a few nodes were pos. Seems like you do fit the description, but maybe your doc goes with chemo if ANY nodes are pos. Ask him about the test...and the best part is that it uses a section of your tumor that the hospital is saving in parafin, so no further slashing needed.
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I love the dog picture. I just had to share this one. The original caption is "Please spay and neuter your pets! This is a tragic example of an in-bread dog!
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LOL on the picture Hauntie! I have large dogs so would be difficult to wrap a piece of bread around my boyz! Everyone in this house is spayed or neutered, LOL.
I am so uncomfortable this morning, the pain from this burn is really bad. My underarm is so sore. I woke up just before 3:00 and could not find a comfortable position to lie in. I just gave up and got up! At least today I start boosts.
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Janis - Hooray - you're in the radiation home stretch. I'm sorry you having so much pain. Do you have a recliner? You may be more comfortable sleeping on one until your skin starts healing. You can expose the skin to the air and there's no chance of rolling over.0
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thanks elimar, I will check w/onc when I see him next. I had my notebook writing everything down, but he just said 40% chance of recurrence and kept on going. I thought I was following him pretty well until I got home and wasn't sure what that meant. 40% if no chemo, or what? today is busy day at hospital for me, so I'll deal w/ this later.
what a cute pic hauntie!
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I hope you start feeling better soon Janis.
My tamoxifen is waiting at the pharmacy for me. Now I have to force myself to go pick it up. Why do I dread taking this so much? I cried all the way home from the MO....
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Welcome back to terra firma Claire! Dr Johnny looks great and I'd take him to dreamland anytime!
Janis - Ouch! I feel your pain but try to keep positive, your almost done!
Hauntie - the "hot dog" pic is rather sad to me. In-bred dogs suffer so much and I just can't understand why someone would let that happen. Spay and neuter is the best solution to this and the pet overpopulation problems we see and hear about almost everyday. Our kitty is spayed and tattooed that it was done. She's very happy without all the fuss of being in "heat".
Thanks Eli for the great info. Helps me to understand too. Although my Onco score was as low as it could get, the MO and I talked about this and why chemo was not needed and rads were. We also talked about why the Mammosite was really best for me in the long run. I had read a lot about it all, but it was good to get that reaffirming information from him also.
Have a great day everyone, I'll try to keep up with you all. Kitty
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Barb - It is kinda scary in the beginning but look at it as an added insurance policy against recurrance. Jump over to the Bottle O' Tamoxifen thread - the girls are fanatastic and will help you along. I did a split dose in the beginning since I had stomach issues with 2 of the AIs. I got tired of doing that so one Saturday morning I decided to take the plunge and took the whole thing with a small glass of milk and I don't have any problems.
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