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MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

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Comments

  • eph3_12
    eph3_12 Member Posts: 2,704

    WAiting for it to come on here; I've noticed all women on that show seem uplifted quite a bit-the magic of tape & socks I guess!

  • odie16
    odie16 Member Posts: 1,415

    Won't spoil it for you but they saved the best for last - Be sure to watch William......Yummy! 

  • YaYa5
    YaYa5 Member Posts: 532

    i agree ... william = HOT!!  he can put his slippers by my bed anytime he wants!

  • eph3_12
    eph3_12 Member Posts: 2,704

    Not too shabby!  I like Urkel too, but he wasn't quite so snappy this week as last.

  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    HI Heidi54- just jump in. Welcome.I am in Southern Maine, where are you?

    Dam arm pit is filling up again. I just want to cry Cry It's painful and I have to work today.

  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 2,845

    Diana, did they drain it for you yesterday? Make sure you stay hydrated, in other words, drink water. You may also try an anti-inflammatory, like ibuprofen, but clear it with your doc. I also found that it really helped to eat anti-inflammatory foods as much as I could. Particularly helpful are chilis, raw or cooked garlic and onions, fatty fish and greens.

  • barsco1963
    barsco1963 Member Posts: 879

    Welcome Heidi54 - You will find terrific support and encouragement here. Glad you found us although sorry for the reason you came looking.

    Dianarose - sorry that you are feeling horrible again today - hope that you can find a comfortable solution soon!

  • madpeacock
    madpeacock Member Posts: 216

    Welcome to all the newbies - yikes, there's more every day. That is disheartening, to say the least. Not that you're here, but that more women are being diagnosed. Sigh. Sorry, a little too much BC on the brain today. 

    That luciousness needs to come scrub my nice, big, walk-in tile shower - room for two. He can scrub me...Tongue out

    I'll be at the BEACH this weekend! Woo hoo! My daughter is going on a school trip to Jekyll Island and my husband is one of the chaperones. They're leaving at 6 a.m. tomorrow (bye guys...zzzzzz) and I'm riding down with one of her friend's parents on Friday and we'll stay for a long weekend. The ocean is so calming for me, so I'm looking forward to it. Cool 

  • cmbear
    cmbear Member Posts: 674

    Madpeacock, I am so jealous! I live 50 miles from the beach--somewhow we failed as parents--neither of my boys like the beach. Cry Oh well, now my youngest gets to help me paint the kitchen on his spring break. Yeah for me!!

    Welcome all the newbies, sorry to have to meet you under these circumstances but you are definitely found a good home here. Speaking of which--are there any PP today? Do I have to find a new cabana boy? Maybe one more mature that can handle our worldly ways. . . .

     

  • justmejanis
    justmejanis Member Posts: 1,474

    Claire, nobody throws a better pocket party than you do!  I am sure all the ladies will appreciate your efforts.

    Hello to all the new ladies here.  Get comfy...you'll be here awhile but never regret coming here!  :)

  • nfranklin
    nfranklin Member Posts: 51

    Hi Everyone, I am a newbie. I am 65 soon to be 66(in June). I was DX on September 9th 2011, faced with too many decisions to make. Found a lump in my breast, I have very dense breast so by the time I noticed it, it was big and had spread to my lymph nodes, my yearly mammogram was due in late September. Took Femara for 4 months, then had a lumpectomy, radiology report came back indicating that not enough clean tissue was taken around the tumor, also 11 out of 26 lymph nodes were infected. On March 19th I had right breast removed. I now have to have radiation treatments and decide whether I want to do chemo before radiation or not, my doctor has indicated that I will get miminal success

    from the chemo because of the type of cancer that I have, I have Invasive Lobular Carcinoma.



    Are there others out there that are going through the same thing and that is post menopausal, that can give me information to help me make some of these decisions?



    God bless all of you. I am doing good mentally, with my Faith in tact and the support from my family and friends and especially my husband who has been a God sent, changing my drainage tube and taking excellent care of me.

  • YaYa5
    YaYa5 Member Posts: 532

    nfranklin, glad you found us, but sorry for the reason.  i'll be 67 in december, so we are similar in age.  i didn't have ILC, though ... i had IDC, so i don't know anything really about ILC.  what was the pathology on your tumor?  it's always helpful if you can put it in your signature on your profile page. there's a forum on bc.org that has a lot of experience and suggestions for ILC.

    http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/71

    good luck with your decisions and on the path of your journey.  we are all aways here for you. 

  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    Hi NFranklin- I am not postmeopausal, but getting there, or at least should be. I am 51 and I just had a lumpectomy and there was not a clean marging from any of the specimens. I too have ILC and out of the 4 nodes she took all 4 were positive. I am scheduled, like you had, a BMX on 4/11. I had not heard that chemo didn't have a good outcome with ILC until I read your post about 30 minutes ago. I googled an indeed found that your doctor is telling you the truth based on some of the studies I just quickly read. I will be doing some more research on the subject. I will pm you with the links if I find sites that explain it ( or at least ones we can understand). It sounds like you are in good hands with your family and husband. Sorry to have met you this way, but all these ladies are wonderful, helpful, and quite funny. We all need to laugh

  • nfranklin
    nfranklin Member Posts: 51

    Yaya5: Thank you for the info and I will be checking out the site you mentioned. I also attached my diagnosis to my signature.



    Dianarose: Sorry to hear that you are having to go back, but you are in my prayers for your 4/11 surgery date. Thank you also for the information on chemo, that renews my faith in my doctor, did not lose faith but that put a lot on my mind. I have a very good doctor and he gives me options, but sometimes making up my mind is hard because all of this is new to me. In some cases having options makes it harder to come to a decision. I will also Google and see what I can find out. And yes please PM me with any sites that you find.

  • elimar
    elimar Member Posts: 5,885
    Welcome, nfranklin!  I am not sure how effective chemo is with ILC, but I do remember reading that ILC is almost always ER+/PR+, and generally should do well on one of the hormone therapies.  Both you and Dianarose may want to try to find the pathology info. that tells the percentage of cells that are ER+/PR+.  If you see ER+/PR+ numbers above 90%, it would make sense that the hormonals could be more effective than chemo. 
  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    HI Elimar- that is exactly what I have been reading. My er and pr are 90%. My MO also said that even if it's in the nodes or somewhere else it is still going to be dependent on estrogen to survive.

  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    Here is the link to one of the studies which states that they might leave chemo for those who have inoperatable invasive lobular and treat the others with hormonals instead. I also read on a post on this site that they think that lobular is inherited from the father and not the mother. Lobular has a very different makeup than ductal. I have both ductal and lobular, but only the lobular was found it my lymph nodes so I will have to focus on that.

    http://www.news-medical.net/news/2005/01/03/7087.aspx

  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    Elimar- would it be possible to somehow put a list of all the abbreviations at the top of this thread for all our new friends and I will admit sometimes I am not sure of all of them.

  • elimar
    elimar Member Posts: 5,885

    Oh, it was just ILC in the nodes?  I was not clear on that; and then when you said possibly get an Oncotype test, I was thinking it was for the IDC that had spread to the nodes.  But don't the IDC & the ILC have different percentages for ER/PR?  You have a lot going on, but I see why now you thought you may be able to skip chemo if the ILC is the "main" Dx.

    Here's a link to help you out:  Abbreviations for Newbies

    p.s.  I added a helpful header at the top.  Do you like it?  It is not that prominent but my other meaningful symbols need their space.

  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    Elimar- I just looked at my path report again and all it says on the nodes is metastatic carcinoma. When I asked the MO said it was ILC, but it doesn't state that on the report. Also I had to request them to test the ER/PR on the tissue from the lx. She said, well we would go by what the biopsy said, but the biopsy only had the IDC and the ILC didn't show up until the lx. I am not happy with how the path report is written. It is 8 pages and detailed other than the nodes. They seem to think it doesn't matter, but it does as far a treatment is concerned. If it is IDC in the nodes it would make a big difference in comparison to ILc.

    I have to start drinking the crap for my full body scan in a bit. I tasted it and it's yucky.

    Thanks for the link.

  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    I do like the helpful header, thanks

  • barsco1963
    barsco1963 Member Posts: 879

    Welcome nfranklin - sorry that you have to be here but stick around for great conversation, encouragement, support and lots of laughs!

  • lisamarie68
    lisamarie68 Member Posts: 971

    Welcome to all the new ladies .. sorry i havent been here too much , been packing and moving .. and filling up with anxiety ...

    DianaRose , I sure hope things get better for u .. {{{hugs}}}

    u ladies are the best .. and whenever I need a smile i know I can always get it here :)  

  • Mimi8
    Mimi8 Member Posts: 14

    Thank all of you ladies for helping me join this group of brave and helpful souls that nobody wanted to join. I'm so glad I found all of you! The cancer roller coaster took another turn yesterday. Would Binney4 be able to help me make a decision? I've got IDC, Nottingham grade 2, tumor 3cm, SNL found 4 clear nodes, 1 with greater than 200 met cells present. Dr B scheduled me for an axial biopsy of the rest of my nodes. My new oncologist had me take a PET scan which showed no cancer anywhere at this time. Yesterday we went to visit Dr B who floored us by saying that if I wanted, I could elect NOT TO DO THE AXIAL NODE SURGERY! He met with a group of heads of large cancer centers who when told of my case agreed that since I would have chemo either way, the axial would not b necessary based on the Z-11 clinical trial study which showed axial surgery after lumpectomy did no better than just chemo. What should I do? Anybody have this decision?

  • Mimi8
    Mimi8 Member Posts: 14

    I forgot to mention I had a mastectomy of my left breast instead of a lumpectomy. There would have been very little breast tissue left anyway. Knowing what I know now, I would have had a bi-lateral prophylactic mastectomy! Btw, my surgeon also said that the doctors thought that in the future, we would have much less surgery and be using more drugs to fight breast cancer.

  • elimar
    elimar Member Posts: 5,885

    Welcome, Mimi8!  I hope I am understanding all of your information.  The new trend is not to remove the nodes, but let the chemo do the work, like you have said.  However, there are women who get LE just from the damage to lymph vessels from just surgery and/or rads.  So not having the nodes out is no guarantee. 

    The mastectomy, and just the tiny bit of breast tissue left behind, reduces your chance for LOCAL recurrence to about 2%.  That has nothing to do with what may be happening in the nodes or elsewhere.  Again, we have to rely on chemo or hormonals for that.  With only one node having cancer in it, you would like to think it did it's job and stopped the spread from going further in the body, and maybe it has.  No way to know for sure though.  When the docs allow patient choice, like yours has, it really comes down to which choice you will be most comfortable with.

    If Binney4 doesn't pop in with the latest info. to help you to decide, you could send a PM her way.  Good Luck!
  • nfranklin
    nfranklin Member Posts: 51

    Went to see the doctor today 10 days after surgery, doing well, still have drainage tube. Doctor recommended chemo, so I will start 6 months of chemo in the next few weeks. Don't really know what to expect, except losing my hair in 2 to 3 weeks after starting chemo. Don't know yet what chemo I will be taking. I know I will need help from those of you who have gone through chemo already. Everyone have a blessed day.

  • Dianarose
    Dianarose Member Posts: 1,951

    Does anyone know what this means-Her-2neu:Equivocal; ASCO/CAP score: 2/3. Then below is states that this tissue will be sent to a lab in California for Her2/Neu testing? To me this just doesn't sound good.

    I had another 40 cc's drained from under my arm. If it fills up again she will put a drain tube in. I had the body scan today. I didn't do well with it. I had a huge wave of panic come over me when she put the contrast die in the IV. I didn't know she was going to do that. I thought all I had to do was dring the stuff they gave me so I was not prepared and when I got the hot sensation in my thoat and chest I lost control. She was able to do the scans with what she got in me , but it just wasn't my day. I think part of it was I am terrified of the results being it went somewhere else.

    I hope everyone is having a great day.

    nfranklin- I thought your doctor was against chemo for you.

  • torigirl
    torigirl Member Posts: 748

    Sisters--

    I need a few prayers as I go in for a diagnostic follow-up mammogram tomorrow morning.  I'm freaking out about it already...I just really need some support...wish you were here so I had someone's hand to hold onto...Breathe....

    Hugs,

    Tori

  • lisamarie68
    lisamarie68 Member Posts: 971

    Tori .. We can be in your pocket tomorrow ..thinking good thoughts and prayers for u 

    Dianarose .. sorry for ur bad day ... Hope it gets better Love {{hugs}}