MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish
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Tori- I'll be in your pocket too. I hope it all turns out great for you. What kind of snacks to you want us to bring.
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Dianarose...Usually 2/3 means the grade of the cancer.....which is grade 2...
I'm not sure if it's related to HER+
You should call your DR and ask the question WHY or how - turned to + (if)
Sheila
PS: I posted this on the other thread too.
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Tori...I'm always ready for pockets. We'll be there with you.
♥
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Tori: I will be thinking of you tomorrow as I too will have a visit with my dr. I know how nerve-wracking it can be. Hang in there.
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Welcome, guitarlady! Hope your CT results tomorrow are clean, clear, and conclusive.
ToriGirl, If this is your first follow-up mammo, it can be scary because you remember the last time all too well. It does get better as time goes on. Hope your images are all spotless. We'll be with you tomorrow, so be sure to wear something with big pockets. How 'bout this? We can keep it clean with white chocolate only.
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I LOVE you ladies! Thanks so much for the support!
I will have big pockets! Bring any snacks you want! I"m easy like that!
Tori
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Dianarose: My onocologist has indicated that I would only get minimal success from the chemo and I needed to make a decision as to whether I wanted to take the chemo or not, but I saw my surgeon today and she was very clear that I should get the chemo. It was good to have some one that has seen so much of this give me an opinion. She told me that my cancer was aggressive and that she felt I would benefit from taking the chemo. So chemo it is, I want to do what I can to make sure it doesn't show up somewhere else in body. I hope this will give me a better chance of not having a reoccurence.
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Dianarose: The Her2 being equivocal with a score of 2 means that they were not able to determine for certain whether or not the Her2 was overexpressing. I had the same issue and they ended up running 3 seperate tests to ultimately make the determination that I was HER2 negative. Hope that helps clarify a little. Also, it took about 2 weeks for mine to come back (of course I'm across the country in VA and the path department at the hospital I was using was in transition, so that could have been a factor) but if it is taking awhile, don't panic, it seems it does take awhile. Your doctor probably has an idea of what they expect (mine felt it would be negative) but they often don't like to say until they know for sure.0
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Hang in there Tori and know we're with you. We'll keep the giggling to a minimum. (...hee hee hee)
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Dianarose - I was Her2+++ on biopsy and then negative on retest with FISH, and negative again on Oncotype testing, so yes, things can change. Sometimes we catch a break!
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tori, i'll be in your pocket, too. i know how scary this all gets, so just know that you're not alone. let us know how it went.0
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Hi Tori I will be in that pocket with you tomorrow. Hang in there and know that we are thinking about you and praying for you.
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Tori - I too with be there with you tomorrow......
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Tori, I'll be there with you in spirit if your mammo is early--I get to visit my MO for my checkup. Should be nothing but routine. I'm hoping she will give her blessing for me to start the recon process. April 8 will be my one year anniversary from the end of rads and she promised then I could start thinking about it. . .
If I could put my 2 cents in about the ILC and chemo debate. My tumor was as big as my teeny tiny breast. Surgery was not an option, neither lumpectomy or mastectomy. So I had to do neo-adv chemo--first 12 weeks of Taxol and then 4 rounds of AC. Six months from my original scan, my scan showed no visible signs of cancer. Total response.
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cmblastic- I wish I could find studies on ILC when there really isn't a tumor so to speak, but little microscopic specs all in the tissue.
I hope you get the ok for your recon. Did you have any positive nodes? I hope you have a happy anniversary day on the 8th.
Iwarstler- I am in Maine and the tissue is being sent to California so I imagine it will be awhile before I get the results. The IDC was negative it's just the ILC that I don't know about yet.
My underarm has not filled up again yet. She wrapped me with some compression yesterday after she drained it. I hope this is it for that problem.
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Hi Elimar,
Thank you for your reply! I love this site!! It really surprised my DH and me to be told that I could elect not to have the axial node surgery. We knew about the Z-11 study and were going to ask my BS about it. The thing that has me worried is the people who had lumpectomy had radiation too but I didn't and hopefully won't. I never thought I'd have this decision to make by myself. My onc tells us that my nodes are probably clear and my BS thinks so too. They say the nodes left in there will do their job. Is this enough to bet that chemo will get it all? I see my onc today, have to tell the BS today or do surgery on Monday. I'm sweating this out!
Hugs and blessings to all!
Mimi80 -
Ladies,
My pockets were so full this morning! THANKS FOR SHOWING UP! I swear I heard all of you giggling too!
Got the "ALL CLEAR" on the bilateral diagnostic mammogram...yay! No calicifications...nothing that looked even a bit unusual...So thankful that I didn't have to wait for results either...
I have to go back in 6 months, but I'll cross that bridge then!
I love you ladies..thanks for being my cheer squad!
Tori
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Tori.... Woo Hoooo doing the Happy Dance for u .... thats wonderful news .. sorry for giggling so much just felt that all was good .... xoxoxox
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bs called this morning and said the ct showed small nodules in both lungs. WTH- when I had the biopsy the MO said stage 1, had the lx went to stage llla with 4 pos. nodes, and now possibly stage 4. I give up. I can't take anymore. She said she is setting up a pet scan and if that is positive then I can't have the bmx. She said I would be treated with chemo and hormone drugs. I want the breast that is full of cancer off my body. I don't understand this. Maybe someone can help me out with this. I am at the end of my rope and ready to say the hell with it all.
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Dianarose, you CAN have a mastectomy even if the stage changes. The big question is will insurance cover it. Even so, you can make some sort of payment arrangement with the surgeon and hospital. It would be well worth it for the peace of mind. The medical community has taken the position that all women want to keep their diseased breast(s) and are opposed to mastectomy; the reality is quite different. This whole diagnosis and staging process is full of surprises, many of them not nice, and is a real roller coaster ride. I understand how you feel. I wish I could do something to take some of the pain from you. We're all here for you.
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{{{{dianarose}}}} - Stay strong. In your situation, I would want it gone too. I would gladly take some of your stress if I could.
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nativemainer- she didn't even mention insurance. I wish I never let her do any of these test until I had my surgery. I almost refused it yesterday and now I regret it. She wanted me to have the tests because of positive nodes but so many of the ladies with stage IV did not have positive nodes and yet had mets. It really makes you wonder how reasurring is it to have neg nodes.
Madpeacock- thanks for wanting some of my stress. The only person I could think of that I would even want to share this with is my ex. My 12 yr old says his father suffers from germaphobia. He says his father needs to live in a glass house. Unfortunetly he told these things to his father and was in trouble. It's an age thing. He wanted me to write a note to his teacher this morning making up an excuse for not doing his home work. He said it wasn't his fault becasue he suffers from short term memory loss. He's getting more creative, I'll give him that. I didn't write the note.
Thanks to all of you for your support. I hope I will someday get to post something positve.
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Dianarose, Your reaction is SO normal. Take a deep breath and give yourself time to process everything Let's not jump to Stage IV just yet. In other words, let's keep some hope that those nodules don't show any uptake on the PET scan and you can go forward as planned.
Meanwhile, if you are not able to keep your mind from doing all the "what if" thinking...you may want to go on the forum "Not Diagnosed with a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned" which has many Stage IV's answering questions. I really do not know why docs do not remove a primary tumor on Stage IV's. Maybe someone has been in your situation.
Let us know when you are going for PET.
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cmb, Thanks for your account of doing chemo with ILC. We may not have all the answers here, but with telling our stories, it sure makes other women ASK MORE QUESTIONS!
ToriGirl, Woo-hoo! That's the kind of mammo that can put some Spring in your step...
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Dianarose , I have no idea what to say .. except if I were close by I would give u a great big hug .. I do know that I can listen if ya wanna vent ...
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Dianarose....I'm sending you a big hug from NY.
♥♥♥♥
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My MO just called and said that it is a good sign that there are nodules in both lungs. More of a sign that possibly it is scar tissue. I had trouble with scar tissue after radiation with the other breast but it was only in the lung on the side they radiated. I am still not convinced as she has not seen the ct and said I should have the pet. She said if it came back bad we would then discuss my options as far as the bmx. I told her I want them gone regardless of the results. They are why I am in this mess to begin with. I think I will have to go into denial over the weekend or I will go nuts.
Thank you all for letting me vent and all your kind words.
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For those who like research...
Intratumor Heterogeneity and Branched Evolution Revealed by Multiregion Sequencing
You don't have to be an oncologist to READ like one. Check this out from this month's NEJM. (What you don't read NEJM regularly? Me neither. I do have a scientist in the family that gets paid to read various journals, so let's reap the benefits.) It's a little jargon-y, and the study pertains to kidney cancer BUT what it is saying is that when you have cancer, you actually have cancers, not just one type, but several.
It certainly could explain how some breast cancer seems to "change" pathologies. Or why some people get total response to chemo to the point of being NED and others barely get any shrinkage at all. It also makes you wonder about the one slice that got looked at for an Oncotype test, and what the rest of the tumor looked like. It makes me wonder if Tamox. is enough for every cancer cell I had, or if any other varieties got left behind?
Well, again, I know this is kidney cancer and not breast cancer, but I have not read anything like this before. Maybe there will be investigation along these lines for B/C. Stay tuned.
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Elimar- I am glad you explained what it meant prior to me reading it. I agree with you that it doesn't make sense how they do things. I was told that they would treat me according to my biopsy and that cancer (idc) was her2- and then the cancer from my lx was (ilc) with maybe Her2+. That one got sent out to a different lab. So how do you treat someone with multiple things going one. You can't treat one and ignore the other if they would be treated differently if it were only one type. It does make you wonder if maybe there was something else that didn't rear it's nasty head at the time of biopsy or surgery but is left behind. For what they charge for the Oncotype test they should test a lot more tissue samples.
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