MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish
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Looks like everyone woke up nice and feisty this morning.
That article...did they look for the most simple-minded doc they could find? Besides what has already been mentioned, I thought it absolutely moronic for Dr. Sabel to have said, “All it takes is one person to say, ‘I wish I had just had both breasts removed,” as a reason a woman would choose BMx. Ha! You have just been robbed of your ability to reason. (In a related article, there has been an increase of women randomly jumping off of piers as well.
) He makes it clear that no one really cares about or peace-of-mind either.However, did you catch the last paragraph? "Using part of a $13.6 million National Cancer Institute grant, Hawley’s team will be working to develop an online interactive decision-making tool intended to help women diagnosed with breast cancer choose which course of treatment is best for them." Aren't they worried that all it will take is one online decision making tool and women will heed that and be getting BMx like the mindless sheep they are portraying us as?
I do think that Sabel's comment about there not being a need to rush to a decision is a good one, however he mucks it up by saying a woman can take about a month to decide. Hey, let's just pull some time frame out of thin air. Did he just go for an average of all women? Some could take much longer (I know for a fact that my lump was in there not doing much for 8 mos.,) while there could be some that taking even a month would be risking spread.
Well, we are insiders now. We have the perspective and the knowledge. It's awfully hard to read these lame articles.
Cindyl, I like that book tree.
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Got my PET scan this morning. So that is 6 scans in the last 10 days (7 if you count the CT for my rads sim.) I'm bored. The only thing about this one is that now I'll be radioactive for a while. As if my brain wasn't wayward enough before, it's radioactive now. Watch out!
Bummer to learn that even tho' I have a port, it can't get used for nuclear medicine, so I got a needle stick anyway. I make them pick a new vein each time (no copycats!) and this time it punctured through and she had to do it again. Even tho' it was no big deal, I got a big surprise when I started to feel like I might go into the tunnel (and faint.) I didn't because I had my head between my knees immediately. Then, no one told me I would have to go into the "quiet toom" and could not even read my book or do the Sodoku I had brought to pass the time. Ho hum! Now it's wait, wait, wait to find out how my liver is doing and what's up with that node in my chest? My imaging center is a bunch of slowpokes unfortunately. I'll just have to remain calm and hopefully I will have only good results to share.
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Oh that article made me soooo angry too!!!!!! I let them twist my arm into having bilateral lumpectomies....against my wishes..... took time to recover and then got a second opinion after hearing what rads could do (as I have bilat BC), changed treatment centers and the surgeon completely respected my wishes for BMX. I could have been back to work months ago!!!!!! Breast conservation? Maybe for some but it is MY choice. I hated those things....they tried to kill me!!!!!!!! Ugh!!!!!! Im gonna get a refill on my coffee.
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Hi Just lurking about and hope I can introduce myself ! waving from Qld Australia . I am 58 and on my birthday 4th Oct this year I was diagnosed with Multi Cancer in Left breast . No symptoms beforehand they found it in my annual mammogram ! Within a month I was in hospital having the left breast off . No biggy I thought . The playpen and now the playground have past the use by date and as long as it "fixes "the problem all will be good .Must be honest I am also recovering PTSD from surviving the grantham Floods last year . My husband Peter and I were in our house while the water was moving it off the foundations ,we finally settled in a farmers field in 8 feet high water hanging on to a fridge while screaming for help ! Quite frankly after surviving that ordeal of 3 hours with a rebroken wrist and all the other horrors of the past 18 months ,the diagnosis of cancer did not even compute ! I have been brought to earth with a thud ! I am not a quitter by any stretch of the imagination but on the other hand I also enjoy the fruits of my life and don't want to compromise that by putting myself through the torture of Chemo ! If my time is up my attitude is I have had a extremely good life with many blessings so I am ready , trouble is nobody else can accept that ! I have learnt very quickly that you have to become self centred with cancer . It is not what other people want for you it is what is best for me ? Quality more than quantity is my catch cry and it is hard for others to accept that too . Hoping we vcan help each other on this unplanned part of our journey . Thanks . Marie from down under !
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Oh Eli...I can relate to you about the nuclear medicine incident.....After 2 technicians tried,,,didn't work.....they had to call a nurse which at that moment I was almost fainting...did the same thing you did.........they put me on the table for the test......I was scared and my eyes were closed when I opened them...I see this Santa Claus looking man sitting next to me.....I thought I was totally losing it...
It happened to be a DR.........
Port was only used for chemo because for regular BW nobody wants to touch it.........
Glad it's over.....Hugs♥
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Totally agree with you Barbe . I was not surprised by the diagnosis ,I have my regular mammograms and it is always there at the back of your mind the stastitics .What does blindside is all the tests they put you through ,some of them are worse than the cancer ! And what is all for anyway ? As my breast care nurse says we all are going to die and so we also all have to die of something ! I like her attitude . If from this things can be learnt to make it better for the next generation I am all for it .I would love to see research go into better options than chemo ! The biggest beef I have is most of my life I have lived chemically free mostly natural life avoiding "cancer prone " things . Now because of my diagnosis the option is this poisonous vicious cocktail of chemical that supposedly is going to save me ! Surely there has to be a better way to survive our time here on earth ? I realise that maybe because of my age my reasoning is different. But Quality is always superior to quantity in my book ! And that doesn't mean I have given up or anything like that it just means for me life is to be enjoyed not endured. Have a great day or night depending on where you are !
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We know our bodies better than anybody else yet we are treated like children that don't know anything ! Hate the patronising attitude !
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vanstrada54, welcome! What a year you have had!!! I have never been in a flood. I have never had PTSD. I also have never had chemo with my B/C, but I am about to have it for colorectal cancer. I have to have it to give myself the best outcome from future surgery to remove it. I'm afraid of chemo, but I am more afraid of cancer just going wild in my body. Now I'm going to get right to my point and my opinion: I don't think you should pass on the chemo without trying it. No one here will ever tell you that chemo is fun, but a lot of the women will tell you that you can come out on the other side of it and that many if not all of the side effects do go away and you get your life back. Sometimes it is even an improved version of your old life. You cannot just assume that it will be terrible; you cannot assume your life not have quality to it. I can tell you quite honestly that even with the crappy (and I mean crappy!) turn my life has taken recently, I am still laughing way more than I am crying.
I think you might be feeling overwhelmed by your last year, but I would urge you to consider trying chemo. If it turns out to be unbearable, you can stop it; but what if the surprise is that you can handle it o.k.? You didn't hang onto that fridge just to let B/C get the upper hand, did you?
I don't think you have made your final decision about treatment yet, so I hope you will consider something that has the ability to extend your years. I always hope for the best life for all women who face this disease, but ultimately only the individuals truly know what the best choice is for themselves. We are here if you do need to deliberate a while.
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Dianarose, I meant to tell you that my chemo will be flouracil like you had, but mine won't be mixed with anything else. Mine is called 5-FU, and that better not stand for 5 F'd Up side effects, but you can bet I will be tallying them up!
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Eli, wake up! It stands for FU 5 times
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Well I was pages behind finally caught up on post and now I can't remember what I read.
I was to having surgery this Friday and Monday they called and wanted to know if I could do Tuesday afternoon. So yesterday I had surgery. My implants were bottoming out so the PS had to remove the implants do a bunch of internal stitching to support the implants better, then the implants were put back in. Alloderm was used at the time of BMX. PS said I would be much more sore than exchange and boy was he right. The pain is finally under control but last night was kinda rough. The anaesthesiologist was wonderful and gave me extra stuff to keep me from being nauseated and it worked. I never got sick. I did not get drains but I can hear the swishing from the fluids in the breast. I spoke to the nurse and she said that is pretty common and should absorb in the next couple of days if not to give her a call. I see the PS next Tuesday.
Eli glad you got the port put in and hope the results of the pet scan are good.
Welcome newbies. I wish I could remember your names but with trying to catch up on reading I forgot. This is a great place to hang and to get support. Never feel bad about asking questions. We are here for each other.
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Oh dear !
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Sherry, that sounds majorly un-fun. I hope you feel better soon.
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Love your attitudes and thanks for the replies . When you survive your house and life crashing around you it gives you a totally different perspective on EVERYTHING . We never notice how much of our lives and precious time we waste on "stuff " . I have not given up on chemo and as it is one of the options I know I will have to ENDURE it my point is Why ? What does the chemo give me ? Extra time ? All the research and people I have talked to have said Yes the chemo does destroy the cancer YAY ! But in the process it destroys every thing else as well . Is that quality or quantity.How do I know I would still have that extra time without the poison in my body ? I have a friend that is diagnosed with prostrate cancer he was given months to live 7 years later and he is still here .It reminds me of when I was a kid and my foster mother made me eat brussel sprouts to which even today I hate them ,but I still ate them because supposedly they were good for me .I am presuming that of course once I finally meet the oncologist that is going to give me all the options I will change and all my preconceived ideas will be gone . I want you to know that I do appreciate this maturer aged forum as I am pretty sure if I was younger my attitude to this enemy within would be totally different . I hope you all understand that I am speaking for myself and absorbing all input .There is definitely not a closed mind here just an enquiring one .
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vanstrada, I think a lot like you but with 5 cm of cancer and 2/2 nodes positive, they might put you first in line for chemo!! BUT, in North America there is an Oncotype test to determine if chemo will even do you any good. Is it available down there yet?? Some cancers grow slower than others and as chemo only kills actively growing breast cancer those who are growing slowly won't even be killed off. If, on the other hand, your onc determines that your cancer is fast growing (hint: you are grade 2 already!) then chemo would kill off the cancer. Get all the info you need to make a decision you are comfortable with. I didn't do chemo, without an oncotype test, but my cancer was only 1 cm and I only had micromets in my nodes. I didn't do rads either as I opted for a bilateral mastectomy and am happy with my choices. That's the point. You have to be happy with YOUR choices but you WILL get input from us. We just can't help it!
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Vanstrada--to add my 2 cent's worth, pay attention to what your gut tells you as you evaluate the info the onc gives you. I made the decision to have a lumpectomy and rads based on recommendations and the medical opinion that saving the breast is best. My gut wanted a mastectomy. I wound up having a mastectomy anyway because of the side effects of radiation. I decided to have a single mastectomy based on research and recommendations when my gut wanted both gone. I was happiest when I followed my gut and had the other breast removed during reconstructions. Sometimes what you will feel most comfortable with is not what the medical community thinks is what women should want. If I'd followed my gut I would have saved myself 3 years of treatment hell.
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Welcome vanstrada54 - You have certainly been through a great deal this past yr. You will find a great support system from people who have "been there, done that". There is a lot of info to absorb as you make your decision, and it is your decision to make. You will choose what path is right for you. An enquiring mind is a good thing to have.
Eli - hoping and praying for good results from your PET. I had the same thought that Momine had about 5FU - FU cancer x 5!
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Lol I am depending on that input !
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Barbe, I doubt that even in the U.S., where OncoDx is becoming "standard of care" for early-stage cancer, that they very often give it to women with a 5cm tumor. A tumor of that size has more or less proven it's aggression just by the fact of getting that large, without it having been noticed before. (Just as a generalization there.) One day there just may be better indications for all B/C types whether chemo, rads, even hormonals are worth our while, but for right now there is still a lot of guesswork about who responds to what.
In my reading, I believe the chemo I'm about to do achieves some shrinkage in all but about 12% of women. So, I'm taking a gamble and hope I can manage to wind up in the Good Shrinkers Club. Chemo is not a sure thing for anyone. It IS a gamble. If only we could get a guarantee, the decision would be a lot easier to make.
Oh, and if that is what 5-FU means, they can just give me give me the 10-FU already!
vanstrada54, I was just hoping that you could put aside any preconceptions because how you will respond to chemo is unknown until you do try it.
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I figured that elimar, also with 2/2 nodes positive, they'd recommend chemo. But if vanstrada demanded a test....????
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Barbe, The results would not be accurate because she falls outside the parameters of who the test is tailored for. What I mean is she is outside the data group that the results were built upon.
I wonder if the Adjuvant Online (Physician's software prog.) tool would be a good predictor for benefits of chemo for you, vanstrads54, or whether or not that is available in AUS?
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Eli- I never felt that bad from the Flouracil infusion. It was the Cytoxan that made me feel like crap and lose my hair. After the first couple of infusions I did need to eat crackers and take the nausea pills, but I think I got used to it. The 14 days of the Cytoxan were the toughest. I hope you do fine with it.
I had my 1st Post chemo check up today. It has been 3 weeks and all my blood counts are normal
. I did have the left foob deflated today. It looks like a flat tire. My friend came with me and said it looked like a reindeer stepped on it.CT and mapping tomorrow. I hope it has improved since round one 8 yrs ago. It seemed like the guy doing the mapping was taking his sweet time. I couldn't move for 45 minutes. I thought my arms were going to fall off.
Welcome to all the newbies. Sorry you are here, but we are all in it together. I am so far behind on all these posts. If I ever get a day off without an appointment I will be able to catch up.
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NativeMaine, my sentiments exactly!!
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Diana, a reindeer? Your poor boob.
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Thanks for all your replies and as a matter of fact I have realised that everything happened so fast I haven't had a chance to catch my breath,but thanks for all the advice . I have a appointment with the oncologist next week and then all will be alot clearer. I have had bone scan CT scan Echo scan blood tests and the oncologist will base their opinions on all that . Very early days for me and I need to learn to relax and have patience . As Marion my breast care nurse told me I have been dumped in a foreign country and I am totally clueless because I don't understand the language and she is right ! Even in the forums here I get confused ! But everything is education and that is what I am looking for to make the best decision for me . I really do appreciate all that you tell me it just takes a while to be absorbed with all the other stuff I am dealing with at the same time . Waving from Gorgeous Gatton in Qld .
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Lol I miss the like button too ! Getting used to my way around a forum .
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Dianarose -
that article made me want to cry. I'm looking at a PMX 2 1/2 years after MX because I'm quite lopsided. Bras cut into my shoulders and cause pain issues. I consider just getting breast reduction, so that I could go bra less, but with reduction you are left with breast tissue that will need to have mammos (at least yearly), and I'll still be lopsided. If I go with the PMX then I can go with or without prosthesis, and no more mammos!!! I realize that it doesn't decrease my risk of recurrence, it does decrease my risk of another primary tumor, but I believe the convenience and comfort is really important. YIKES!!!!!Wavewhisper - I met two women during my Reach to Recovery training that had just been diagnosed with LE, both were 20 years post treatment!
Boy this forum was busy over the last day - and just when I'm out of town, makes it hard to keep up!
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Having the mastectomy as Sharon Osbourne said was a no brainer !At my age I didn't have any qualms or concerns about that . Its just all this added stuff that is the challenge . In my naive little world I just figured breast off cancer gone and Life goes on ! All these tests and options weren't even part of the picture ! Being sore 3 weeks later and flopping around because I can't wear my new bra yet is a adjustment I hadn't counted on but I am getting there !Very early days and A work in progress taking small steps gingerly ! Marie waving from Gorgeous Gatton
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vanstrada54, At the top of this thread (under the little Cheetos icon) is a link to "Abbreciations for Newbies." Take a look and it should help you with some of the shortcuts we take with our B/C lingo around here.
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e, yah I figured that, but no one only likes two options - do or don't do....sigh.
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