CALLING ALL STAGE I SISTERS
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Kaara - I hope you had a wonderful birthday!!!
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I met my new MO and I loved her......she took her time...she is calm...explains things...
No more TM test she doesn't believe in it and she also said that's very anxiety producing for my patients and they are not even reliable....OK not sure but it's OK
Nobody examined my breasts the way she examined them....if there was something growing she would found it LOL.....
I'll be seeing her every 6 months for this year and down to once a year.........
BW includes Vitamin D...estrogen something...and complete blood work...which I did go to the lab and they took 3 vials (sp) of blood........The End of the story......Mammo next week......
It got very chilly here.....
Hugs to all♥
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Thought this echoed so many of our journeys.
It may be that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. Wendell Berry
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Sheila - so glad you loved your new MO! Rock on!
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Am I too late for cake? Red Velvet is a favorite.Glad you had a wonderful birthday, Kaara.
I have had luck posting images directly onto this page but not usually personal photos. Do you have a web page or blog? You can upload to any photo program as an album and post a link.
If that all sounds like to much work during vacation, you could use one as an avatar for a day then switch back. Flowers are special!
Sheila, so glad you are at ease with your MO. Change is hard but sounds like you found what you need.Am finally starting to feel a little relaxed -- it's been 11 months -- and Thursday is my first day without any must'do's.
Hope everyone is doing well.
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ptd - I couldn't view the links you posted. Can you try again?
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Sheila....................good news girlfriend.................I'm a believer that you have to have the "love", and the confidence in your Dr.'s in order to feel good about what they are doing.............I really like my MO, and like I said, after the way I "let her have it"...last time I went to her........she has to be a saint.............she didn't deserve my "attitude", but it was a bad day, and she got hit with the "shit from the fan".................and remained "loving"...................while I was acting like a "complete ass"..................sometimes you say "enough is enough", and I'm the type who has to get it off my chest, regardless of who is in the way of "the fan"....................
Hope your feeling better about things, with someone you "love" taking care of you...............hugs.
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Sheila - great news. I see my MO Thursday - not a fan so far. If my feelings stay the same, I am looking for a new MO.
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Sheila so glad you like your new MO. Makes all the difference when you like and trust your Dr.
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I had three appointments with my first MO. At the first DH and I were both still staggered by the Dx, it was just before the start of radiation. He left us speechless and overwhelmed with information. I didn't even realize until later that it was a set speech. He had diagrams that he annotated with notes as he spoke and gave to us before we left. I have been grateful for those notes and referred to them often. The second was right after radiation at which he outlined what to expect from my ongoing treatment. Of course because I'm long past menopause that was focused on the Al's, however, it minimized the SE's. Now, I've had kidney stones multiple times, acute pancreatitis and a severe case of shingles, I know pain. When I called because I was having some of the severest pain ever he just had the nurse call to tell me to stop taking it, he had sent a new Rx for Tamoxifen to my pharmacy. When I asked for information his nurse told me he said to wait till my next scheduled appointment in two months. I switched to a different MO (in the same clinic) and she is wonderful. She answers all my questions, When I call with a concern she calls me back herself and best of all really seems to understand. I think part of what makes her so understanding is that, while she hasn't specifical said so, certain things she has said have led me to believe she has been there, done that and is "one of us".
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New Mo wanted to know all the SE i have experienced from Femara.....
I was almost embarrassed and told her i didn't experience any SE maybe some hair thinning which could be from aging.........
thank You for your kind words my sisters
Hugs & Love ♥
PS; I had no issues with my other MO for 7 years..it was an Insurance issue and again everything happens for a reason......i can see a big difference between 2 DR's........I wasn't rushed out and talked to me sitting behind her desk
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SHEILA: I'm soooo glad you like your new MO!!! As others said, having one that you feel comfortable with makes ALL the difference!
I noticed several of us who LOVE our MO have women...whether or not they've been in our shoes before themselves...I think for the most part they can empathize and understand from a woman's perspective what we are going through...."Venus" vs. "Mars"????
On the other hand I love, love, love my BS.....and he's a guy!......from Iraq......but he's also shared that his wife had BC.....so he still has a better understanding from a personal hx.0 -
joan811, It wasn't a link. I copied a saying and when it pasted it threw in all that other stuff.
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Jill...i love my BS...i still see him once a year...
i respect that man because he helped women with no Insurance by not charging anything...
Hi pt♥
chabba♥
joan♥
All♥
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Hello to everyone. Trying to catch up on the posts from the past few days.
The weather has turned hot in here in MD.
Finally, I feel like I am making progress. The wound center I am going to has me attached to a wound vac to speed the healing of my incision (hematoma caused the incision to open). I have my RO mapping/tattoos set for the first Friday in July.
Have a wonderful day!
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Oh Sheila--wonderful news...good for you.
Its almost 100 deg.in NJ.grrrrrrrrrrr
Hi Ducky and Joan.....
Im waiting to find out if i have edema back or that giant monster LE...all tests came back fine but ii have 2 lumps right next to my elbow.Now what the hell is that??????
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Belinda...i'm happy that they are helping you...feel better soon...♥
granny...where are you?.....What is exactly is Edema?
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Sheila: It's important to like your MO, so glad that you found a good one. I am warming up to mine after about six months...I will say that he always calls me right away, personally, to give me test results, etc. He just doesn't have the greatest bedside manner, but I'm not in need of that right now.
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Kaara...All my Doctors were male and still are except the MO...
Bedside manner is important but I really liked not to be rushed out and actually sitting in an office before the exam to the next room.......
How are you doing?
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Hi...I am home now sheila..still keep missing you.
edema is water..it can go anywhere in the body.after nodes are removed you have a 40% chance of edema or the dreaded LE.Im almost positive its the edema thats BACK.Stretch,stretch,drink water(just heard that there was a contamination of the water in Old Bridge NJ.wonderful..have to boil the water before drinking it,washing dishes,brushing your teeth and washing clothers.I broke all the rules before i found out.lol.
my son said probably a duck shit in the water.ha.drink the coconut water mom...dont drink the boiled water.yeah right like he listens to me.
hope everyone is doing well....thinkin and prayin for all of you.hugggggggs K
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Tina, Sheila, Kaara, Filterlady etc., we are back from the cruise. I can't say that i didn't have fun under the circumstances. Mom was very quiet. I spent a little time alone with her just hanging on our balconies looking at the ocean and she did not seem to want bring it up. But we have received more news since getting home...
The tiny lump found on the MRI (during the preop work) is cancer. Its in the same breast but distant from the other. The lumpectomy for tomorrow was canceled & doc is bringing up mastectomy due to the distance of one from the other. What do you ladies think? the lumpectomy was going to be in FLA tomorrow but now that its not, mom wants to come back to Pittsburgh where we have Magee Womens Ctr, primadonna women's center of Pa. I told her that if its a mast that she should go for both breasts so that she could get a new matching younger set. She did laugh. I also used a line that i saw on here about making sure the new set was bigger than her belly, she laughed more.
So I mentioned earlier that we had no family history of any cancer. Right before my grandma passed last year at 89 of natural causes (moms mom) the nursing home nonchalantly mentioned on my last visit "we dont know what wrong with her breast". They told me it was a rash. thinking back, one breast looked like it had been burnt somewhat. As said she never had a mammo etc. Is it possible that that breast cancer can be far along, undiagnosed and maybe "pop out" of your boob? I heard of an Inflammatory BC that could possibly look like that. well at 89,we certainly weren't going to put her through a biopsy but now that family history comes wondering back in my mind????
one final question, now that my mom had one lump found by mammo/sonogram but the other was only found by MRI - what should i do now? my visit is coming up. my last mammo i was cleared to get a regular mammo without a doc being present (forget the name - diagnostic maybe) after 2 biops in 5 yr. with dense breast tissue, should i push for MRI???
well i know long winded. the news was upsetting tonight. thanks & hugs to all.
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careyomomof2 - Glad you had a nice trip and sorry this news had to jolt you back to reality. I think I mentioned earlier that I had five areas that showed up on MRI (all in the same breast). None had been seen on mammogram. Only three could be seen on ultrasound for biopsy, one was ILC and the other two were fibroadenomas. While I waited to get scheduled for MRI biopsy of the other two areas I was planning for a lumpectomy. The MRI biopsies resulted in a another fibroadenoma and a DCIS. I suppose it's instinctive to want to save the breasts. When I started talking to my BS about two lumpectomies she just shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, but lumpectomy is off the table now." Once I came to grips with that I had no trouble deciding to have bilateral surgery. With so much going on in one breast I knew I'd just be waiting for the other shoe to drop. I have absolutely no regrets about my decision. It has made reconstruction easier.
I can only speak from my own experience, but the best thing I've ever done for myself was to fight for that MRI because of my dense breast tissue. I feel I'll have a much better fighting chance because my cancers were found years earlier than they would have been if we had waited for a lump to be felt or for something to finally show on a mammogram. Chances are that if you have one it will be fine, but at least you would have peace of mind and know for sure one way or the other. Since you asked
that's what I would suggest.I don't know what to say about your grandmother and I suppose it really doesn't matter - your mom has been diagnosed so now you have a family history. I know this is all very upsetting and it sucks and it's not fair, but it is doable and your mom (and you) can move through this one step at a time.
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carey: It's hard to advise you what your mom should do, but if it was me, I would go for the BMX and reconstruction because she probably will then avoid the dreaded chemo and radiation. It's a more difficult recovery, but in the end, I think she will feel better that she has done all that she can to beat this disease. Mine was only a small early stage and I did a lumpectomy with no chemo or rads, but I question whether I should have just had the MX and be done with it. As for you, by all means push for an MRI over a mammogram. Better yet, see if you can get a thermography done of both breasts...it's less invasive and is supposed to detect small growing blood vessels (a precusor to bc) long before mamogram could. If anything showed up, then you could have the MRI. I had this done shortly after my surgery and I was given the all clear. I then had a mammo to confirm. Now I have a baseline to compare for future testing.
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Carey - I agree with everuyone above - push for the MRI. THe MRI was really very easy and it can give you peace of mind. I also agree wtih Kaara - there are many many days that I question my decision and wish I would have gone with the BMX vs. the MX.
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carey so sorry for the new on your mom. I also had dense breast tissue and my IDC did not show on mammo only on MRI. Something suspicious was on mammo which is how the hunt started. That ended up OK but ended up finding the tumor. I would push for MRI if I were you just in case anything shows up you can find it early that way. Long story but I ended up with a BMX and reconstruction and I have not regretted it. It has been the best decision since all this started. I still have my TE's in and hope to have my exchange done in August. Honestlly I do not feel the BMX was all that hard.
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I agree with all of the sistas...
I wish I had the option but my stupid dr.just did what he wanted.i was so dumb when this all started.
I have never heard anyone regretting doin BMX.
Good luck with what ever you do.
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okay ladies, i read a bunch of pages and pages from Mayo clinic on BC and you all use initials that i don't know what they mean: what is LE that is dreaded so much, something with lymph node removal? I finally get the sentinel node biopsy but what do the numbers mean - like granny, yours says 1/6 - does that mean the tested 6 nodes and one was positive? Sorry I'm trying to grip all of this. And what is the MO doctor?
Sherry, you do have a long story it looks like, sorry you have been going through it for so long.
Well my mom met with the Florida BC today and they told her that her cancer is very rare and also rarely travels. Of course my dad can't remember the name of it and my mom has taken on so much info that she isnt retaining any of it. My dad is finally convinced of the MX (that short for one boob right? and BMX is two?). Mom is looking for a BC doc here in Pittsburgh very quickly - unfortunately we know too many sisters that gave recommendations. I guess the next questions will be one or two boobs and what type of reconstruction? I don't think she is healthy enough to go through any of the FLAP type (ha ha i learned an initial LOL) procedures so i guess that leaves saline/silicone? Any thoughts? I truly want her to do both but my dad is still trying to come to grips with all of this so he is trying to steer her away. I say do it now.
I'm going for the MRI but who do i convince of that? It was the gyne who started scripting the mammos and then after when i needed diagnostic, those scripts came from the mammo people at Magee.
good night all.
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Carrie, quick answers, mo is medical oncologist,ro is radiation oncologist also known as radonc. LE is lymphedema. 1/6 is one positive node out of 6 taken. Mx is mastectomy, UMXis unilateral mastectomy which is onesided. BMX stands for bilateral mastectomy or double mx. There is a dictionary in the newcomers forum that has all the abbreviations. I am 57 and didn't think I could handle a flap procedure so I chose immediate placed tissue expanders (TEs) to implant, permanent. As 2fried eggs name implies, that's about what you look like right after that type of surgery until you get the expanders filled. Then, they replace them with the permanent implants. Hope that info helps. Lots of info to absorb. Good luck.
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http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/131/topic/773727?page=1#idx_1
Carrie this is for you.....I was LOL because when i first joined the BCO.....i didn't understand anything.....
Welcome to our sisterhood♥
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Hi all,
I just wrote a post once, lost it, did it again, the page flipped again...gone.
Too tired to do it...
Carrie, this is the hard part - waiting for surgical decisions and pathology. Once the plan is in place, you can help your mom look forward to being cancer free.
My MO was pretty awful.
granny - so sorry about your pain, worry and lumpy arm...I have no idea what it is....
hope it goes away!
Nite all,Joan811
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