Stage II w/Lymph Node Involvement
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Hi Maxine--I have read and actually spoken to some people who have had two areas of cancer in one breast--could be two lumps or IDC and DCIS. Not sure how common it is but it does happen. Don't think that you are going backwards in treatment or prognosis. From what you have written--they haven't officially provided the pathology or treatment plan yet. Once you get all the information, then your treatment plan will be set out and believe me, it will be a little easier. It is so hard when you are waiting and don't have all the details yet. I had one node positive and it seems that as soon as you have node positive--chemo is a given. My lump was under 2cm and Grade 1--I have larger breasts so lumpectomy was fine for me but then that requires radiation (that starts this Monday). As someone else wrote, you choose what is right for you--your Oncologist will provide you with guidance for sure. Take care--You'll get through this. Rachel
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Thanks Library lil; that's good information.
Sorry to subject you all to my pity party...I'll be okay whatever my diagnosis. I'm up for the fight...just waiting to see all characteristics of the enemy takes so long...
Good thoughts to all!
M
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I had multifocal BC....I had both DCIS AND INVASIVE. They thought I had one tumor when I actually had three once mx was done. As for the lymph nodes, I had 1 cm tumors in 2 of the lymph nodes and I still remained at Stage 2 because they just analyze the biggest tumor. All were Grade 3. Treatment ultimately wouldn't change cause they were doing everything so aggressively anyway... So, don't overanalyze and wait until you hear from the doctors. I know..easier said than done.:) Please contact me if you have any questions!
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Maxine I was in your shoes about 6 months ago. Not knowing much about BC, except that I had it. I asked questions on this board. No one thinks you are whining. Really, I think the Drs. respect the fact that we educate ourselves on what is going on. Once your plan is in place you will feel so much more relaxed. It makes you feel like you have some control of what is going on.
I missed my post lumpectomy follow up yesterday because of the snow. (We pretty much grind to a screeching halt in NC during snow.) There is still a lot of ice. Even though the oncologist told me I responded great clinically and radiologically to the neoadjuvant chemo, I want to hear it over and over again.
These ladies are also going through this now. It is a lot different that someone who went through this 12 years ago. Chemo is not the horror story it once was.
Libray lil
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Maxine: I had two separate IDC tumors---one 9 mm and one 4 mm. None of the docs with whom I consulted were concerned about the second tumor and I ended up with a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation. And chemo was quite "doable". So don't worry ahead of time. You will be OK.
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All
I feel like I have some sort of learning block on the lymph node part of BC. I knew I had one node that was involved in the party by an MRI followed by a biopsy. When your sig says 0/4 nodes does that mean they removed 4 and none were involved. Do we all have the sentinel node taken out. I'm lymph node confused. libray lil
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lil - I had my lumpectomy and sentinal node biopsy at the same time, 01/14/2010. My surgeon removed 3 sentinal nodes and all were involved. The dye they inject identifies the sentinal nodes. So 2 wks later, I had axillary dissection. My understanding is that the surgeon removes the fat pad that contains the nodes and the pathologist "dissects" it to test the nodes. So in my case, of the next 14 nodes that were removed, none had cancer in them and my sig is 3/17.
I hope this helps. Gina
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Gina, if you have a positive node..does that mean the sentinel node is always involved. I know I had the one armpit node at the party. I know he removed the sentinel node. Is the SN removed regardless? libray lil (sorry about the learning curve.)0
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The sentinel node is the first node that cancer would go to... so they always remove your sentinel node. While I was on the table they sent my node up to the lab for a preliminary evaluation which came back as fine so they closed me up... Only later, after the full path report came back did they find that my sentinel node actually had a trace amount, .38mm micromet... they also found that they also actually took 2 nodes because a second node was attached to the first... so in the end had 2 nodes removed,with micro involvement in one. Betsy
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Thanks ladies, I feel like I "know" a lot about "nodes" now.
That explained a lot. The surgeon had explained taking out the fat and pathology would look at the nodes, guess he assumed I knew the sentinel node would go along for the ride. I signed up for a clinical study re: peeps with positive nodes that underwent neoadjuvant chemo. I might have gotten too much info so thanks for clearing up. I just hope there were not a lot partying with the sentinel node. I know one was positive.libraylil0 -
all well my pathology was good, no surprises. Two sentinel nodes and only the one armpit node playing dirty. That was a relief. I kept telling myself please don't let there be anymore lympies. I will have to go for a re excision for one margin. If the scheduler will call me with a time, it would be helpful. Getting me set up for rads too. I should be focusing on the pathology and not the re excision. Stage II should also make me happy. I did not even cry about the re excision my surgeon is so calm. He was pleased with the path report and gave the option of trying to clean up the margin or going all the way with a mastectomy. Since I have started I'm going to let him try to clean that area up. Tumor was actually 4.1 (larger than the ultrasound estimated) I converted that online and it doesn't look as bad as I thougt.
warrior I'm trying not to overanalyze.
libray lil
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Hello everyone,
Has any of you had a bone scan? I am scheduled for one on Tuesday. I'm freaking out! I hated the MRI and I can't imagine this is going to be any different!
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I had bone scan--kind of like an MRI but you are not enclosed--something travels over you--very close to body--and moves real slow down your body. After an MRI--it is pretty easy.
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Marion: After an MRI, the bone scan is not bad at all. They inject you, you wait a few hours, then they scan you. You're not enclosed, just lying on a table with the instrument moving over you slowly. Easier even than the PET scan (if you had one). Unfortunately, I have to have another MRI on Tuesday, and I am completely dreading it.
Librarylil: good news overall! I hope you're relishing it. My lymph node biopsy was on a big one...I hope after surgery to find out it's the only one!
M
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Maxine thanks for helping me put things in perspective. I had promised that if I did not have a boatload of lymph nodes I would be happy. They have me scheduled for next Friday for the reexcision. I am thinking happy thoughts about the pathology.
marion and if you get bored you can look up and see you skeleton appearing on the screen. Not bad at all. libray lil
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Hi all, I have'nt been on in awhile, but I thought I'd pop in again. I'm a 11a IDC, but had a second lumpectomy and they had to take out 5.9cm to get a clear margin and had only a speck in 1/2 nodes. Due to the speck, which they think got knocked loose, during core-needle biopsy, I had to do 6 rounds of TAC. Now after all this time two months ago, I pushed them into seeing a neurologist, I was found to have polyneuropathy in my feet and hands. Really bad on the left side, and then I had a severe reaction to Neurotin, for neuropathy, and they diagnosed me as having "ringworm". When I got home I was freaking out, my dog didn't have ringworm, my 80yr old mother, who lives with me didn't either, so I called my vet. who told me it was highly unlikely a 9yr, old miniature schuazer, who lives indoors, would have ringworm....only kittens get ringworm. After calling my GP again, I got an appointment with a dermatologist who called it, acute drug reation. This was after I had been on disability from work for 5 months, due to illness. It was like going through chemo. all over again.
Now I'm walking with a cane, and have terrible pain, and there's nothing except opiates that can take the edge off. The trouble is it's on the bottoms of my feet, and no acupuncture, or ointments will work. I knew there were possible side-effects, but now I've had to resign from my job of ten years, and look at a different kind of future. One thing I know is you have to be your own best advocate, because the Onc. didn't believe me, and really no one did, I had to prove it, by being persistent. Thank God, I had long term disability insurance at work, which they offered before I got BC in 08. But at 54 yrs. old and having worked since I was a kid, beginning at the ripe old age of 10, for my parents in a small business, and working my way through college, I'll be on Social Security Disability. I loved my job, but it was physical, and now I can't even sit for long periods of time. If there's a lesson out of this it's that doctor's don't know everything, and here in CA the health care system has run amok.
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LeggyJ-- sorry to hear you've had such a rough time! I have neuropathy, both from chemo a year ago for colon cancer, and the Taxol I had a few months ago. My feet and fingers are numb and tingly, but thankfully I have no pain (except when I get cold!). I am on disability still because even though I am finished with chemo and rads I can't work because my job involves being outside for an hour. (I do recess at an elementary school) I know it's going to take a long time for the neuropathy to go away, and it might not ever go away completely, but since it's not painful, I can live with it.
I hope things improve for you and you can get some relief!
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Marion--I agree the bone scan is very easy! I had one when I was first dx with bc. I think it only took about 20 min., but not sure if I am remembering that right.
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I just got the results from my second MRI, and the radiologist tells me that my two malignant IDC lumps are "in a sea of DCIS." From what I understand, that is pre-cancerous tissue. Is this fairly common? A mastectomy would just remove the whole mess: lumps and tissue, right?
I am in the surgical-decision process, and perhaps this makes the mastectomy decision for me.
M
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Maxine... I would guess that surgeon will recommend the mastectomy but ultimately it is your decision. Do what will put your mind at ease.
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Maxine, Your surgeon will give you the options. The radiologist scared the Crap out of me and I refuse to see that one ever again. I had a man that I call "Shrek" for my wire location before surgery and he was so much nicer. Actually had a personality. My surgeon talked to me so calmly and really put me at ease. You sound like a very tough lady, Maxine. Libray lil0
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Maxine Mx is not that bad I went through two seperate surgeries.
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Maxine, sometimes you can get a feeling from your medical team which way they are leading you. I had multi-focal disease and also DCIS and LCIS but all was in the same quadrant. My breast surgeon (highly acclaimed and good at what he does) told me he could try to do a lumpectomy but when he scheduled me to see a plastic surgeon to discuss my opinion of mastectomy with immediate reconstruction, I kind of knew that was the direction they were leading me even though they told me it was my decision. I did opt for the mastecomy (bi-lateral actually) with immediate reconstruction. If you go with the lumpectomy, you need to be prepared that they may not get clean margins and may end up doing a mastectomy anyway. It does happen, especially when there is more than one tumor and/or extensive DCIS. As I said previously, this is not an easy decision to make. My recommend is to go with your gut and what you think is right for you.
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Maxine--I had a lumpectomy, didn't get clean margins (bs got all idc, but there was DCIS at the margins), made the difficult decision to have a mx, and it turned out there was DCIS all throughout the breast. The "sea of dcis" comment makes me think it might be hard to get clean margins, but of course your BS will know better about that. My breasts are dense, so it was hard to see what was really there. Even the 3.5 cm idc wasn't seen on the mammo or mri. Hopefully you have a good BS, and he will give you all your options and explain it all to you. In the end, you need to do what you are comfortable with.
Wishing you the best as you go through this decision making time!
Tina
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got nothing to add. just ckin in, but wanted to say hi., and i care... 3jays0
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Hello BCO friends!
It has been a long while since my last post (Dec. 19th!). I'm not entirely sure why I've been away, except that for awhile there I really didn't want to chat about cancer anymore, especially during the holidays. Then I found myself getting into a major funk for quite some time, especially around the topic of depression, changing SSRI meds to work with tamoxifen, and starting radiation in late December. Sometimes I felt like I was the Debbie downer, and other times I felt myself getting sucked into a pity party, and I didn't like either of those scenarios. My typical response to uncomfortable situations is to bail out, so that's what I did. A bit of information overload, crisis responses, and alarming "what if" scenarios. There's only so much a girl can take!
I went back to work, part-time, on January 3rd, which was about the end of my 2nd week of radiation. The fatigue kicked my booty and "re-entry" wasn't so good. One day I went home and took a nap from 4:30pm to 8:00pm, got up and had a bowl of cereal for dinner, then went right back to bed and slept until 9:00am the next morning. I knew to expect fatigue, but I didn't expect it to be so severe.
Having been back to work for a month, I now completely understand "chemo brain". I am nowhere near the sharp-minded gal I used to be and made several mistakes in those first few weeks. I've been double- and triple-checking my work because I'm so unsure of myself. Just today I went to a meeting that isn't scheduled until Thursday. Then, this evening (Tuesday), I thought it WAS Thursday and wanted to be sure to record Grey's Anatomy. Very disheartening to think I am that checked out.
Today was my last regular radiation treatment. All in all, the 28 radiation treatments over the last 5 ½ weeks were bearable, but somewhat "trying" and exhausting. It took a total of about 2 hours every day, including drive time. Add to that at least 4 hours at work plus an hour drive time for that commute, and the days are about as full as I can handle for now. I started out using Miaderm cream on my skin every day during treatment. As for side effects from the radiation, I developed a 3" oval black spot (yes, black!) in the lower region of my armpit about the end of the 2nd week. That spot proceeded to peel, but started to heal up pretty quickly. By the 3rd week I began to develop more skin "breakdown" in two different areas, which quickly became (and remain) quite raw and painful. My RO gave me Silvadene cream along with a lidocaine gel to mix with it. That combination certainly brings comfort to my sad skin. When the pain is strong enough to wake me during sleep, I take Percocet. The rest of the time I take prescription strength Naprosyn, which is 2½ times the over-the-counter strength of Aleve.
I've had a couple episodes of near-meltdown during radiation. One day, while I lay on the table, I felt like I was sort of floating but also being pushed around the room, which is understandable since the table moves and the machine moves around me. I guess fatigue and stress can make you sort of hallucinate during those vulnerable times. I just felt really light-headed and loony. Another day, my breast was so sore I just did not even want to go to the clinic. It took every bit of grit I could muster to stay still on the table until the treatment was over. The techs who handle my treatments are awesome but I just don't want to fall apart on their shift. They have so many people to take care of.
Certainly there has been so much activity on my favorite topics that I have missed, and I hope you all don't think less of me for being away. I found so many discussions here SO helpful and all you ladies (and a few men!) so supportive; I know that my knowledge resources were vastly improved just for reading all your posts. I will continue to check in occasionally and will post when I can. This has been an indescribable year of changes for us all and I pray each of you are coping the best you can, making the best of the life you have ahead of you, and that all of us will increase the numbers of survivors for future statistics in years to come.
I've copied this same post to my "Favorites" -
How about drinking?
December 2010 Rads
2010 Sisters
Sept. 2010 - Anyone starting chemo?
Stage II w/Lymph Node Involvement
Great saying about depression
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Hi all-
You've all been so helpful with your wisdom! I wanted to let you know I FINALLY have a date! I am scheduled for a left MX Friday (Feb 11), plus the axillary dissection. I'm having a TE placed to leave my options open, since I can't do anything else until after chemo and radiation.
Any advice on preventing/minimizing lymphedema? I had one (large) node removed in November (how they diagnosed me) and only recently realized I should be taking precautions already. Will be anxious to see how many others they dig up...
M
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Maxine,
You are so wise to be asking about lymphedema before your surgery. I wish that I had! It would be great if you could see a lymphedema therapist but since your surgery is this week, it may be difficult. If you can, you should measure your arm at 5 cm intervals above and below the crease in your elbow. This should be done with a cloth tape measure. Keep these measurements in a safe place and if you feel heaviness in your arm or trunk, insist on a referral to a lymphedema therapist. There is a website that has invaluable information about lymphedema that was started by BINNEY, a member of BCO. I've copied the link to the lymphedema reduction section below.
I hope that your surgery is uneventful and that you have an easy recovery.
http://www.stepup-speakout.org/riskreduction_for_lymphedema.htm
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Hi all! Hope it's ok for me to stop in. I recently received path report from my lump. My mass was right @ 2cm and I had 1/11 nodes involved. I think that puts me at a IIb or at least I hope it does. I am also er/pr/her postive. See my onc on 2/21, jus ready to get this process going! Anyway, it's nice to have a place for those of us with node involvement can go. Here's a question for you ladies that I am struggling with. My family and I have a yearly trip coming up 3/10-13. We've taken this trip with our daughter for the last 15 years. I am thinking about not starting chemo until we get back. Should I even be considering this??? Thoughts???
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Hi kriskat! Welcome here! If your onc gives the ok, and you are comfortable with it--then go for it! Bc is generally slow growing (altho Her2+ is more aggressive), and a few more weeks shouldn't make a difference. Enjoy the time with your family!
Tina
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