Calling all TNs
Comments
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I'm not sure if I posted or not but I finished round 1 yesterday. Today I'm hanging in there. The nausea pills are helping along with the anti depressent for the hot flashes.
Did any of you have chemo brain right away? Geesh...I feel like I have alzheimers and that is one club that I don't want to join.
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Shady- glad you made it through your first chemo!!! I think my brain slowed down right away too. I was taking some classes online during my first treatment, and I remember thinking - something is wrong here!
Just be patient with yourself and try not to multi-task too much.
Rest when you can and stay hydrated. Jello, pudding, broth, ice pops, etc. I live on matzo ball soup
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I thought this was interesting. I don't have mammo's anymore, only breast MRI's. Not because of this article but because my breast tissue is so dense. When I discovered my lump and they did an US, it didn't even show up. Please take this link for what it is....just another's opinion. Educate yourself and make your own decisions based on what your gut tells you. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/19/tomosynthesis-mammography.aspx?e_cid=20130219_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130219
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Wrenwood- I have dense breast too and my lumps didn't show up on mammo, only US. But my onc wants me to have mammo with US and a mri because mammos see small things like calcifications that don't show up on mri. I always get a mammo with an US to double check if something is hiding under the dense breast tissue every 6 months and a mri once a year. Just got all of that done last week and waiting for results. (Hate that part!
)Take care everyone. xx
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What do they do if you have a Mastectomy? I removed my right and removing my left in July with recon next year sometime. So I was curious what that looks like if you don't have breasts. US and MRI?
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Help me..a friend of mine just finished rads in December andnow her boob is red and swollen...has anyone has this se from rads?
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Titan - may be radiation recall/rebound. It happened to me and scared the hell out of me. Tell her to put an ice pack on it. I can't remember how long it took to resolve - maybe a couple of weeks. It even bruised from the swelling.
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jenjenl- I would think US. I had a mx on my right side, no recon, and they check everything out on that side with an US. I never asked if the mri could see something on that side. I will have to ask...
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I finished radiation in August 2012. It recovered in 6 weeks later. Two months ago, it was not red but still swollen. Similar to Karen,my Physical Therapist suggested to put ice on it. I used cold water for showering also and I found it did help.
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I need to correct my last post...The US did prove to show my tumor, it was the mammogram that did not. Don't want to mislead on the accuracies of US. Sorry for any confusion.
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thanks you guys...she was told it was a leftover from a staph infection from almost a year ago after her surgery. I did tell her to put some ice on it..cant hurt...right? she is on antiobotics.
47 months out today ladies!
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My MO said watery eyes were side effect plus loss of lashes lets irritants into eyes.
I lost my hair during AC but not eyebrows or eyelashes. Now during Taxol(4 treatments so far) I am losing them. Eyebrows are almost gone. Lashes are getting very thin. I did notice peach fuzz on my head today!0 -
5thSib: Me too. I lost my hair on AC but kept my brows and lashes... taxotere put paid to that. Abd taxo-tere's soon pass once tx is over.
Been busy back at work. I am amazed how many hours it takes from our days. Hardly enough time to keep up with the boards. Good to be back though and part of society once again.
Hugs all xx
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All I need in my life right now is a ......snowblower!!! We are getting buried here in Missouri!
Just popped in to say hello! Congrats Titan on almost 4 years!!
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Thinking about all that snow, Tif!!! We're getting blasted on Saturday night and Sunday...again!
Hope you can get a snowblower or a kid who can shovel!
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Hope you don't get hit too hard Michelle! Most of the KC highways are parking lots. My husband works in Overland Park and can't get home- every way he can take is closed somewhere due to accidents or stuck cars! Only 6 houses in the neighborhhod and no kid older than 10 (my son). We are going out in a few minutes to attempt to shovel! Wish us luck!
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I started my own topic in TN with only one response suggesting i post my questions here. I was dx a yr ago and feel like I should know the answer and understand this but do not. I would appreciate any clarification and knowledge so that I can put these 2 questions and some worry behind me.
(1) TN means high grade, correct? So, does this mean that TN is automatically grade 3? I don't think so but am not sure.
(2) Does TN have the same possible recurrence rate (higher within 5 years of treatment) or is it interpreted differently with DCIS?p>0 -
Triple negative means that we have no estrogen, progesterone, or HER receptors. So after we are done with surgery and chemo and rads we are basically "done" as there is no pill to take after treatment is done.
Breast cancer cells are graded 1, 2 and 3....one is the slowest growing and 3 being the fastest growing.
Triple negative reocurrences usually occur with the first few years after diagnosis...after that our chances of reoccurence falls below the er and pr positive cancers.
I would ask your onc about your particular reocurrence rate....with dcis, and Stage 0 I would think your reocurrence % would be very low.
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My surgery (BMX with expanders) was last Tuesday, the 12th. I went to BS today and got pathology report. After neoadjuvant chemo (ACT), at surgery path report shows a residual IDC tumor of 7 mm. The original tumor (before chemo) was 3.1 cm. The BS called it a very good report as the response to chemo was more than 75 percent. Another thing in my favor is that before chemo I had only one positive lymph node, the sentinel node. Two adjacent lymph nodes were negative, so BS thinks the cancer was contained.
Nevertheless, I am quite disappointed as I was hoping for a pathologic complete response ( ie invasive disease completely gone.). That would be much better since I am triple negative. Any cancer that may have escaped into my body you want to have killed with chemo, and a dead//gone primary tumor is kind of a proxy for that.
I see my MO next week. She had said earlier that if there were residual invasive disease at surgery there are "a couple of things we can try" after surgery. We'll see what those are. The hormone treatments (eg tamoxifen, femara) won't work on triple negative.
Anyway, I guess I'm looking for encouragement/positive experiences from others as to prognosis with this particular path, especially related to the chance of metastatic disease. I am doing the most aggressive local treatment, as I did BMX and will do radiation in a few weeks.
I posted this same post to the surgery thread, so I go into some explanation about TNBC...more than this group needs. (I didn't want to retype.). Thanks.0 -
Lisagwa...Congratulations on being almost a year out! Titan answered your questions perfect so I don't even need to elaborate. I will say to you that TN is not a death sentence. There are so many TN People who are 15 years plus out and are living wonderful lives. My oncologist said if it were to come back, it usually does within three years.
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It was one year ago today, that I was told I got bc. I decided to get treatment asap then I got breast surgery next 4 days. My life started changing...in a good way! I learned more about how to get a silent mind to improve inner and outer quality of life. My mind gets stronger.
I found tn sisters here who gave me a comfort zone, words of encouragement , and source of inspiration during tough time.
Truely appreciated!.
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Congratulations, Nuan!
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Nuan, Congratulations and good to hear from you! I'm glad for your inner peace. I find that I do not take things for granted as much as I did before breast cancer. I am glad to be here.
Placid, I had residual disease at surgery. I was diagnosed triple negative at biopsy, then did six cycles of TAC. After my mastectomy they found the tumor had 5-10% ER receptors. I also had two positive nodes in addition to the 2 cm tumor that remained (mine was either 2.5 or 2 cm at diagnosis depending on whether the mammogram or MRI was more accurate.) My tumor got much softer during chemo and the doctor thought I had had a complete response. My nodes also became unable to palpate; before chemo, you could feel one node. I was terrified after the surgery and extremely disappointed. I went to get second and third opinions and ended up participating in a clinical trial of 4 more months of chemo. The trial is designed for those who have an incomplete response to neoadjuvant chemo. The trial I participated in included treatment with eribulin (Halaven). It was much easier chemo for me than TAC and I worked throughout, only taking a few days off. There are other trials out there also, including one with cisplatin specifically designed for triple negatives. I will never know whether or not the trial helped me, but I am NED two years out from diagnosis at this point. I just had a clean routine chest Xray and mammogram of the remaining breast. I wish you the very best, and if you have any questions please feel free to message me. I don't check in here as often as I used to, but usually still come by a few times a month.
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Hi all - I have not been on the boards in awhile. I was so ill after the port placement. Swelling and pain was so bad after two weeks, that I went in the hospital for 5 days. They took it out, put in a picc line, and had 24/7 antiobiotics (hooked up to a portable pump) for 3 weeks (should have been 4; but I had too many bad side effects from it including off the chart liver counts). Because I went on antibiotics after my first treatment of TAC, they had to change my treatment, and now I'm having abraxane every week. From what I've read, that is for metastatic cancer. I just pray it's strong enough to kill this tumor. Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm doing neoadjunctive treatment, so I guess I'll find out then. I just wonder why I can't go back on TAC. I'll ask the MO in two weeks when I see him. Supposedly abraxane is a very expensive new-ish drug that works wonders, but research has been contradictory. I haven't had a chance to catch up on everyone, but I pray everyone is doing well!!! Lauren
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Christina1961 - Thanks so much. I really appreciate it. That is encouraging. I will ask my MO about clinical trials and get additional opinions if necessary. Thanks again.
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Wow, am I glad to hear from you, Lauren. You had me worried, girl! So sorry you have had such a terrible time. I don't have any answers regarding the abraxane but I am sure that someone will be along soon with some info to help you.
Hello to everyone and wishing all a good weekend. I am looking forward to Nascar starting again. I miss football on Sundays.
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OT, but I am looking to see if anyone on this thread who remembers Suze35 knows how to get in touch with her friend Kim Shapiro or if not, her family.
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Jill, I remember Suze35 very well. I just went back and checked the threads around the time of her passing and found this link to her obituary:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/Events/MosaicofHope?pg=fund&fr_id=9910&pxfid=1146572
Perhaps you could send a greeting to the family via the guest book or something. Just a thought. All the best.
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Hi girls,
I haven't been on for a while, but I have a question for everyone. I had a lumpectomy back in June of 2012. There is a red bump on the scar. It hasn't been there very long. i just noticed it today. Should I be worried? Thanks for the input.
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Hi Lauren, I had Abraxane once a week for 12 weeks following 6 AC. I had neoadjuvent chemo and had a complete pathological response, and I do believe the Abraxane was a part of that! I had problems with taxol years ago and my doc still really wanted me to have a taxane, that's why I had Abraxane. Feel free to ask me any questions about it.
Lisa-Probably nothing, but I would have it checked out for your peace of mind. You could do the 2 week wait and if it is still there call the doc.
Yes, I remember Suze35, I have been thinking of her alot lately, as well as LauraJane, Blondelawyer, and MBJ. I miss them all so much but so glad I got to "know" them through the boards.
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