Calling all triple negative breast cancer patients in the UK
Comments
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Sylvia
We here have also returned to hot, dry weather; yesterday there was also a hot wind blowing which further dried everything out. My tulip trees are dropping their leaves because of dryness, they are flying everywhere.
As to the varicose vein treatment, I was told before I undertook it that it was an elective procedure, but I might save myself some problems down the road if I did it. I was a bit surprised that insurance paid for it, but I suppose their rationale is that if the problem is let go, the expense would be worse later if things progressed badly.
The clinic I am going to is nothing like the one in Bristol, I haven't seen before such an array of treatments for various problems as they have. It seems to me that here we are in the grip of orthodox medicine only, I had never heard of Iscador until you brought it up, as an example. It seems commonly offered in Europe and UK. I listen to a Doctor show on satellite radio sometimes, and I have noticed that anytime someone calls in with a question about something alternative, even a vitamin, the responses are very guarded and usually dismissive.
I am not sure what the chemicals are that are injected into the legs, all I know is they are called schlerosing drugs, they have the effect of drying up the blood in the injected veins and letting the vein die.
I have looked at "Moving Beyond Cancer", and I did see the Booklover's Club. Most of the books that are now being talked about there are not to my taste either, I really don't spend much time on other threads, sometimes it's hard just keeping up with this one. Perhaps because we tend to get into depth here, it takes some time!
I'm off for today, will be going to the mountains for a few days later this week, it will be cooler if nothing e
Talk to you soon, love, Mary
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Hi Helen
So you had a doctor who listened to you and kept you in the hospital a little longer, that was nice. It would have been nice not to have to mess with the drains.
Did you have any nodes removed? That will make a difference in the feeling of the recovery. I still have strange sensations at times in the surgery area, because of the nerves that were cut. I also had a seroma for a while on my surgery site, the surgeon stuck a needle in it twice and removed fluid, the third time she did an ultrasound and pronounced the fluid was gone.
I hope you can avoid the side effects of all this treatment, the lymphedema and the neuropathy. Congratulations again on being finished!
Love, Mary
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Hi, Bryce99
I am so sorry that your young sister has come down with this, it must be very upsetting for all of you. That seems a lot of nodes to have removed, do they think the tumor was present for a while?
Vitamin D is very important, not only for prevention of BC, but also for strong bones. Bone strength can even be affected by chemotherapy, so supplementing is something I do every day. I take at least 5000 IU a day, and am still just right at the normal mark when I am tested. The government regulations call for 400 IU a day, so you see that level is not right for everyone. It is quite easy to have her tested to see what her levels are; but here, I am not supposed to be giving advice!
I looked briefly at Luteolin, and saw that it is a flavone, and is in many of our common vegetables in good supply. And all of these foods are promoted as good for prevention of cancer. Carrots, broccoli, celery and peppers are only a few of the fruits and vegetables mentioned. Many of us here believe that the Rainbow Diet, or some version thereof, is very beneficial. It incorporates many colorful fruits and vegetables, and goes easy on the red meats, and uses more fish. Very little or no dairy. We can certainly talk more about that.
I wish you the very best, talk to you again soon,
Mary
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Hello helenlouise (Helen),
I was very glad to know that you had received a visit from a physio while you were in hospital and that she gave you some exercises to do. It is very important to keep the arm moving. Just do what you can and do not overdo it. I think that sometimes the physiotherapists push the patient too hard. Work at your own pace.
I do hope the soreness wears off soon.
You did the right thing seeing a physiotherapist a few weeks before your surgery. I think it is very important for a patient to prepare themselves for each stage of their breast cancer journey.
I suppose the soreness comes from the anaesthetic and any pain killers having worn off. I remember that during the five days I was in hospital after a mastectomy that the nurses would ask what level of pain I had from 1 to 10 and whether I wanted some paracetamol. I always said I had no pain and I did not take any paracetamol.
My breast cancer surgeon was a woman and she did a really neat job on my mastectomy and that could be why everything seemed fine.
I think it is good to stay in hospital while the drains are still in, so that the medical staff can keep an eye on anything going wrong. I remember the nurse who took my drains out and she told me to breathe in as she took them out, in order to avoid any strange feeling. Today, at least in England, patients seem to be sent home the next day and a district nurse comes in to deal with the drains.
I do hope you will not have any trouble with lymphoedema, especially as you have had a bilateral mastectomy. Keep an eye on any puffiness in the hands or numbness in the upper arms. I remember my right arm feeling numb the day after surgery and I was told that was normal. It did wear off.
I do hope all will go well when you see the breast cancer surgeon on Tuesday and that everything feels better when the dressing is taken off.
Give yourself time to recover from all of this.
Sending you best wishes.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello,
I'm not sure if I've ever posted before on this thread but I've read through some of the pages & really like how warm and thoughtful this group is.
I'm in Vancouver, Canada, finished chemo 2 weeks ago & now waiting to start radiation (hopefully soon!)0 -
Hello ellewebs (Ellen),
I can understand how your mum feels about not wanting to lose her hair. I remember what an awful feeling it was when my hair started to fall out after the first chemotherapy session, but somehow you get through it. I got a nice wig and I was very comfortable wearing it. By the time I went for my second chemotherapy session I was wearing the wig. I do not think age comes into this at all. Our hair is so much a part of us and to have to go through losing it through chemotherapy is not very nice at any age. However, we do it and we come out the other side.
What are the plans now for your mother? Please let us know the details.
I do not really have an opinion about turmeric. These so-called superfoods come and go. I am not a great believer in taking pills. As for turmeric I do have some from time to time but, as I have said before, I buy fresh turmeric root at my local greengrocer's and wash it, cut it up and cook it with a mixture of vegetables, most often carrots or sweet potatoes. I also put in some fresh cut up ginger root. Turmeric and ginger root belong to the same family.
Sometimes I buy a bottle of ground turmeric and mix it up with a little black pepper in some hummous.
On the thread we all believe in eating healthily and we have discussed at length the benefits of the Mediterranean/Rainbow diet.
If you are going to take supplements for turmeric, I would think the best ones would be the ones labelled curcumin, because this is the ingredient in turmeric that is supposed to have all the benefits.
I do not believe in any one magic thing for curing cancer. Cancer is multi-causal and I do not think there is a magic bullet cure.
It would be nice if there were much greater efforts made about prevention rather than keep finding more and more toxic drugs to try to bring a patient to a state of no evidence of disease (NED).
Keep being positive.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Flora,
I am having a busy afternoon trying to catch up with all the posts.
As for Iscador, your mum should do whatever she feels comfortable with. As I have said, I took it for five years, all through my treatment, along with special homoeopathic powders for each stage of my treatment. I do not think it did me any harm and I think it helped me. I certainly had no problems through surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. I had Iscador months I started orthodox treatment with chemotherapy first and I continued to take Iscador for about three years after I finished treatment until Dr Thompson and I agreed that I could be discharged from her.
Oncologists, of course, believe in their chemotherapy drugs, but my one certainly admitted that they were toxic. I remember her saying to me that she was going to have to poison me to treat me!
I certainly agree that it is better to get your nutrients from food rather than supplements.
I am sure that had you lived in Switzerland or Germany your conversation with the oncologist would have been rather different.
There are many cases of orthodox medicine killing people but I doubt if any have died from Iscador. As Chris Woollams, Cancer Active, says how many people have died of taking vitamins?!?
I was told when I was diagnosed that the prognosis was not good, because after treatment anti-hormonal medication would be of no use. I ignored all this, did what I thought was best for me and above all remained positive about being negative in the three receptors.
With reference to aspirin, low dose or high dose, I would not take it, but that is my own opinion. I do not like the idea of the side effects, like bleeding.
With Dr Thompson I had only powders and the Iscador was oral. I did not have Iscador injections because of the risk of infection, especially during chemotherapy.
Thinking of you and your mum.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi all,
I would like to have one last try at discussing chemo with my mum. Can you tell me honestly what the side effects were and is it really that bad ? I am sure she will still say no but just wondering if I could persuade her to try one cycle and see how it goes - to me 37% chance of reoccurrence with chemo and 50% without is worth the pain, but I have to try and accept her decision. I just want some facts to put in front of her. One last shot at persuasion and then I am done !! Any help you could give ladies would be most appreciated.
Best wishes
Ellen. xx
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Hello bryce99,
I am posting to offer you all my sympathy about the diagnosis of your younger sister, aged only 28, with triple negative breast cancer nine months ago.
How did she discover that she had breast cancer, because she was probably too young to be having mammograms?
I was so sorry to read that she had received a trial drug, but had had to stop due to the side effects. That must have been very nasty. Do you happen to remember the name of the drug? I know that nowadays there is a lot of talk about treating breast cancer with immunotherapy drugs, but there has been no posts so far from anyone that I remember who is having this treatment.
It looks as though after that failed drug they put her on standard chemotherapy drugs. I was glad to read that these drugs brought some improvement.
I do hope that she will have a good recovery from the mastectomy of her left breast. As I asked before, did she have a very large tumour, because 55 lymph nodes removed, of which 33 had cancer, seems an enormous amount.
She needs to be well recovered from the surgery before she has radiotherapy. When I had a mastectomy of the right breast I had about four weeks to recover before starting radiotherapy which I had for three weeks with boosters included.
Have you had any appointments to discuss radiotherapy, to have a mapping out of the area to have the radiation, on a prototype of the radiotherapy machine?
I have no idea whether vitamin D stops metastases but the information over the years is that we should be taking vitamin D and that lots of women, when diagnosed with breast cancer, are found to be deficient in vitamin D. like Mary, I take vitamin D regularly, usually on a daily basis. I use Solgar vitamin D3 4,000 iu. It is essential for bone health and your sister's bones may have taken a beating from the chemotherapy drugs. If that were me I would be getting a blood test to find out what my level of vitamin D is and I would also be getting a bone density scan (DEXA scan) to find out what state my bones are in and whether I have osteopenia or osteoporosis. Ideally it is good to have the vitamin D blood test and the DEXA scan before and after treatment to make a comparison.
I have looked up Luteoline and now know that is a flavonoid and I have read that flavonoids are good for you. I am posting a link about this. It is in common foods like broccoli and celery and other foods, so if your sister is having a healthy diet of mixed foods she should be getting it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luteolin
I have not read anything about research with reference to Luteolin injected in mice that suppressed TNBC. It would be interesting to see if anyone posts in about all this.
Do you know what kind of breast cancer your sister has? The most common is invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Do you know the stage and grade? Tumours with TNBC receptor status are usually grade 3.
I was interested to know that you are living in California. We have Pam and Monica who live there as well.
Take care of yourself as all this takes its toll on carers, friends and family.
Sending you very best wishes from all of us.
Sylvia xxxx
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I had my vitamin D levels tested when I began chemotherapy and they were found to be pretty low, so I was given a high-dose supplement to take for three months and advised to buy and take it after treatment ends. The level had risen noticeably after two cycles and I've got a daily 4000iu pill lined up ready for the future.
Susie
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My vitamin D levels were also low. My general practitioner recommended 1,000 units a day, which I am now taking.
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Hello Moth,
Thank you for your post. I would like to give you a warm welcome and let you know that we shall do everything we can to help and support you.
I see from your post that you have already completed a huge part of your cancer journey and that you have got through your surgery and your chemotherapy treatment. How did it all go for you?
Have you any idea when you will start your radiotherapy? Please let us know. We are always very interested to learn anything new from patients going through treatment. it is the only way that we make progress.
if there is anything that you would like to know, please ask.
Sending you very best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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update...
Today was a big day with doctors. This morning my review with surgeon. She removed fluid both sides. Left has a seroma and right hematoma! I am now in a sports bra trying to keep some pressure on my chest to stop or slow down the fluid build up. Have another appointment with surgeon next week to check on progress. Aside from fluid incisions are clean and healing well. This afternoon my oncologist gave us the pathology - no surprises. Only three tumours found and onoy the one node (out of 8) involved which is good news (nothing new) but the metastasis in the node had breached the node wall. Margins clear so cancer has been fully excised. Some swelling in my arm so straight off for ultrasound to rule out DVT. Thank goodness all clear. So once I am healed my next step is radiation.
I feel quite sore but I suppose it should be sore! Someone said it felt like sunburn and I agree. The general discomfort is like sunburn across my chest. Aside from that I feel like the skin in my underarm is stuck to my side. Weird sensation. Hopefully now that the dressing is gone the sensation will return to normal. I am exercising but caught between doing it and over doing it. I have booked a physio for next week just to check I am heading in the right direction.
Hoping this post finds you all well or as well as can be expected.
Thank you x
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Sylvia
Just a quick pop-in to tell you about my dinner last night: This summer I had a spaghetti squash plant volunteer itself to grow from my compost heap. I have begun to harvest them, and last night had half of a squash with my homemade home-canned marinara sauce on top. Wow! Such flavor, tasted so much better than any sauce I have bought in a store, and the squash was great too. One of summer's nice gifts!
Mary
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Hello Sylvia, thanks for the welcome.
The surgery was a breeze. Chemo was quite hard on me because I had a really hard time keeping my white blood cell counts up, in spite of using the shots to stimulate it. We tried a couple different types and I just don't respond much to them so I ended up with febrile neutropenia twice and in hospital for IV antibiotics for 5 days each time. I had several delays in my chemo and a reduced dose throughout but finally 5 months of chemo came to an end on July 19.
My MO explained that appropriate chemo dosages are not very well understood and some people need to have theirs reduced so I shouldn't worry. And in fact there is a study showing that people who had dose reductions due to hematological complications had outcomes the same *or better* than people who didn't. The authors speculated that those with hematological complications were getting their own personal maximum dosage of chemo drugs, whereas it's possible that the people with no side effects were actually being under dosed. It's an ongoing area of research and as we move into more personalized medicine, I imagine we will tailor treatments more precisely.I'm feeling better every day - energy returning (though I was pretty active throughout), appetite, sense of smell etc. Hair started growing back while on taxol and it's continuing to; I'm still mostly bald but have lots of fuzzy baby hair. Still no sign of eyebrows and lashes only just starting to come back. I've been going bald the whole time - no wigs or head coverings. Towards the last 1/3 of my 12 taxols I developed some minor neuropathy and started icing hands & feet during the treatments right away. I believe it helped a lot. The neuropathy seems to be abating nicely. Just a small bit of numbness in my toes and I'm hopeful it will all go away soon. A couple of my nails alas are also going away - peeling and lifting off the nailbed. Oh well, it's a minor cosmetic issue and it will all grow out eventually.
I'm an international board certified lactation consultant & before cancer I had planned to go back to school this September for my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I hope I can get everything organized for Sept. but getting my immunizations up to date may be a problem. Some vaccines you can't take until 3+ months after chemo ends. We will see - I'm sorting it all out in the next couple weeks.
I've had my radiation mapping and little tattoos and I'm hoping to start in the next couple weeks but there are delays as one of the machines in our center is undergoing repairs. While I wish the scheduling was smoother and more patient centered (I just have to wait until they call & tell me when it will start; our August holiday plans are all up in the air) I love our health system, love that it's been free, and that I've not worried for even a second about paying for any of it. And my doctors are all faculty at the university as our provincial cancer agency is a research and teaching facility as well, so I feel I'm getting top notch, world-class care.cheers to all ~
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Thank you for your comments. I bought a book called the rainbow diet but my sister has yet to use it. I will bring it up again to her. The tumor size on the long edge ended up being 9 cm. Originally, she felt a lump in her breast and immediately had a biopsy. At that time it was thought to be around 5 cm. The Taxol/carbo appeared to shrink the tumor on MRI imaging but the AC had no effect. The trial drug she was on was SGN LIV1A also known as LADIRATUZUMAB VEDOTIN (often used in TNBC metastasis). She had 9/10 abdominal pain in the left upper quadrant and her liver enzymes spiked (not know side effects).
I've been doing a lot of research lately on studies regarding metastasis. Including use of Vitamin D, Aspirin, Quercetin, and Luteolin in preventing metastasis. Most of the studies are in mice but the Aspirin looked at a group of over 250 people (still small amount) but with significant results in preventing reoccurrence because TNBC attaches itself to platelets. I also found a journal that laid out the complexities within the triple negative subtypes. Apparently, there are 7. Certain types are also more effective to certain treatments.
I will send links to all the publications if you message me. Hopefully, they can be used to prompt questions but not intended to give advice on what to take or do. Always talk to your doctor to make sure there are no interactions. Also, taking antioxidants Quercetin, and Luteolin could degrade certain chemo treatments if taken at the same time.
For some reason I cannot post links.
-Bryce
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Hello Mary,
I am once again trying to catch up on the posts. It is so very busy at the moment. Raymond and I have had to spend a lot of time with hose pipes trying to keep everything watered. We also have a lot of leaves being dropped because of the dryness. What do tulip trees look like?
I think you were right to have some vein treatment, as my information is everything just gets worse until you get the venous ulcers. It looks as though the treatment is either lasers or injections.
We are also in the grip of orthodox medicine. The NHS is struggling but if you want to go private it is easy to get treatment, but it is really expensive.
As for the mistletoe treatment (Iscador) I think it is quite easy to get it here as private alternative treatment. As you know I had it on the NHS but I think that may have gone completely now. Orthodox medicine does not like alternative or homoeopathic, but I think the future lies in integrative treatment.
I do not look much at other forums but I do try to look at the Active Topics to see if there is anything of interest, especially lymphoedema, high calcium blood levels, because of the over active parathyroid I had in the past, and because if you have high calcium blood levels it can be a sign of metastases, so you have to know if it is this or thyroid or parathyroid problems.
It is true that on our thread we do tend to go in depth and have very interesting discussions, so it takes time.
By the way, with reference to your other post, your supper sounded delicious. There is nothing like home made from scratch.
When are you going to the mountains?
That is all for now.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Ellen,
I do hope you will let your mum make her own decision about having chemotherapy. It is difficult for any of us to make that decision for your mum. Chemotherapy is very individual in its effect on each one of us and depends on so many different things, especially, I think, the state of health we are in when we start it. Some patients have a really bad time with neutropenia, blood transfusions and hospitalisations. Others fare better, but nevertheless there are long term side effects that can happen, neuropathy, lymphoedema, heart problems etc.
As for statistics and percentages, I personally take no notice of that kind of information.
I remember clearly one registrar telling me at an appointment just before another chemotherapy session, that there are fatalities during chemotherapy. I thought that was nice and encouraging!!!
Sending you very best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Helen, Moth and Bryce,
Thank you all for your posts today. I am out of time but wanted to say how interesting I found them all.
I shall try to answer in more detail tomorrow and hope that some other members of the group will come in with comments. It is summer and other people may be taking a rest or on holiday. It is good to get points of view from different people.
Best wishes to you and to everyone, posters and viewers.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi Moth (nice handle),
I'm about three weeks behind you, with final chemo this Friday then radiotherapy to come about a month later. I am looking forward to getting tattoo-ed as it will make me feel very 'edgy'.
Sorry you had so much difficulty with the white blood cells and the neutropenic sepsis. Rotten luck.
Susie
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Susie - yay, you're almost done with chemo! How's it been for you? Which protocol?
fwiw, my rad tats are so small I can barely find them! I am a pale blond now tons of moles (a youth spent on beaches & boats - sooner or later they'll be cutting a skin cancer off me) and they get lost. I have to really search to see them!
I've used 'moth' as one of my handles for years but I discovered too late it's not the best choice for here because if I'm trying to find my own post on a page Ctrl-F keeps giving me 'chemotherapy' in the results...& that word gets used a lot LOL
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Hello to Helenlouise, Moth and Bryce99
And to the other regulars of course.
I wanted to check in briefly just to say that I agree with whoever it was (Moth I think?) who said what a warm and helpful thread this is. It really is wonderful that Sylvia has kept it going for so long, and I feel it is that very continuity that has contributed to its success. I know people have drifted in and out over the years(as happens naturally when people resume their post-treatment "normality"), but the fact that there has always been a wonderful stable base, in the form of Sylvia and her thoughtful, balanced messages, makes it unlike any of the other forums I have checked out.
And I love the "daily life" anecdotes such as the one from Mary about the spaghetti squash on the compost heap! The simple things in life...
Ellen- good luck re: your conversation with your mum about the chemo. I feel for you both, and hope that you can come to accept whatever your mother decides to do. It is so strange that my mother and I have had experience of the "opposite" dilemma: the surgeon saying "no further treatmeat due to your age" and my mum and I begging for chemo!
Bryce-your search about aspirin chimes well with mine. Two of the consultants we've seen have suggested there are encouraging signs re: aspirin and prevention of BC cancer recurrence. One went as far as to suggest a 75g daily dose for my mum, not specifically for the anti-recurrence purpose-as correct dosage for this is still under research-but for general health benefits. He did say, however, that he recommended aspirin be stopped during chemo, due to the small likelihood of bleeding becoming more pronounced with low white blood cell count.
The Vitamin D thing is interesting. I must make sure my mother gets her levels checked before chemo. Not sure if this is standard or not in her health trust.
Anyway, hope everyone has a good evening(if in UK , morning if in Australia and afternoon if in US/Canada!)
Flora
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Oh, yes! Whoops! Reminds me of when the Houses of Parliament put an obscenity filter on incoming email and the MP for Scunthorpe suddenly realised he wasn't getting any emails at all.
I had three 3-week cycles of FEC and then the same of Docetaxal. No problems with the FEC. Docetaxal giving me a couple of days of headache/sore throat/joint pains and, more annoyingly, ten days of everything tasting vile.
Yes, I know the tats are very small but I shall still be able to say, 'Hey, I have a tattoo. No you can't see it as it's in an intimate place'.
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HI, Moth
Your experience with chemo sounds very familiar to me; I also had a hard time with it. After my first infusion I felt worse every day and about a week later had to go to the hospital with low white cells, extreme weakness, and a fever. I also had 5 days with IV antibiotics. The doc had tried to give me all 3 drugs at a time, AC and T, he thought it would go faster, but I could not handle it. I had numbness in feet after the first treatment of chemo, and still have neuropathy in various places, my legs do not have the strength of previous times and my feet usually are tingly. I was so happy when I finished, little did I know how long it would take me to get back out of the hole I was in physically.
I like the theory that maybe some people just don't need as much chemo as others, I was never given any explanation, they cut the dose so I could finish it.
It also sounds as if you have come through it well, that is awesome. I did not eat enough and lost too much weight and muscle, and I didn't have a lot to start with. Ah well, we are here now to talk about it, and I for one feel like I/we climbed a mountain.
Good luck with getting all in order so you can start your classes for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing, that's admirable. I hope the radiation starts soon, and you can get that behind you, and get on with your life.
Talk to you again soon, Mary
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Hello bryce99,
Thank you for your latest post and the details about your sister's treatment.
What is happening with her now? Is she now considered stage 4 and thus metastatic. If so what treatment is being offered? If she is still stage 3, what is her oncologist suggesting? You need to be guided by her oncologist and what is suggested and then your sister needs to make up her mind what she wants to do.
I can see that you have been doing a lot of research, but that can get very confusing.
There is no magic bullet to cure breast cancer. It is a complicated disease with various different types of breast cancer with hormonal or non-hormonal tumour receptors, but the basic treatment is surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. There is a pool of chemotherapy drugs and we get the same ones with variations in the regimen. Remember too that cancer cells are mutating all the time. It seems to me your sister needs a frank discussion with her oncologist and medical team to find the right solution for her.
Has she been tested for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 faulty genes?
How is she coping emotionally with all of this? How are you coping with this?
Fond thoughts.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Helenlouise,
Give yourself time to heal. You will find that everything will sort itself out.
What is the next step for you?
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Moth,
Thank you for all the details in your latest post. It does seem that the taxanes do take a toll on people, whether it is docetaxel (Taxotere) or paclitaxel (Taxol). It was on docetaxel that I lost my eyebrows and eyelashes. They did come back but are not quite the same as they were.
As for neuropathy, it is also the taxanes that cause this. This is what my oncologist told me. I have numbness in the feet and it is still there all these years after treatment. My oncologist told me there is no cure, as did two podiatrists and my GP.
It is also now known that the taxanes cause lymphoedema. You might want to read the book Let's Talk Lymphoedema.
I do hope all goes well with your radiotherapy.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi, Sylvia
I can post a pic of a tulip tree (liriolinden) later. These are large trees, not the small ones that flower in spring. These do bear flowers in spring and they are unusual, a light green with yellow centers and cup-shaped and they blend into the foliage. But the trees can grow very large, and are water-lovers, this dry, hot weather is hard on them.
I will be leaving this morning for a few days, it is going to be 20 to 25 degrees cooler where we are headed, that sounds wonderful to me. I will try to keep in touch here while gone.
I am rather in the same thought pattern as you about the venous issue, if I can get things helped with minimal insult to the body I'm for it. But I won't fool myself it will be a permanent fix.
I had better get moving, I will talk to you soon
Love, Mary
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Hi Ladies, I had a long chat with mum about chemo and she has spoken to her breast cancer nurse today. She is thinking she will give the first dose of chemo a try and see how it goes - it seems to affect everyone so differently so I am keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't have too many side effects but we can only wait to see. She may yet change her mind and I am fine with that too if she decides chemo is going to be too much for her. The breast cancer nurse did say that they would have only offered her the treatment if she thought she was well enough to go through with it. She is having ACT treatment so I presume the Taxol you talk about is the T bit of the treatment - doesn't sound very nice stuff. Anyhow will keep you updated ladies and lots of love to everyone going through this. Ellen. xx
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Hello, everyone
I saw my consultant oncologist this morning. On our two previous meetings I found her cold and impersonal but she was all sweetness and light this morning. Just moody? Or maybe she doesn't like to get too attached to us until she's happy that we're going to make it.
I signed the consent forms for the radiotherapy and am awaiting phone calls to schedule a CT scan, the appointment with the radiologist and the therapy itself. I am also to have six-monthly injections for three years to reduce the chance of bone cancer. Anyone else have this? I asked about aspirin and she says that Ealing Hospital is doing a trial with it and she'll put my name forward for it.
It's all go.
Susie
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