TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP
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Nora I'm not surprised at all. If you were to have a local recurrance the most likely place is usually the scars. Also they remove most of your breast tissue but they can't get it all. We don't get mammos but we do get felt up for the rest of our lives… eventhough we can't feel it.
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Good Luck Mimi! You will soon be with the deported!
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Good luck Mimi!
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My last herceptin was finished yesterday and the clinic where I got infusion in Canada had a new celebration program: to hit the "gong"!!! I hit it a little gentle for the first time try not to scare other patients but gave a better hit the second time. that is the most exciting thing I did in the last year. My onc nurse was very nice and several clinic staff celebrated with me. One jurney was done.
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meglove - Congratulations!!!!!0
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Congrats meglove! I hit a gong type thing after my last radiation treatment last year. Cool closure tradition!
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meglove: Congratulations! That sounds like a fun ending to Herceptin.
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Congrats Meglove and Mimi! YAH!
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Clean mammo today! I'm a happy, happy girl.
My sweet, sweet DH showed up to the mammo area of the hospital. I told him not to come to the mammo, just to show up for the meeting with the RO after mammo. The two places are at opposite ends of the hospital so I parked in one lot and he parked in the other. I was walking through the hospital to my mammo and I got a text from DH: "I'm here". Almost made me cry right there. He is so amazing and I didn't realize just how nervous I was until those words showed up on my screen.
The radiologist said that he wants me to have an MRI - just as a precaution - 6 months after I finish Herceptin. But he saw absolutely nothing of concern on my mammo.
Other good news of the day? I lost 8lbs since I finished rads in August. I still have a ways to go, but I was happy to see those 8lbs gone.0 -
pejkug3 - Congrats on the clean mammo...the best news in the world!0
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pejkug3 Great news-congrats!!!0
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Meglove! Wonderful news. Congratulations!
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I love good news - congrats pejkug3!0
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Great news everyone!
Kay....yes I ice while on herceptin. My onc, who was not particularly a beleiver in the icing, told me to keep using it while on herceptin since I had good results. He said hedoesn't know if it makes a difference, butit would make sense that it followsthe same premise as it would for chemo. So,i keep at ti, except for the time I forgot them0 -
Pejkug-congrats on the clean mammo!!! We can both start the new yr with good news:)
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Happy New Year everyone!!!
Just talked with my younger sister (35) on the phone. She will have a biopsy on Jan at London because the doctor saw some calcification (or lump) in her left breast from mammo. Nothing show up in the ultrosound. I am worried about her. she had a lumpectomy in 2011 to remove a lump from her right breast and it was benign. She will have erect stereo mammo. although calcification only showed up on the left breast, the doc wants to biopsy both breasts. Why is that? To compare?
I will pray for her to get a benign results. Could she ask the doctor to remove those calcification points by surgery? Thanks and wish everyone well in the New Year!!
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Wishing all you brave ladies a happy and very healthy new year! I have learned so much from you ladies and want to thank you all for sharing your experiences. I am midway thru my 6 neoadjuvant TCH chemos.my 4th will be in 10 days. Between the 5th and6th treatment I will meet with the bs to discuss what is supposed to be scheduling for my lumpectomy and then on to 6 weeks of rads. He has left the decision to me but made ihe clear that there is no huge survival benefit from MX. I however have been leaning toward bmx. I notice many of you triple positives have had mx or bmx. Was it recommended or was it your choice? Did you still need rads if you chose MX?
How bad was the post op?0 -
asha I had to have at least an MX because my tumor was so big (6.5cm including the DCIS) and my former breast being so small. The MRI did show 4 suspicious areas on my other breast but only 1 that my BS was concerned with. At that point he recommended a BMX. Initially he recommended just the MX. That suspicious area turned out to be a small amount of LCIS… which is what I think my BS expected it to be.
My BS is not a fan of removing healthy tissue but initially when I thought I might have a BMX prior to mammo he said he would support what ever I chose to do. In the end I don't feel I really had a choice. It made sense to do the double.
Remember you will have no feeling in your breast or nipple once you do a BMX. I'm not regretting my choice but just letting you know about this. No one really pointed that out. They do say that having a BMX your breasts will match better if you decide on recon.
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Happy healthy new year to everyone!
Me glove, sorry about your sister's scare. I hope it's benign. Sorry, though, I don't know much about your question.
Ashla, I had mx, but had no choice due to size and being in more than one quadrant. Had to have rads any way because of lymph nodes. I was thinking of bmx, but am happy I didn't. I had DIEP and the fake boob feels soft and looks really good I think, but I don't have any feeling in it. I am glad I have one boob with feeling still. MO told me the only reason for bmx would be if I would be too nervous worrying about BC coming to it. Everyone who has had BC in one breast is at a higher risk for the other breast, but I believe about 3%. Other than that, I have no risk factors so don't think I will get a new BC. And if I get a recurrence, it will be somewhere else, not in the other breast. This was right for me, but you need to do what's best for you. Congrats on being half done chemo and good luck with your sx. If you have any other questions, ask, the ladies on this thread are very knowledgable and very helpful. I am sure you will get more info from them.0 -
Thx so much...I must have missed a step because my diagnosis was left out. I have stage II idc 3 cm negative nodes triple positive. I was hoping I could avoid radiation ...my mass is on the left side ..and have just a small amount more peace of mind and less stress. I see so many were brought back because of margin problems post lumpectomy. How bad was post op after the mastectomy?
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I had a big sx, mx with level 2 ALND and belly flap reconstruction. Within 2 weeks, I was really feeling pretty well. I was in the hospital 5 days and they were the worst days. I think most of the discomfort was from the abdominal incision and the ALND. Not that mx is easy, but I don't think that bad either. Someone who didn't have the other stuff would be better to answer that. I wouldn't let that have any weight in your decision though. I would say within a couple of weeks you'd be feeling well, and even the first couple of weeks wouldn't be terrible. The worst part of mx IMO is the drains. Mine were all out in two weeks. The drains weren't painful, but I just couldn't stand them. My sx was in August, and I am forgetting most of it now.
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What was the reason You didn't do implants? Isn't that a much easier process?
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Implants were not recommended for me because I had to do radiation. PS said there was a 60% chance implants would fail because of radiation. Especially now that I am recovered though I am happy I did the flap. It's my own tissue so it feels exactly like my other breast. And I got a tummy tuck, although also a huge scar from hip to hip. So it was easy for me, I had no choice. There are threads on deciding between implants and flap though. I think implants, even without radiation, have a higher chance of failing. There are women on the DIEP thread who had implants that failed and then had flap reconstruction. It was a harder sx, but after about two weeks, I really felt well. It was much easier doing mx rather than bmx though. I could still use my left side normally. If you have drains on both sides, I think you would be more incapacitated. I don't think the couple of weeks should really play much in your decision though, it really does go fast. I also only had enough fat for one breast which played a bit of a part. And while I would like the peace of mind of not having as much worry about cancer in the other breast (there are women who get recurrences in their breast even after mx, but pretty rare I think), I am happy to have sensation in one breast. I also had neoadjuvant chemo then sx. I was told just having been through chemo would make recovery a bit slower and harder. Not sure if it would have been easier if I hadn't finished chemo three weeks prior to sx, but recovery was really easier than I thought. And I am a pretty big baby with something like that too.
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Ashla It was really the node removal (1st lever 10 nodes on one side, 4 SNB on the right) and the anesthesia that was the bigger deal for me as far as healing. That being said I didn't take any pain meds, not even a Tylenol but I don't think that's typical. Surgery was on late Tuesday afternoon. Came home Thursday. Friday I asked the nurse if I could go to an Art Fair! I didn't go because I did realize I just didn't have that kind of energy but I did go out for a while. The following Tuesday I went to the hair dresser to get my hair washed. He looked at me and asked if I had my surgery yet! Guess I hid my drains well with the big shirt.
I do believe I rode the bus to a free-lance gig at my old employer about 3 weeks post BMX.
Typically if your tumor is over 5cm they do recommend rads even if no nodes. I was in a gray area but my rad onc gave me a pass due to such aggressive treatment.
I did implants because I was too thin for "belly flap" even if I was only doing 1 breast. I also wasn't too keen on having more scars. Belly flap is a one shot deal but a longer recovery. Implants require a few surgeries and in the future you will have to get them replaced although I do know women that have had the same ones for 20 years. Implants do require maintenance, massaging and visits with PS for check ups.
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One more thing. If you decide to do a lumpectomy be sure to give your BS permission to do an MX if he sees more. My neighbor went in for a lump and the BS did find more requiring her to need an MX. Because he didn't have permission he had to close her up and bring her back in a few days later to do the MX.
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Thx to both of you for your great advice. I just spoke to an old friend who is 12 years out from triple positive treatments! She was one of the first on herceptin at Memorial Sloan Kettering and the chemo was different in many ways but she has had no recurrence and she had lumpectomy! She advised me to let the doctor make the call and thanks to you I will tell him that if there is trouble he had my permission to do the mx.
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Ashla, I had a choice between lump/rads or mx. I chose bmx for peace of mind, even though I know that in reality not much difference in recurrence chance. I recovered very quickly, drains were the biggest annoyance & I had a hard time w anesthesia. I chose implants & am getting expansions now during chemo. I prefer the look of implants & didnt want longer recovery involved with flap. No rads because node negative, but I am wondering if anyone got rads with bmx if they had lymphovascular invasion present, even though nodes were negative? This has been on my mind all week and I plan to ask onc about it Wednesday, but does anyone know if oncs generally rely on chemo when there is LVI, or would rads ever be recommended in the case of LVI but node negative? Ashla, good luck with whatever you choose.
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Shore Rads is used to prevent local recurrence. I don't think LVI status would make a difference in rads. If they use it as an indicator at all I would think maybe chemo but not sure.0
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I don't even know what limpovascular invasion is. Is that a condition found as a result of the actual surgery?
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LVI=lymphvascular invasion is where the pathologist sees some cancer cells trying to cross into lymph vessels or blood vessels when he or she looks at the tumor sample under the microscope.0
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ashla: I just had a lumpectomy - totally let my BS make that call. He said he did not think anything more drastic was necessary in my case. Just remember everyone is different and the decision needs to be based on you.
I did the lumpectomy (probably the easiest part of the whole process), then the sentinal node removal (no nodes involved) then port placement, chemo next, radiation, now on my last 4 Herceptins and of course I started Tamoxifen somewhere in there.
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