TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP
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8 lbs 8 oz and 8 lbs 10 oz here and no gestational diabetes either.
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6 lbs 13 oz and 7 lbs 13 oz here
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See, busted already, thanks Kellogs! LOL
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Haven't had anything done yet, her2+++, er+, pr+ 2.9 cm idc with 2 nodes at least positive. I called about the Herceptin alone trial and left a message. I am pondering doing nothing, or surgery alone. Both, I am told, are suicide, but unless someone does it who knows. Everyone gets the treatment so there are no comparison statistics. I might consider Herceptin alone, but of course they say no one will do it. I don't have an oncologist, but I talked to one who is a friend of a friend and he said the studies show Herceptin alone does not work so.... Now, when I say doing nothing, I don't really mean nothing. I mean immune system boosters and alkalyne boosters rather than conventional meds. Still deciding. Surgery is scheduled in two weeks, and planning on postponing to give more time for tumor marker labs to come back. I had bone and CT scan come back clear only to be told by the Onc and the Radiologist that those don't really show the details. There can be cancer they don't find. Wondering why I subjected myself and body to those tests.
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Nancedawg,
Just in case you are unaware....chemo ..TCH chemo works. I had neoadjuvant TCH therapy and my tumor was completely gone by the time I finished treatment. There are others in this forum ...some with mets...who had pCR( pathologically complete responses) Even a partial response would have been worth it or me. Whether or not I remain NED no one can say but for me anyway.....at this point... TCH chemo was the right choice.
You don't say why you considering " doing nothing". Do you have medical problems that make treatment impossible?0 -
Welcome nancedawg. When I met with the breast surgeon he explained that the surgery and radiation is to control the local cancer in the breast and lymph nodes. The chemo/herceptin and anti-estrogen treatments are designed primarily to get rid of any cancer cells that may have gotten out of the tumor and into the rest of the body. I was a baby aspirin person before treatment so I understand how hard it is to consider chemotherapy. We are here for you whatever you want to talk about.0
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No, actually I am in good health with the exception of the cancer. I have never been a big fan of traditional medicine or big pharma, and I don't relish finding myself in this situation. I haven't been to the doctor in 30 years, I birthed my children at home. I can relate to the Amish. I have been reading all the blogs on this forum and the traditional medical way just makes me cringe. I know it sounds crazy, but I think I would like to take my chances either with surgery only, or nor surgery at all...haven't decided that yet. I am pretty sure I won't succumb to the chemicals. There is something to be said of letting your immune system fight the cancer off.
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Ashla - I always like hearing you say that your tumor was gone after TCH! I had chemo after surgery so I don't have the gauge that you did but when you say it worked it makes me feel like it worked for me too.0
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nancedawg - I think sometimes our immune system has blind spots or sometimes the cancer is clever and has an invisibility cloak. My tumor grew from undetectable on mammo to over 2cm in about a year and a half. Somehow my immune system wasn't able to stop it.0
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Welcome nancedawg: I have a friend (much younger than I am, in her late 30's) who is her second go-round with bc. She has a lumpectomy only the first time and the cancer is back and did not do chemo the second round but opted only for a double mastectomy. I hope round three of the bc doesn't hit her again because I don't think it will be a good situation. We all understand how you feel - I believe the majority of us here are health food junkies and pretty much like the all natural way of doing things but IMO to think your immune system will take care of it is pretty risky. Your immune system allowed the cancer to develop and if it was going to fight it off, it wouldn't be there in the first place. All just my TOTALY uneducated opinion but wanted to add another perspective. Regardless what you decide, we are here for you!
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Omaz: Love the invisibility cloak.
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6 lbs 10 ozs here.
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Nance,
I understand the desire to forgo chemo. It is not fun that's for sure. I'm not going to give you my opinion on going against conventional treatment. You seem like a smart woman, you can find out the pros and cons on your own. And in the end, you are the one who has to live, or die, with the choices you make. Like all of us.
So I will just say, welcome. And I hope you find the information on this thread useful, no matter how you decide to go.
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My two were 7 lbs and 5 lbs.
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Nancedawg,
I am not a traditional medicine junkie either Most of us in this forum feel the same way. . I'm from a Scandinavian family and natural remedies and healthy lifestyles were always encouraged.
But Cancer...especially Her 2 pos cancer is a very serious battle to face naturepathically. Even in Europe where natural remedies have been preferred always, they treat Her 2 pos with the same treatments a s here. The Herceptin part is an antibody.
Once diagnosed with cancer we are fced with litrally hundreds of decisions about our treatments. For me anyway thy were lmot all very diffiult decisons. Which treatment center? Which SO? Which MO? Chemo first or later? MX or BMX? Or lumpectomy?
Hundreds of difficult decisions even now after chemo, surgery and rads.
The one decision I had no difficulty making was doing TCH. Chemo was my friend.
That was me.
We are all here to share our experiences , advice and support
Good luck with all your decisions.0 -
Nance, you will make your own decision using your own frame of reference. I did as well. My frame of reference includes my aunts and my mother. All treated with state of the art tx, or at least it was 18 years ago, my mom had a bilateral mastectomy, and they said they got it all, she would not need any other tx. 7 years later, after she got a bad flu, got dehydrated, and within the next month complained about gall bladder pain. They went to do gb surgery and , yep, total mets, every organ. she died three days later. Remember she was still having checkups and scans all along. So believe me, I am doing everything I can do to address what they missed with her. I think she probably was a her2 cancer, they didn't know about it back then. So, BMX, and chemo and Herceptin. just thought I'd tell you my story so you see that we all come at this a different way. BTW, you should check out the alternative forums here at BCO if you are thinking about it.
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Nance, welcome....you will find this group of women are incredibly wise, smart and compassionate.. You will be supported in whatever your choices are....while giving you the benefit of their intensive research as well.
My DS was 7' 6"0 -
I read about the big baby thing today too. It made me wonder. Mine were 10lbs 8 oz and 10lbs even. It's not even like they were fat. Both were 24" and 23" I still remember when I had my first one the nurse said, "Congrats Nora you just gave birth to a 3 month old!" The first was 42.5 weeks, the second 40 weeks. Iremember having to return quite a few 'newborn" clothes and diapers.
My husband is very tall as am I so I am sure that had something to do with it.
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Thank you all for the responses. I, by the way had 5 very big babies..lol. I am under a lot of pressure and not enoying any of this. Just got a response from my ins. co. saying that because my mri was cad they won't be covering it. Never mind that the radiologist assured me before I had it that it would be covered. Never mind that the surgeon wouldn't see me without an MRI. I had no idea there were different types of MRI. I am going to the newspaper eventually with all this ins. stuff. All my work done at the radiologist was sent to a hosp. lab for pathology. The radiology stuff was covered but not the pathology. Go figure...the test is covered but not the results. I will not be paying any of this without a fight. Not enjoying my new experience in the medical and insurance world.
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nance - welcome. As others have said good luck in making your decisions. These are all very personal choices. I happen to be a conventional medicine all the way type gal, lol. I have a 3 cm tumor and am having neoadjuvant chemo...never vomited once on A/C (one of the harshest chemos for nausea, etc...) Not the most fun in the world but I am dealing with it. I only have 2 tx left, then surgery.
On the insurance, I know with my insurance that if you did not specifically acknowledge in WRITING that you are aware that a procedure may not be covered, that you are not responsible for it. That just may be my insurance though (United Health Care). You are absolutely right in not paying anything until you get some answers.
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4#, 8# and 5# here. No gest. diabetes. Sometimes, I wonder if any and all correlations can be made. With the increasing numbers of BC being dx'd, you're bound to get these stats popping up. With the average size of term infants increasing, who knows. Remember, a few years ago there was a study showing the number of abortions or miscarriages that a women had increased the chance of BC. This was later discounted. I'm more inclined to believe that as humans live longer in general, so does the risk of cells becoming cancerous. And this is not reliant not only on our personal DNA. We are only beginning to scrape the surface of what is passed down through genes inherited from our ancestors. A very interesting program on this was aired on NOVA a few years ago called 'The ghost in our RNA' or something along those lines. I find this extremely fascinating and makes so much more sense to me.
Just my opinion.
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I can relate to Nora and Nance with big babies: 10lbs.(born on Thanksgiving morning--our 10 lb turkey!), 8.12 oz, 8.5oz, 10.8 oz, 10.14oz. My husband is 6'8" and I'm 5'9, so that can attribute to the sizes, but some of my tall friends have had tiny babies....and one of those friends has BC.
Nance--I hope you'll get the inspiration you need to make a decision you're OK with. No decision regarding treatment or no treatment will be "comfortable," in my opinion. Everything is risky. You have a big family that's also affected by your decision, so I hope they'll support you and bring you joy as you overcome this physical trial. Best to you!
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nance welcome, unfortunately. Before, my experiences with doctors hasn't been great (except for 2). I hate taking meds especially prescription. Maybe that's why I wasn't on anything at time of diagnosis. I too was healthy. Chemo did scare me but hormone treatment scared me more. Holy crap, you want me to be on what for 5 years. Then I read about all these SE. No way could I live with that for 5 years!
Well my last chemo was 18.5 months ago, last herceptin 10+ months ago and I've been on the Estrogen Sucking Drug for 16 months. My most annoying SE are from surgery not the meds. (Still don't have full range back and some LE that requires me to wear a sleeve.) That said overall I really do feel good. Sure there is some fall out from chemo. My nails don't look like they did before but not a huge deal. I have some minor numbness in my left heel. It still could go away according to my NP but it really isn't a big issue. Both of these SE staying long term seem less common with us early stagers. I have a little stiffness in the morning or when I haven't moved around for a long time from the hormone treatment but again as I move again its not an issue.
For me I find if the city is being attacked by soldiers with machine guns the bows and arrows might stop a few of them but the gun fighters are going to win. I want tanks and bombs on my side. HER2 is aggressive stuff!
Good luck with your choice. Keep us posted.
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My brother was over 9lbs and I was told I was big too. My mom doesn't have breast cancer and she's almost 75.0 -
Nance, i hope you get to make the decision that personally feels right for you. But whether you choose the path many of us did or not, we will always be here.
Omaz and lago, i just had the port inserted a month ago, between my 3rd and 4th AC. On the same side as my mx. Im thinking this is stil postoperative reaction. The swelling is not grossly obvious, just enough to cause indentations from my bra after about 3 or 4 hours of having it on, and some "thick" feeling on my armpit. The port site is all good, no redness, no swelling, at all. No fever. I noted the changes after 2 consecutive days of exercise.
My girls were 3.3 and 3.1 kgs each.0 -
Thanks everyone. I think I will have the surgery (stlll concerned about LE). I am somewhat concerned about doing nothing and having ulcerative tumors...my 19 year old convinced me that would be gross. My lump is big enough now and close enough to my skin that the prospect of it breaking through does worry me. I am not a big fan of knowing it is there either. After that, I plan to just see what happens. I thawed out enough yesterday to make this decision. I will probably freeze back up soon..lol. We have a business where we talk to a lot of people. The ones who know (small town) are giving me advice like crazy...gotta love it. Anyway, thanks again for the responses.
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One more thing, does anyone know anything about clinical trials with the freezing the tumor out method?
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Hi Girls - I was 9lb 5oz and my brother was 10lb 7oz - my mother is 83 and hasn't had bc. My son was 9lb 3oz and daughter 7lb 6oz 3 weeks early (would have been a 9 pounder if full term) and I got bc. I really doubt the weight of your babies would have anything to do with getting bc. I still blame HRT and the pill and possibly DES as my mother was given it to stop miscarrying me.
Nance - there was one lady on the alternative threads with HER2+ve bc, positive nodes like you. She had surgery but declined chemo/herceptin and was Stage IV within a year. You really can't take the risk. Think of your kids growing up without their mother. All of these lovely ladies on this thread had treatment when it was advised and we're all doing fine.
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Susie, I'm not sure who you are talking about on the alternative threads who declined and in a year was stage IV. I think there's rumors going around to whom it might be, and that isn't all correct. There are women who do the whole conventional treatment and within a yearfind themselves at stage IV. The person you might be talking about had melanoma, skin cancer. Like coolbreeze says, it's a crapshoot. Treatments can cause new cancers and other health risk such as heart failure. There's no known absolute cure to cancer. When we don't know the whole story, we need to be careful before telling someone else's story.
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nancedawg I remember reading about freezing the tumor a few years ago. It did sound promising but this is just local treatment. If the cancer has spread beyond the tumor/treatment (systemically spread) then your disease will not be completely treated. Where you do have some node invasion the chances of have to treat this systemically is high. Herceptin has been know to work without chemo just not as effective. I do think they consider Herceptin only for women who can't do chemo for health reasons. I also agree all medications have risks but so doesn't alternative. Would you consider complimentary? Best of both worlds.
As far as LE. I got it. I wear my sleeve daily. Do daily stretching exercises. Wear gloves when I do housework. If caught early it really doesn't effect your life too much. I know people who had more nodes and radiation that don't have LE. They are finding that some people are more susceptible. My mom and her uncle have/had LE in their legs that wasn't surgery induced. I think this is why I got it (with only level I, 10 nodes, no radiation). IMO far more doable than dealing with metastatic cancer.
bcbarbie do get it checked out. It may be just postoperative but if it's LE your best to catch this early. There is trunkal LE too, not just in the arm.
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Eve - I was talking about wornoutmom. We pleaded with her to have treatment after she had surgery - to no avail. In Coollbreeze's case, she probably already had cancer in her liver when she was diagnosed (she acknowledes this BTW) and it was too small to show up on scans. When she finished herceptin, the cancer grew. One of my dear friends here was Stage IV from the start with liver mets and herceptin has her completely cancer free.
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