Canadians in British Columbia
Comments
-
Hi Ladies,
I was diagnosed with IDC, > 5 cm, Stage III, locally advanced, right breast in June of 2011. I had mastectomy, chemo, rads, hormone therapy. I have been cancer free until now.
I just had mammogram on my left breast and it came up BiRad 5, highly suspicious for cancer. I am having a core biopsy this Friday.
I had all my treatment for my first bc in Ontario. I'm living in Kelowna now and I am wondering about wait times for surgery, biopsy results etc. Anyone have any experience with breast cancer treatment in Kelowna out there?
cat
0 -
Hi Cat, no experience in Kelowna but just wanted to say welcome and please keep us posted with your results xx
0 -
CathyAA, the BEST medical treatment I have ever received was during my stay at the Cancer Lodge in Kelowna. Slick as a whistle how that cancer centre works. I was truly impressed. Living in Kelowna you will get to go home at the end of the day. But for so many in BC that lodge is a godsend. I met people there during my stay who I will never forget.
I don't know if anything is any faster in Kelowna but the average for appointments and procedures and results seems to be 3 weeks to a month. If you have had medical treatment for anything in BC you get the whole, hurry up and wait.
I am sorry to hear you are heading into this nightmare again. I fear it. I made it through once. I do not know where people find the fortitude to put their big girl panties on and have a second go at it. I wish you well and hope you find a good team there in Kelowna.
0 -
cathyAA - I don't have info about Kelowna but just wanted to say hi & welcome. I hope you're one of the 5% for whom the birads5 is a false alarm.
0 -
Welcome from me too cathyAA. Over the years I have heard good things too and nice to hear that from runor too. Runor, you live in Alberta now is that correct?
I came on to BCO today to remove myself from all threads except this one and one other that has a small group of us. I realized last night that many threads I was following were actually either unhealthy or just too much unneeded information. Runor I know you and I have been on same threads. What do you think?
After 5 plus weeks in hospice organizing pain management successfully with a final surgery on September 9th, I feel as though I am back to a more normal me. Despite a terrible day of nausea and vomiting yesterday whilst getting to lab for blood work and then the pain clinic I think I can make it to chemo this afternoon.
I have always loved and appreciated this thread and still hope to get well enough to organize a potluck in Vancouver maybe in November.
Ann (Pots) I hope your new trial is treating you OK, don’t want to say well.
Love to you all, Maria
0 -
Welcome aboard Cat, sorry you have to jump back into the cancer world.
Marian, good to hear from you. Sigh, yuck to the vomiting and nausea....hopefully things settle day by day. How is the chemo treating you?
Life on the clinical trial is never dull. First 12 days, I got this... I can do this. Then on Day 12, hold on....SE started with itchy rash on arms, legs and chest; then it hurt to swallow, cough or pee (maybe a UTI) probably from inflamed mucous membranes and the fatigue was crazy bad. Plus headaches. So when I saw the MO on Day 15 he stopped drug for 2 weeks to let me recover. I’m on antibiotics, taking Nexium and slowly feeling better, still not great. We’ll meet on Oct 7 to see how we go forward. I don’t want to abandon the trial if I can help it, this drug offers a targeted treatment for the P13KA mutation I acquired post Taxol and is the best option.
Interesting you pulled away from some of the other boards, i’ve Shortened my list too to sites that are more focussed.
Be well ladies, if not a potluck I think we should find a date in November to meet at Cactus Club on Broadway. The second week of November is booked solid for me from Nov 9-15, otherwise it’s all good.
An
0 -
A welcome from me too Cat, I hope all goes well for you in Kelowna.
I don’t post very often but try to keep up. Just like some of the other women I have taken myself off many boards. I like this one as its Canadian women..otherwise its too much information. I belong to a couple of Private Facebook Groups but I’m selective about them as well. I had a Prophylactic Double Mastectomy when i was diagnosed (just the right thing for me) so there is a group Flat and Fabulous..great connections of women who have gone FLAT and embrace it.
I mentioned in my last post I was getting results fo my CT..wonderful news that there is NO Evidence of Disease in Bone or Body!!! I had it done mainly because I had gone to a Naturopath and had a Circulating Tumour Cell test done ...thatresult was positive! I freaked out and the Oncologist wanted to ease my mind with the scans..not sure if it did or not! I’ll have to search the boards for others who have had the test..
Anyways..all the best to everyone..be kind to yourself!
Eileen
0 -
MarianE, I am not in Alberta. I am in BC, a little over an hour from Kelowna. I could have driven to radiation everyday. But ... I am a rural girl and the traffic in July through this Okanagan Valley is a nightmare. (I hear all you city people laughing at me, it's true, I am spoiled). But I find traffic like that truly horrifying and I drive old clunkers without air conditioning and the thought of my burning boob bouncing down the highway in a blistering hot truck in that bumper to bumper traffic, oh hell no! The lodge was a blessing where I was not doing housework and yardwork and livestock care. It was the longest I have been on my own since before I got married. I was tired and I slept a lot. I also took slow walks around the waterfront and admired the incredible hydrangeas that grow there in the humidity by the lake. Gardens that were sights to behold! Jealous.
When I was first diagnosed I was on this site constantly. It provided the input and wisdom of others in my shoes, others who 'got it', others who could share how things had gone for them. I learned a lot here. There is a time after you are diagnosed that in your terror and bewilderment you look for anything to grab onto that makes you feel stable, safe, not crazy, not alone, and BCO was that for me. But after a while, around the two year mark, when thoughts of cancer became the 2nd thought of the day instead of the first (coffee being the first!) I began to not feel the same desperate drive to be here. Longer periods went between check ins and I whittled my 'favorites' down to a few threads where I feel I have something to contribute. I frequent the threads where the names of the posters have become familiar, where I picture them in my head, imagine their lives and have truly come to wish every single one of them well. I stay here because to ghost those places seems wrong. But I certainly do not cover the same broad range here as I initially did. I understand the need to prune it down to a few threads where you have felt the most support and camaraderie, MarianElizabeth. But if you were to disappear without a word, it would leave panic in your wake. Bewildered people wondering what happened. I think anything you have written to this point is extremely valuable right where it is. You never know how your vast experience that you shared might be just the balm a soul is searching for. I hope you do not delete your posts. But if you kept your check-ins and posting to the few places that feel like home "where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came', that is perfectly understandable. That's how things have evolved for me, anyway.
Glad to hear you are doing better and I hope the bad stomach trouble goes away and stays away!
0 -
Runor, I appreciate your thoughts and did explain in a coupe of threads. I used to read Micmel's but it was one of the threads that was overwhelming. I would appreciate it if you would jump in on it or any others that you saw me on, to simple say that I need to rest and take more time for myself. Sorry I got Alberta in my head and do now recall you living rurally.
Ann, sorry to hear about the trial and hope you and your MO can and a way when you meet on Oct. 7th. I think you should plan the Cactus Club event as I am not in good enough shape to know where I will be by then.
I made it through chemo this afternoon after taking Zofran on recommendation of a nurse from BCCA who called me back after I left a message. I am thinking it may be due to a slight headache from a cerebrospinal fluid leak during my surgery. No one seemed concerned when I was getting the pain pump reservoir refilled yesterday.
Eileen, good news for you!
Marian
0 -
M.E., I will post a quick note on Micmel's thread saying you are needing down time to recover.
0 -
" I think we should find a date in November to meet at Cactus Club on Broadway. The second week of November is booked solid for me from Nov 9-15, otherwise it's all good"
I can do Nov 16th or 23rd. Technically I can also make the 2nd but it's harder. I can make up a survey monkey if we want a poll? Or do we want to just pick a date and announce & just wing it?
moth0 -
Hi Moth. I could be there on Saturday Nov. 23. It would be nice to see everyone again. A potluck would be lovely but it is harder to organize.
0 -
Let's go with the 23rd then!
0 -
Nov 23 works for me too. Looking forward to seeing folks again!
An
0 -
Thanks for the responses everyone. I am dictating here as no way I could type with what I have going on. Everything went sideways last week, Wednesday I suppose when nausea and vomiting took over. I let my medical people know and was told to take Zofran and take it easy, ha ha. Friday it Got worse and I was in ER Saturday and I’m still here now though waiting for a bed. I am in a small quieter area thank goodness as the noise in the main area made me crazy and I almost went home. CT scans that night Showed a sub dural haematoma first then Scans of my spine showed cerebral spinal leakage. This may have gone back to the first surgery even but Wednesday I will have what is called a blood patch which will try to stop the leak.
0 -
Oh Marian! I will be praying and sending positive energy your way - unbelieveable what you are going through
0 -
Marian, thanks for sending us an update. I’m in your pockets to keep you company while you wait. OMG you have sure had one thing after the next. At least you’re being watched in the ER...But it certainly is not a calm relaxed space.
0 -
Marian I am so sorry that you are having these complications. I hope they get everything under control soon and get you home again. We are all thinking of you!
❤️
Pearl
0 -
Sending positive, healing thoughts your way Marian. So sorry you have to deal with these complications.
0 -
Marian - thinking of you while you go through this incredibly difficult time.
0 -
That is rotten news MarianE. I hope they get you straightened out quickly but man, you have got to be exhausted to the core from all of this. THinking of you and hoping for some improvement for you very soon!
0 -
Marian, I seldom go on the boards. I am so sorry you are in this situation. Getting the rug yanked out from under you. I am so hoping that you'll be posting soon saying "thumbs up -- I'm doing so much better" Hugs.
0 -
Marian, hang in there. Hope they get the spinal fluid leaks under control asap and I hope your pain is being well managed. gentle hugs
0 -
Marian; I'm sorry to hear you are going through all this! I second Moth and hope your pain is being managed. And may this resolve quickly.
I've been off the boards trying to get my life in order (?) Moved my mom into a facility, got my eldest off to U - although he's returning this wknd, a false start.
Had an Onc appt the other morning. Was disappointed to learn they are now watching my L breast. Ugh.
Hi to all...
0 -
Thanks everyone. I got a bed Tuesday and had the blood patch Wednesday. Headache gone right away almost but blood transfusion needed by then along wit IV potassium etc. has set me back. I am drained but on the way back.
BlueSky, glad for the first things but not for the MO appointment with the watching/waiting again.
Good night all. Early but needed.
Marian
0 -
Sending you strength and speedy recovery, MarianElizabeth.
0 -
Thought I would say hi to the other BC women here. Waves! I am nervous right now as I go into a new and scary stage of my journey. CT scan appears to be mets to lung/bone. I get a lung biopsy this week and see my MO in Victoria Oct 25. Seems horribly too far away. Don't know what to expect at this stage and hope MO is on ball to latest/greatest/trials and everything. Hope not rushed, I hate feeling rushed through appt especially since its a few hours trip to come back.
0 -
Hi velo, welcome. Sucky news; I'm hoping you get some good reports later this month & a solid treatment plan. Hang in there.
I do think that one really good thing about the BC Cancer Agency is that they do seem to be very evidence based and because it's a province wide program, you get the experience of the whole team behind your MO. They all seem to work collaboratively to arrive at treatment plans (or follow well established treatment protocols and clinical pathways).0 -
Velo, I just wrote to you and everything started deleting. I want to welcome you here and know there are many with you. You and I were diagnosed in 2012 I see. I was in Vancouver them and move to Victoria in May 2017 just about when I found about my MBC. I really like the cancer team here and have a caring MO. Did you have your first treatments here in Victoria? Take lots of deep breaths and let's hope things move quickly so no long waiting games. The biopsy should tell the story but until then, there is no knowing.
I am at BCCA often so let me know if ever you would like to meet.
Hi Moth. How is it going now for you?
🙏Marian
0 -
Marian - thx for asking, I am well. My MO agreed to put in a requisition for a breast MRI to do in between my annual mammograms. Apparently the BCCA changed some guidelines about who could qualify for them & now early stagers with certain density criteria may qualify. She initially wasn't sure it would get approved but it did & I'm scheduled for December.
I'm half way through semester 4 out of 9 of the nursing program. I'm on a surgical rotation right now. I'm feeling fine and mostly enjoying myself though occasionally I worry that I'm not eating or sleeping as well as I should; always trying to find that magical balance between studying & the rest of life0
