If you are not Stage IV but have questions, you may post here
Comments
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WOW momof3boys!!! Glad you found a very knowledgeable ENT surgeon and the outcome is good.
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Glad I have plenty of ativan to get me through to Wednesday...and soooo glad I gave my surgeon's nurse a thank you card and a starbucks gift card after my mastectomy in June. She got me in this week when the schedulers said Oct 25th!!! I do have a nasty mosquito bite on the back of my neck, leftish side that I've been scratching for a few days and (my other grasping at straws theory) is my seat belt rubs right where the smaller than pea size node is. I'm sure touching and rubbing the damn thing every few hours doesn't help.
TRYING to enjoy the beautiful fall weather in Ohio and got some pumpkins today with my son to cheer me up. Will have to break open the chardonney if I can't unwind! Thank you all so much for sharing your stories and encouragement. Wednesday I should know more. I hope my surgeon who is so low key tells me it's nothing (she predicted clear margins and got them so I take her word as scripture).0 -
7of9, thinking of you.
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7of9~ So glad to hear that you are confident with your surgeon..., so important!!! Keep the positive attitude! and DO enjoy the beautiful weather! will be thinking of you!
P.S. don't know if 7of9 has to do with your birth order but I am 9of 9!!! 0 -
7of9~I should have read your bio PRIOR to my last post. I see now that you are an only child..., oooops! My bad! And now I'm even more curious about the meaning behind it???0
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I'll chime in for 7of9: 7of9 is a character from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The beautiful woman in her avatar is 7of9 from the series. She was Borg (google it)...but a good one.
Yeah...I'm a scifi nerd too. And proud of it.0 -
Yep...an only child not by my mom's choice...she lost 2 others and we ended up adopting (sort of) my cousin and a host of other cousins who came and went as our dead beat uncle came in and out of town and prison. In turn, I have an only child myself. A beautiful healthy 3 year old boy. I picked Geri Ryan's character from Star Trek because she had so little emotion...so beautiful, practical and above all things EFFICIENT when kicking a**. For an emotional, dreamy girl, she is my hero!
In my early years in management before corporate greed started to rip my company apart and send jobs overseas, the greatest compliment I got was from one of the brain think tanker guys...no personality....genius theory type...he came in to train myself and my staff on some new printing techniques and software and he called me that...7of9. Her persona helped me to smile and wear red and ask for a red popcicle when doing the Adriamycin rounds of my chemo. I welcomed the assimilation of chemicals and TEs if that mean trashing the parts of my body that were inferior and threatening the life of my sons mother. If I show up at one of those cancer walks next year...I think I'll wear red...it's so defiant, the power color...
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7of9: your explanation is much better than mine.
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Momof3 - Glad your surgery went well. That's now something that won't be bothering you. Hope all else is well.
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Thanks Rachel- yes, glad that is over and that medical mystery solved :-)
I feel fine....just a little sore from the incision.0 -
Hi Cynthia, did you have pain when your bone mets were found?
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Well both Onc and Surgeon feel my little nubby lymph node is nothing to worry about or mess with. I feel better seeing my surgeon today who double checked everything my Onc did and she even mentioned that if it comes back and presents in one of the neck nodes, that the little bump I have (she est at 2 - 3 mm) wasn't a common area. Never can be too sure...she will check me and my Onc both in December. I hate he double hit but damn reassurring when they both tell you you are fine. I'm going to give my worries a whole night off then start to comb these boards and wonder if I should be going through a more aggressive follow up then "how are you feeling?" and vitals and physical exam only. I wonder if they'll do scans at some point even if I have no symptoms? Should I be pressing for bloodwork and estrogen levels to make sure Tamoxifin is doing it's job (no periods still)...oh wait, said I'd worry about that later....God bless you all!!!
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Hello I have not read all the pages before so sorry if the question has been asked. I have been short of breath for the last few months while going up just one flight of stairs. I go to the gym regularly and it takes a while for me to get to that point on the elliptical. All it takes is for me to go up a short flight of stairs and I start.
For those who have lung mets, what were your symptoms when you found out? Thank you0 -
Letlet,
I don't want to scare you, but your symptoms are exactly what led to my diagnosis (I was stage 4 from the outset). I was going to the gym 5x a week and started getting short of breath. When I looked at my chest x-ray it was like someone has sprayed silly string throughout my lungs. I was on oxygen for a while (taking a tank with me to work). I'm very fortunately that chemo shrank my lung tumors and I'm able to climb the stairs no problem now.
Hopefully your problem is not mets, but please get checked out.
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Mw900, thanks for responding. I do have a routine appt with a pulmonologist and will have a CT scan of the chest...but its a few months from now. I guess I'm going to make that call ...
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Letlet,
Is it possible it's a problem with your heart from Herceptin? Another woman complained about SOB and found out it was some heart damage from Herceptin. If you're interested in who, I'll check my PM history and get her name for you. Hope you get to see a specialist soon! Best wishes to you, always.
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Joanne that's something that you mentioned it. Ive been observing it the whole day and I noticed that after a flightof stairs I start breathing hard and my heart pounds really, really fast...i was like..what if it's my heart??? I went to check this post and your post came up.
Thank you all for responding. Joanne if you dont mind, if you get her name I will reach out to her. But yeah looks like a call to my med onc is in order.0 -
(I sent you a PM, Letlet)
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I was diagnosed with asthma a couple of months after my bone mets diagnosis. I was having shortness of breath and coughing episodes. I hope you get good news!
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I spoke to my onc last thursday night and told her, of course she wants to see me asap. I have an appointment with her this wed. I'm trying not to worry but it's impossble. Ironically next week is my two year NED mark. I intended to spend it doing something 'bold' or whatever but it looks like I'm gonna spend it biting my nails and asking for Ambien....
Thanks for listening...
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I spoke to my onc last thursday night and told her, of course she wants to see me asap. I have an appointment with her this wed. I'm trying not to worry but it's impossble. Ironically next week is my two year NED mark. I intended to spend it doing something 'bold' or whatever but it looks like I'm gonna spend it biting my nails and asking for Ambien....
Thanks for listening...
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Thinking of you, Letlet, and wishing you peace of mind and heart.
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Hi ladies: It is finally time to get my PET scan and hopefully figure out what's going on with my rib. Sometimes I think the tenderness/soreness is completely gone (I can't really call it a pain), then other days it's very noticeable. I don't know what to think anymore. I finished RADS a couple of weeks ago. Both my MO and RO have said they believe the sclerotic spot they see on my rib is benign and nothing to worry about. Yet this nagging issue just won't go away. I have had people tell me the tenderness/soreness could be costochondritis; others say rib pain after a mastectomy is common since they sever all those nerves and muscles during the surgery; and this is on the side opposite my surgery. The spot did not show up on my PET scan in March, and since then, I have had dose dense AC plus Taxol, and rads. The issue started while I was taking Taxol. The spot has shown on two rib detail xrays - two and a half months apart. It shows as a small sclerotic spot; it did not grow or change in any way in the two and a half months between the xrays. I feel as anxious as a I did when I was waiting for the initial PET scan. Do the scans ever get less scary? Any words of wisdom?
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Hi Lana I'm really sorry you are feeling the scanxiety so strongly but hopefully you will get some difinitive answers to the cause if the pain you feel.
I'm sorry also to tell you that a lot of women feel that scanxiety whenever their scans are due. It is a very personal thing and can depend on your own personality.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
Thanks Chrissy. Just realized I said in my first post the side opposite my surgery. I meant the side opposite my cancer.
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I was supposed to get a bmx this past Monday. My preop labs were off, however, so my surgery was postponed. I had elevated liver enzymes. They decided I should go for more lab work and a lower abdominal CT on Tuesday. I received a call that evening that let me know my lab work was clear [yea - no hepatitis, boo - they did not rerun liver enzymes] but the CT results were not read yet. Tomorrow they said...
Tuesday I woke to busy kids needing to get to school. That went well and I came home to the Breast Center Oncology Nurse on the phone saying they wanted to repeat my liver enzyme tests and that they also wanted me to get an MRI on my spine. On my spine? I thought immediately "that cannot be good". Evidently there was a spot on my spine in my original scans that was deemed to be nothing but on yesterday's CT the spinal "lesion" looked larger.... So off to MRI I went, with a boat load of Ativan on board for MRI stress and stress in general. I have already done 20 weeks of neoadjuvent chemo with great results according to MRIs. I find it hard to imagine that there is was any cancer lurking around in other parts of my body just waiting for the chemo barrage to end so they could come out and party.
A good friend reminded me that I am now a cancer patient and every little blip on every little test will be looked at more closely than before. She assured me that I should not worry. I am just thinking I would like to be past any liver/spine issues and get back to my original plan please. Right now, mastectomy surgery is not seeming so stressful. Go figure.
On a good note, my liver enzymes are trending downward which is a very good thing. I have an appointment on Friday morning to go over all the test results. Right now, I just really want to remain a stage IIB. I am worried but I guess that is normal, or at least my new normal.
Postitive thoughts to both of you Lana and Letlet!!
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Oh Lynda your stress levels must be really over the top right now. Your friend is quite right when she says that as a cancer patient every little thing will be put under the microscope. Hopefully you will get good reports. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
Oh Lynda your stress levels must be really over the top right now. Your friend is quite right when she says that as a cancer patient every little thing will be put under the microscope. Hopefully you will get good reports. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
Thanks Chrissy-
I am indeed stressed. It means so much to have that acknowledged by people who get it. Most of my friends are well intentioned but have NO idea what this feels like. I am trying to decide how to occupy my day so I don't just sit around and obsess. I think I will do some laundry, bake some banana bread, sort though some papers, empty the fridge of old food, grocery shop and do some store returns that have been waiting for me. My kids will love to come home to fresh baked banana bread!!
I have to remember that turning into a couch potato only means letting cancer take away parts of my life that I am not willing to concede. I love a good lazy couch potato day, but not because of cancer stress. So I am off and running towards getting my house back to the way I want it. We'll see how far I get....
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Dear Lynda!!! Good thoughts and prayers are coming your way for a great report. I am also Stage 2b, so I know how every test or scan can cause anxiety. It does get easier, but I know that our docs take extra precautions with everything because of our cancer diagnosis!!! Thanks to Chrissy, we can come here for good advice and info. Take care and hugs to you!!! Kathy
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