Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
Comments
-
Hmmm…perhaps since your endorphin receptors are already occupied, there’s nowhere for the endorphins in your bloodstream from opioids to go and so they circulate, unable to signal the brain to cut down on pain signals from the involved nerves.
0 -
Apparently 15% of people have a genetic variation that makes the target site for opioids less functionally active and another 10% have a mutation that means they don't metabolise codeine into morphine, so they get no effect from it. But others have a genetic variant that makes them highly sensitive to morphine, causing sedation and respiratory depression, nausea and vomiting. (I'm paraphrasing from an article by Andrew Somogyi, Professor of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide) There is a 40 to 50 fold variability in the dose of opioids required to control a person's pain depending on their individual genetic makeup.
Basically he was saying that the assumptions about the appropriate dosage of drugs may be completely wrong for a large percentage of people, because there are so many genetic variations in the way people process drugs, and eventually drugs will only be prescribed after a pharmacogenetic assessment. Another professor has said that more than 50% of drugs don't work in more than 50% of people, which is why some people won't respond to something that is very effective in others.
I guess as they get better and better oncotype testing cancer drugs will be even better targeted to a tumour's genetic makeup.
0 -
Peggy, A good movie and popcorn... yep!
0 -
Judy, absolutely right!
HUGS!
0 -
Been watching "Heartland" a Canadian tv program on Netflix. Channeling my inner rough rider!!
0 -
Gorgeous, Michelle!
0 -
I second that. Beautiful, Michelle.
HUGS!
0 -
dear Dara,
Thanks for asking. I think I am fine. My breast is still swollen and my strips are still on. I leave to go back east on Wednesday. It is hard for me to believe I have or had cancer. I don't know if I am correct, but I feel it is gone now since the tumor was removed and it wasn't found anywhere else. I am curious why you felt today was the first day of your life now. What clicked or changed.
Dreams...well last night I dreamt I was with Michael Jackson and it seems like my dream was all night long. I usually don't dream or remember my dreams, but MJ was so real.
Before surgery I did dream of my Dead Mom and I haven't ever dreamt of her before, we were very close and my best girlfriend says she a,lways sees my Mom and talks to her. It did kinda freak me out when she came to me in a dream before surgery. I thought for sure I wouldn't wake up from surgery.
I am a Virgo and probably true to most of what the horoscopes says. I'm supposed to be a perfectionist but as I've gotten older I think that isn't the case anymore.
Are you in Los Angeles. I haven't decided where I will have radiation or when. At one point my doc said maybe I would only need 3.5 weeks.
Where are you going.
Thanks for reaching out to see how I a
0 -
Positive, It is hard for all of us to believe that we have breast cancer. I am a very careful eater, lots of fresh fruit and veggies, chicken and fish, all healthy stuff. It does not run in my family. No smoking, drinking or drug use. I am educated and research everything. I don't put myself in harm's way knowingly. I think many of us have abnormal areas found on mammograms, at least that is my experience from my survey of women that are in the women's lounge for radiation where I go. Last year was very stressful for me and I wonder if that somehow brought about this change in my body.
Somehow, someway, I am craving things that are the color pink. I have several things already because it was one of my volleyball club colors, pink and black. I love the light pink with black and have a northface breast cancer awareness jacket. I am looking at a Michael Kors bag in "Blossom." Nudes and pinks are so in right now colorwise. I am a bag collector, it is my favorite item to purchase. The strange thing is, I have been in hiding during "Pinktober." What I want to know, is one of my favorite colors always going to be hyjacked? Having bc is so personal that I don't want to share it with everyone, just a few close friends, family and you girls. Also, I don't want to be a walking advertisement or poster child.
0 -
I was trying to find info on Robin Roberts (?) or whatever the GMA TV host name is that had breast cancer & now has something else, supposedly due to chemo. Does anyone know the details...like what type/stage cancer she had? What chemo treatment she had? Etc
0 -
KD, I found a story here: http://abc7.com/archive/8792549//
I didn't find any information about what chemo she had, but she was treated for triple negative. She was also had chemo in 2007, and there continues to be changes to chemo protocols, so this side effect, which was already rare, may be rarer still by now.
0 -
KDTheatre, I just read an article on this topic. She developed MDS, a red blood cell disorder. It is very rare. In the article, it discusses the more prevalent problems brought on by bc treatment. At its worst, radiation can bring on lung cancer in 9 out of 10,000 persons. Even that is such a low number and ROs are very careful to keep the lungs out of the radiation field. Every year treatment advances are made in bc and more caution is given at every milestone of treatment.
0 -
Hi all, OK, it's only 8:15 in the morning, but you have me craving popcorn and chips! :-) I like sweets but crave salt more. Sandy, that microwave chip maker sounds awesome. I'm going to have to check Amazon and see if they have one. I love sweet potato chips. Also pita chips.
Well, the last two weeks have been pretty dull. I had my last chemo and it has really taken me two weeks to feel halfway normal. Now I'm just down to terrible twitching and watering eyes, and need a nap every few days. I've had to reconcile my brain with my body; I have so many things I want to do, projects and things to do, but by noon, I'm out of steam. I know it will get better, but it's a little discouraging facing 6 weeks of rads as I know they can be tiring also. I'll just keep fingers crossed. I see my RO on Wednesday so will have my plan then.
Twins, I'll keep fingers crossed for the onco score. Again, that waiting is the worst. I'd had a delay with my score that just drove me crazy. It is all just so much easier when you know the path you need to take.
Poodles, hope you continue to heal and don't have too much pain. Just take your time and don't push.
OK, I'm off for some retail therapy on Amazon! Hope all others are having a nice weekend.
0 -
Dara, it has to be hard when your brain says "Let's do this" and your body says "Nope. Time for a nap." I'm hoping you don't even notice fatigue from your rads. It WILL get better! It is a bit early for popcorn but oh my it does sound good, doesn't it?
HUGS!
0 -
Dara- So glad you are finished with chemo...remember the effects are cumulative so it's normal for you to take longer to feel more lie yourself near the end. It WILL get better!! Hugs.
0 -
Just dropping by to say hello! Dara, you will feel better in a few weeks, about the same time your hair starts coming in fast. I'm a couple of months out from my last infusion. My eyebrows are starting to fill in. The eyelashes are a lot slower to grow. My hair is still very short but much thicker.
Poodles, I hope you continue to feel better after your surgery.
I am pretty much back to normal except for my appearance. I had my port removed on Wednesday. My mammogram on Tuesday revealed a small growth in my left (good) breast. The radiologist says it is a benign papilloma, but she wants to biopsy it and possibly remove it. So I'll be having that done soon. This time I'm waiting for a written authorization from my insurance!! I'm not very concerned but I sure was hoping all the needle sticks and pokes were done. If it turns out to be anything bad, I'll seriously consider double mx. No point whacking them off a piece at a time.
0 -
Alice, nice that your hair is growing like crazy! Not nice at all to have a growth. Praying it is nothing. Keep us posted.
HUGS!!
0 -
Peggy the popcorn just hit the spot.. sorry Dara, guess we got your popcorn juices flowing... but it sure is good.. even without the movie..
Moondust, sorry you have to go another biopsy and removal... praying it's nothing and you will sail through it
0 -
Judy, glad it did. I just invested in popcorn from one of my neighborhood Boy Scouts. Should be coming in a couple weeks. Probably fresher than the jar of it I have
HUGS!
0 -
Michelle, it's beautiful. Is it rose quartz or morganite? I collect gemstones and am learning to
set stones. I also do some beading. Rose quartz is a beautiful stone as is morganite....but my
favorite is lapis lazuli.
0 -
The name of the stone is Sylvite and is found in New Mexico. It is used as a tracer for gold seams. The person who dug these, just sat there picking them up, one by one. There was also some smokey quartz pieces found individually. My friend purchased a collection of them from a rock hound. I decided the they were pretty enough to try to reign into one of my pieces. I really like the raw, cubic and angular crystal formations.
I love morganite as well, but you have to keep it out of the sun or it loses its color. Anything blue, lapis, etc. is beautiful to me, as I have blue eyes.
0 -
Michelle,
I too never smoke, drank, or used drugs.
I did have a Vit D deficiency that I just found out about 6 months ago and I did have a stressful job, many hours. I wasn't taking care of myself, not eating all day and no breaks and definitely no exercise, plus my age and weakens immune system didn't help.
I had just started to change things. I quit my job or could say retired to consult and had just lost 10 lbs and I wanted to get a full physical before I went to Italy. I wasmore worried about my heart and never never thought I would get this news.but I knew all my other reports were good from my complete physical. I had ultrasounds of my organs, etc...so Ifelt it hadn't spread.
I too haven't to.d many people and not keen on wearing pink either. I do feel I would like to meet in person with other women.
Hope all is well with you
Positive
0 -
Michelle that is really beautiful. Peggy, I bought popcorn from a boy scout too. He was too cute and little to say no.
0 -
Molly, I really HAD to buy the popcorn. We were a Scout family. Oldest son is an Eagle Scout. Youngest was in Scouts for 6 years or so. I was a den leader, Chuck Pack leader. Then when the boys moved up to Boy Scouts from Cubs, Chuck and I both were in leadership positions with the troop. Chuck took the boys to Scout camp for several years. Plus Chuck had had marvelous experiences and trips with the Boy Scouts when he was in high school. I received my Curved Bar in Girl Scouts (my that was a long time ago).
HUGS!
0 -
moondust- when did you finish chemo? & how long did you get it for? How crazy they found something!?!!! That must be frustrating for you so soon after chemo!
I've been considering stopping chemo. I've unfortunately been reading too muc about how chemo can give you other cancers and long term issues, that I don't know if it's worth it. I need to find out the stats or percentage of recurrence if I stop chemo. I had clear margins & no nodes, this was all to ensure no recurrence especially due to my Her2+. But I really fear what down the road looks like...and have always felt the cancer industry IS just that-an industry; a businessthat no one will ever shut down...so why find any preventative? By overloading my body with all this chemo- is it just giving me a false sense of 'stopping recurrence' while keeping the docs/centers paid AND making me a repeat customer in the future?
0 -
kdtheatre, the sad fact is that all we have is the current state of the art. It’s not all about Big Pharma in cahoots with oncologists making money off chemo. We might, in the far future, come up with treatments so targeted—and statistics based on decades of patients—that our current surgical & adjuvant protocols will seem as antiquated (and overkill) as the Halsted Radical and mustard-gas chemo (maybe even cupping, bleeding and leeches). But think back to when breast conserving surgery was considered experimental, and there was no such thing as Oncotype, Mammaprint, or Prosigna testing, the only anti-hormonal out there was tamoxifen, Taxol was being hailed as the magic bullet, and nobody had heard of genetic mutations putting those with them at high risk. Back in the 1980s—even as late as 1988—most surgeons believed that if you elected lumpectomy and radiation, and chose to skip chemo you were shooting craps in the alley with the Angel of Death. Not so long ago, mastectomy, radiation & chemo were being given even to DCIS patients.
0 -
KDtheatre, No one call tell you what to do. Whether you stay on chemo or stop, it is a personal decision. If it were me, and I had gone as far as you have gone, I would stick it out. If my bc was Herceptin positive, I would do everything to stop its progress. To me, the benefit would outweigh the risks. If you were only hormone positive with a lower oncotype score, the decision would be different. If anything comes back in my treated breast, I would have a double mx and throw out my ovaries. We are both relatively young and have half of our lives ahead of us - considering we live to 100ish. My mom is 88 and my dad passed at 89. Have you been through the toughest party of chemo already? If so, I would say that you "got this" and be confident that you are continuing on with your treatment.
KD, we were also diagnosed at approximately the same time, and if you are like me, I am still in a state of shock. Diagnosed officially on 8/8, but knew on 8/3, surgery on 8/30, radiation started 10/6. I would say I am going through the motions right now, and am not weighing the significance of every factor. I trust my doctors, and my support system. We need a board on here dedicated to post traumatic stress disorder, because I think many of us are facing those issues right now. This is the most traumatic event in my entire life. When this is all over, I am sure I will seek out my counselor, who supported me at the time of diagnosis. I literally hid out at my sister's house for two weeks and let my family enjoy their summer without worrying about me. BC really sucks, but we are going to get through this and have some type of a mid-west summit in Chi-Sandy's town - Chicago. There are a lot of us in the Midwest, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and we can help each other.
Molly - thanks for the compliment. These are insomniac pieces.
0 -
Yup. But “Herceptin-positive” is a misnomer (analogous to calling an ER+/PR+ cancer “tamoxifen-positive” or “Arimidex-positive”). Herceptin is not a property of a tumor, but rather therapy for a HER2+ tumor.
“HER2neu" is a protein that facilitates rapid cell division and therefore tumor growth. If your tumor “overexpressed” receptors for HER2, that means it makes too much of that protein, which—via the cell’s reeptors—tells the cells to keep dividing unchecked, and therefore form a fast-growing mass. If your path report said HER2+, your tumor cells were pretty aggressive little bastards and whatever micromets that may have been left behind after surgery are too dangerous to be left alone. The term for that is “HER2+” or "HER2-positive.”
“Herceptin” (trastuzumab and its cousin Perjeta, or pertuzumab) is not the status of the tumor (no such thing as “Herceptin-positive,” rather, maybe more like “Herceptin-reactive” or “Herceptin-vulnerable”) but rather a “targeted therapy” that instead of killing all rapidly-dividing cells the way cytotoxic chemo does (or starving ER+/PR+ tumor cells of estrogen the way endocrine, aka hormonal, therapy does), goes after the HER2 receptors on the tumor cells and prevents the HER2 protein’s signals from reaching the tumor cells and telling them to keep dividing and forming a tumor which continues to grow. It is made from a monoclonal antibody and is therefore called a “biologic,” which means a drug made from living tissue rather than chemically synthesized in a lab or extracted from plant materials. (Biologics can usually—but not always—be identified as such by the suffix “-mab” or “-nib” in their generic names). Perjeta was originally reserved for metastatic breast cancer but is now sometimes given sequentially after Herceptin in patients with early-stage HER2+ cancer.
These “targeted therapies” are almost always given in conjunction with or after a course of cytotoxic chemotherapy because the combination works like a one-two punch on fast-growing HER2+ cells.
0 -
Alice, I missed your post about your mammogram. I will be praying it is benign. I had papillomas in my good breast pathology. I was so relieved. KD, I didn't have chemo but the miracle of targeted therapy for HER2 positive BC would probably keep me going for the chemo. I know you have been particularly affected. Have you spoken to your team about how they think you will manage the next chemo and Herceptin? Whatever you decide be sure you don't have regrets. Hugs!
0 -
Alice, thinking very positive thoughts for your biopsy. Sending you a hug while you're waiting again.
Thanks, Sandy for the Her2 info. I'd read a number of articles on BCO, but this helps put things in perspective.
KD, My path originally said I was Her2 Neu. But then the FSH test came back negative. But my PR was also quite low.... and then of course the Prosigna came back high risk. It really is such as personal choice as Michelle said, plus family history and your experiences play a strong role as well. I just have so many people in my family whom I've lost to one form of cancer or another, that I made the decision and that's it. I've said before, it would sure be nice to have that crystal ball, but once I made the decision, I just tried not to second guess myself and my doctors. It helps that I, too, have complete confidence in my doctors so far. We'll see how I feel about my RO who I will meet with on Wed.
I just took a little break and watched a segment on Good Morning America about a new AI computer called Watson. It's just amazing all the advances of technology and practice. My personal belief is that we all need to be around long enough to see the cure for cancer. That's one of the reasons I'm throwing everything but the kitchen sick at this now. If something happens in the future, who knows what will then be available for us.
Positive, my vit D was also very low. My MO said there have been studies about how frequently bc patients have low vitamin D. We'll have to schedule a time to have a SO CA get together. There are several of us all within an hour to hour and a half drive. It would be nice to meet people face to face.
0
