TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP

Cypher - yes, if your body is fighting infection the lymph nodes in that area can become inflamed

cypher Sounds like drinking cranberry juice regularly might be in your future.

There is a wonderful free worldwide medical info source.It is being updated constantly.
http://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Main_Page WikiDoc is an open source website that http://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Main_Pageallows an international community of healthcare professionals to add and edit medical content in a process termed co-creation. WikiDoc is designed to facilitate collaborative authoring.
WikiDoc allows a community of healthcare professionals to 'co-create' webpages in a way that does not require knowledge of HTML language or computer programming. As a result, numerous people can collaborate in writing articles, textbook chapters or news stories. Prior versions of webpages are stored, and at any time, a page can be reverted to any of its previous states. The 'Discussion' tab allows the community of users to discuss rapidly evolving issues so that a consensus can be reached regarding WikiDoc content. WikiDoc members can choose to be alerted by email when changes are made to a topic they are interested in by clicking on the 'Watch' tab."

"The tribe is smarter than any one" C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D.





The Golden Book Encyclopedia that my mom got from the Safeway Grocery store

I grew up as an only child in Oklahoma. One of the only books I had was a single volume of a blue encyclopedia from the 1920s that I bought at a garage sale when I was in second grade. I remember reading as much of that one volume of the encyclopedia as I could, over and over again. I kept it right next to my bed and was mesmerized by it. Eventually Safeway grocery stores gave kids volumes from the Golden Book Encyclopdia once your mom bought enough groceries. If just one young person is inspired by our blue medical textbook/encyclopedia like I was by an outdated encyclopedia, it will have been worth the effort.

Please read "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. One of the premises of this book is that information technology has leveled the playing field of knowledge workers. Silos of knowledge are coming down. Knowledge workers are sharing information freely. Copyright is out, copyleft is in. Those communities that share knowledge most freely, grow and innovate most rapidly. Distributed learning and collaboration are the keys to success in the future. Knowledge workers are demanding free access to shared knowledge.

The "world is flat", but "medicine is flat" as well. It is in the spirit of fostering collaboration among health care providers in sharing medical knowledge that WikiDoc was created. WikiDoc is a global textbook or encyclopedia of medicine that anyone can add to and edit. It is also a source of healthcare news stories. Launched by C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. of Harvard Medical School in 2006, WikiDoc is the first and largest wiki dedicated to medicine on the internet with an initial focus on cardiovascular disease.

As a student I struggled to find information for rounds in the morning. As a former Chief Resident at the Brigham and Womens' Hospital, I remember struggling daily to find the latest information for morning report. As a fellow, finding materials for cardiac cath conference was always a challenge at the end of a long, busy day. Learning is a life long struggle and journey. As long as you are learning about a disease state, why not share what you have learned with others?

WikiDoc is intended to be a shared resource for housestaff (in preparation for morning report), medical students (in preparation for morning rounds) and fellows (in preparation for conferences). Nurses and attending physicians may find it valuable to share and improve upon their fund of general medical knowledge."

Miss Ashla...you are Amazing,  THANK YOU!

Blondie45 how are you stage 3a...Stage 3a usually only goes up to 4 lymph nodes positive?

The anxiety about trying to pin down our own particular risk is entirely "normal" because even for the people in the white lab coats it still comes down to being an "educated guess".

When considering the predictions, if we "ate healthy, exercised, maintained proper weight, etc." and still got bc, the odds for less recurrence and for less dangerous recurrence still are in our favor if we continue those behaviors, and they are worse for those who did not practice good health habits prior to diagnosis and/or who don't practice good health behaviors afterward.

The problem I have with the professional level of this guessing game about risk is that I don't feel that most of oncology gives enough consideration to each individual's health status and practices at time of diagnosis, and they don't give enough consideration to the reductions in health status and practices that is caused by treatment that changes our menopausal status. Just where IS the breaking point for benefit and risk for those who are at least risk?

Where this gets especially relevant is in regard to very early stage bc, where there is the genuine question of whether major toxic treatment results in protection or worsening of one's likelihood of recurrence.

That is where a person's past health habits should be given more weight in the decisions about treatment. Prediction testing does not offer that correction, and because it doesn't, it is biased against a true prediction. It leans in favor of more toxic treatment that is more beneficial to those whose prior health status and habits is poor, and against those whose prior health status and habits are better.

For example, current reports of a study done indicate that black women have poorer outcomes, but the study says that is because more of them have a health status at time of diagnosis that is worse. A black person whose health status and habits are good at time of diagnosis would have the same prognosis as those who are not black.

Staying as healthy as possible makes a difference in the accuracy of predictions. Treatment usually worsens our ability to maintain our weight and general health, and IMHO, that is not adequately taken into account for those with very early stage bc.

A.A.

We discussed this in the forum awhile back. At the time our little informal poll showed that alot of us were in fact above average height.



.Cancer Risk increases with heigh.....http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/cancer-risk-increases-with-height/?smid=tw-nytimeswell&seid=auto

Goutlaw....

Necrosis present in biopsy?

Just met A 36 yr old who scared the crap out of me ...crying for days now! Triple negative she was now was stage 3 recurred and now stage 4 then told me I had better prognosis. I am so curious but each Ind. Is different

Goutoutlaw - the presence of comedo necrosis in DCIS means that the DCIS is more likely to become invasive; many of us who also had a DCIS component had comedo necrosis indicated on our pathology reports.

If you are seeing your Doctor on Monday it would make sense for them to wait and add the Vit. D test to any other bloodwork that might be drawn that day, this should actually save money

I know it is hard but it seems that it might be good for you to stop looking at your pathology and risk of recurrence at this point. There is a point where we can have too much information and it can become confusing and it also causes increased anxiety.

Try to focus your attention for now on getting through chemo and optimizing your health in preparation for surgery. Sending hugs

Goutlaw - I had three tumors of 5cm total with necrosis and suspicious cells in one node. I had TCH every three weeks for 6 cycles with herceptin on the off weeks. Just had mastectomy which found 0/7 nodes and only 4 mm left of IDC. I am now considered stage 1.

Goutlaw - I had three tumors of 5cm total with necrosis and suspicious cells in one node. I had TCH every three weeks for 6 cycles with herceptin on the off weeks. Just had mastectomy which found 0/7 nodes and only 4 mm left of IDC. I am now considered stage 1.

Goutlaw I had necrosis. Very typical for HER2+ gals. This is typically with fast growing tumors and we know HER2+ is fast growing. I'm coming up on 3 years NED!

Triple negative is tougher because they don't have hormone therapy like we have to keep the cancer at bay.

Ask your PCP about a vitamine D test. Mine did mine before I was even diagnosed with breast cancer.

O I c