TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP

Sportsmom,

I hear you. But you will get threw it one way or another. Asking for help is a good start, being on here is another.

There are days that are worse than others. Days I have been more scared, certain times I felt very alone, some days have been better. It goes up and down, not in a straight line. I did not know much about cancer before I got diagnosed, mostly the scary things. The awful chemo etc. I have discovered it is more the unknown that is scary. I did not find my chemo to be too bad so far. The operation went well, the shoots, the needles, the poking all is not too bad, but the anxiety to go threw all of it before; pure panic.

The chock realising this is a marathon not a sprint has not sunk in just yet. I still can not really comprehend I am in this hopefully for a very very long time...I am sure it gets better once the chemo, radiation etc is over but then you are scared for reaccurance so it is just something I have to learn to live with and accept somehow. I am waiting for the pathology report to determine my future treatment at the moment, more chemo or radiation...I am taking calming pills to get threw the wait...it is very real and very scary.

One thing is certain, life will never go back to what is was before the diagnosis this summer..hopefully I will live for a very long time and I do think that a lot of good things can come out of this experience for your own self and progress. That is my full belief, you might cut some people out of your life your might find some new ones that are better for you. Life is a progress as long as it is going and we all have great chances considering the advances in keeping us alive medically.

Lots of of love to you sportsmom, it will get better, and maybe one day you will dipp, it is hard to be strong all the time..we all need some extra love and care now and then...

Congrats Moonflwr912 !!!

Wishing everyone a good start on the new year. I am a bit of a mess...waiting for this pathology report on the 3rd of Jan..can not really concentrate on other things at the moment...feeling happy new years eve..no thank you I am in bed.

Perhaps I am experiencing a depression. In any case I am very worried about my report. I read happy posts about PCR (pathological complete response) an so forth but my tumor did not shrink at all during treatment, guess it did not grow but for some reason I have a hard time trusting what the doctors are telling me at this point. Due to holidays the medical team changes and I am meeting new people at the clinic. One doctor I find ignorant and would like to say something but worried he is part of this medical team and if I critize something he might do something etc.

I know one of the most important things in all of this is to feel that you can trust your doctors a 100%. I am asking myself if I can at this point. It might be in my head just because I am anxious for the report. It might be anger on why this has happened to me. It might be a lot of things but one thing is certain I am drained after 5 months of treatment, surgery and so forth. Just drained.

Thanks, ElaineTherese my clip migrated, apparently, and we knew that going in. It happens sometimes, apparently. Blood flow pushes it out along the biopsy track surgeon said.

Now i'm sad and scared about lymphedema, and having some symptoms. I was doing well until i fell on some ice two days ago. Landed on my surgery-side arm. Didn't hurt at the time, but has been heavy, weak and feeling a bit swollen today and yesterday. Effing sucks, i don't want a chronic lymphedema problem. Will see a doctor asap next week.

Kattis, for what it's worth, slower-growing tumours respond less to chemo than faster-growing ones. My IDC turned out to be grade 1 (slow-growing) according to pathology, and my surgeon confirmed that is probably why i didn't have a big response to chemo. He also said grade is more important than stage, so really what you want is a slow-growing tumour. Your apparently small response (on imagery) may well be a sign that's what you have. I have my fingers crossed for you.

I hope we all find comfort and peace in the new year

Thank you, ElaineTherese. I looked up lymphedema treatments on youtube and found this series of self-massages

An hour after folowing along with the video, my arm was two-thirds better than it had been. Such a relief to find something i can do to manage it. The exercise are wierd but seem to work. I didn't even do all the things in the video, because i was at a friends house watching him make pizza from scratch at the same time, and got distracted before the end.

I didn't get measured in advance, in part because my surgeon said my risk of lymphedema would be less than 5%, having only five nodes removed.

I'm sorry to hear one of your sons is sometimes aggressive. My son isn't autistic but does occasionally get violent with me. I need to get that to stop while he is still small. I use consequences but don't get very angry and scare him. That is not the way i was raised. But clearly i need some new strategies. Might see a behavioural psychologist this year for help. My son is sweet and loving most of the time.

Happy new year everyone. 2017 has got to be better.

Elaine Therese, that is what my onc has told me, my cancer might be more sensitive to hormon treatment than chemo...the problem is that the tumor is now gone so we will never know for sure who works and what does´t, I guess that is the beauty with neo.adjuvent treatment, you will kind of know what works and if it does´t work it is pretty devastating. The hormons we will know if there is no recurrences that is all.

My tumor is fast growing tunegrll, KI65 30%, the fact that it has remained the same size since this summer still means it has not grown, so something is absolutely working..:) hopefully I will find out tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

To all of you newbies...yes it is a happy new year because the disease we have has many treatments and reason for optimism. For the long term folks, it is especially a happy new year....because we are still here and kicking!

Tresjolie...you asked about an antidepressant...when first diagnosed, I threw myself into a panic disorder. My nurse practitioner friend prescribed Cymbalta because not only is it an anti depressant, but has joint pain relief effects and taxol can cause joint pain. It really helped immensely. I had to stop when starting Tamoxifen because there was an interaction. When I was switched over to Arimidex, I developed a lot of joint pain. Because there was no interaction, and because they are doing studies about using Cymbalta for treatment for breast cancer patients on an AI, my onc put me back on it again. And...it helped a lot for the joint pain. I figured the anti-depressant part couldn't hurt lol.

Special K and Lago...so I asked my MO about the Breast Cancer Index test. He said no as he didn't trust their reliability. Really annoyed me. I'm trying to figure out how i can get one. He does somewhat believe I should stick with it another five years as he said there is some benefit both for contralateral and distant recurrence. But also said that the side effects need to be taken into consideration.

He agreed to let me take a 3 month break from Arimidex. Pros...feels like a fog is lifted from my brain. Much clearer...less tired...more energy...few hotflashes and joint pain is better. Cons...haven't lost weight, but my fault, just starting to work out again...still don't fall asleep easily...and some mental worry from wondering if I should continue. I'll decide soon, but wish I could have that test.

Kattis...glad you are doing well. I chose to do a BMX because I didn't want the worry of the other breast. From a swx standpoint (and sorry if it is tmi), I miss the nipple sensation for getting things going. But I love being smaller. I was always small until after my second child, then ballooned to d's. Never got used to it.

Ang...great news...I am not saying anything for fear of jinxing until I see my PS and he orders an mri. He does one to check the implants every two years. So I am going to get that scheduled and done and then I will update my NED status.

I'm so glad to log on and not see anyone with drastic changes.

Hi everyone,

I just got diagnosed with triple pos today and have a lumpectomy scheduled for next week. The surgeon mentioned it really depends on whether or not the cancer has spread to my lymph nodes to determine what course of treatment I'll get.

What makes this more difficult is the fact that I'm currently ~22 weeks pregnant. I'm hoping that I won't be forced to get a chemo before my baby is born. If there's anyone who has went through a similar experience, I would love to hear your story or connect with you.

Thank you.

Hi ElaineTherese, thank you so much.

Thank you SpecialK. I'll look for it. So much information to digest.

I wish everyone here all the best.

Marlene18, thank you! I'll PM you shortly. Your story inspires me!

Hi again ladys,

I read somewhere on here that if you do not have a complete respons as tripple positive the prognosis looks worse for recurrences.

So there was no Complete response for me...my tumor was 2,5 cm x 2 cm at removal, instead of the 6,5 cm x 4,5 cm so it has shrunk some but I am still concerned about this.

I will start the radiation and have started Femara. My Ki65 went down from 35% to 6% so I guess that is good. Not sure what it means. My onc is on holiday so I still have to wait for the entire picture and explanation. If anyone here has some advice I would be so happy.

Is it true that the prognosis looks worse and why?

The nightmare continues....

Kattis this thread may help:
https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/67/topics...

the women there are very knowledgeable and helpful. According to your bio, you didn't seem to have lymph node involvement, so that is a good factor as well. Hang in there, and stay hopeful.

Hi everyone! I read and lurk a lot but don't post much. There is such a great supportive group of women here!

I'm kind of freaking out right now. I have a small hard painless lump under my skin in my inner forearm. At first it was less of a lump and had some redness and irritation. I went to urgent care and started antibiotics for a suspected cellulitis infection (I was hospitalized for two nights with cellulitis in october), and the redness is gone but the lump is still there. It's a hard lump that moves around (i.e. not attached to the bone), but it feels very tumor-like.

I know it could be a million benign things (cyst? lipoma?) but my brain is fixated on cancer (sarcoma? skin metasteses from the primary tumor?). I am supposed to see my doctor on Tuesday but am trying to move the appointment to tomorrow because I'm freaking out.

Anyone have anything like this before? I can't calm down and am so scared!

I had a weird lump on my shin, freaked me out too, but MO said bc mets below knee are rare. I think the same is true for below elbow?? My gp told me what it was, something benign, but I forget what it was called. Had mine removed for cosmetic reasons so it was biopsied and it, as the dr suspected, benign.

Try not to worry. Good luck.