Just diagnosed with SBC with Lung and Bone mets

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Hi ladies! Actually I am really sorry to write this post but also happy to find a community of us here.
I had my primary breast cancer in 2006.It was stage 2 and no mets or lymph node involvement.I was cured with radical mastechtomy,chemo and radiotherapy.Everything was well.At first I had controls per 3 months,then 6 months and last five years they were per a year.Everything was well.
In September 2015 my tests showed elevation of CEA.My onc immediately arrange a PET/CT scan for me.The results were clear.Than I kept being tested for my tumor markers every month.3 months later CEA was still elevating.My onc wanted another PET/CT scan and nothing had been found too.
Because my son was a 4th grade medical student at university,he wanted to check my tumor markers periodically.During this period with my onc’s advice, I had 2 colonoscopies,1 endoscopy,1 complete CT and 1 pelvic MRI.NOTHİNG,nothing was there.Because my son was too worried about situation we never gave up checking my body.But this time period was a really challenging and destructive for all of us’ psychologies.Even my onc started to think there is nothing malignant in my body since I had ‘zero’ symptoms.We decided to having TM tests for every 3-4 months not for every.
Finally at the beginning of this June(2017) my CEA level was extremely elevated with a moderately elevation of CA-125.(I just have a back pain for 3 weeks) I immediately had a PET/CT and that was it.I had bright spots in my thoracal lymph nodes,my lung(lots of milimetrical nodules),and my spine(especially L4-L5).And also there is a minimal pleural effusion in my left lung.I had a chest biopsy and the result was Secondary breast cancer.
According to pathology results my tumors situation was:
Estrogen reseptors:%100 (+)
Progesterone reseptors:%20 (+)
Proliferation index:%30(my onc told me this shows my tumor is not an aggresive one)

I am waiting for HER2 results before my treatment.
I just feel myself awful.I feel it is in every site of my body and I feel like it is late for me to recover.I have a daughter of 14 and a son of 23 who is a 6th grade medical student.
I am afraid ladies,afraid of leaving my children alone :((

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Welcome Temmuz, You will find a lot of understanding ladies here. It is normal to be fearful. Once you get a plan if action you will feel mire in control. My primary BC was in 1995. I too was Stage 2 no nodes involved. Fast forward 2005 coughing and vomiting up phlegm. Pneumonia ans suspicious modules in lungs and lymph nodes throughout chest. Partial collapse of middle lobe of right lung. Almost 12 years of mets. ER+, PR+, HER2-, very slow growing. It is in one spot in my spine now too. When I started with primary BC my youngest child was 9, with mets she was 19, now she is 31!  I hope this helps! Hugs, FF

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Thanks for this information- just diagnosed myself 9 years after having BC
Feeling angry, lonely and scared witless

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Good Morning!

 

Windflower - my BCN explained TMs to me in this way.  She said that everyone has these ‘units’ in their blood but when cancer is in the body it excretes extra cells into the blood so the ‘units’ go up.  The average non-cancer person has up to 31 ‘units’ (known as Tumour Markers)

 

When I was first measured on diagnosis I had 412 but after about 6 weeks on letrozole they were 105…over the next year or so they dropped to around 35 - 40 on average and remained at that for around 4 years.  Then they started to rise again.

 

she explained that some ladies show numbers in their thousands but the numbers aren’t as important as the trend ie. the rise and fall.  My numbers went up and down in the tens but someone with a very high number would go up and down by the hundreds.

 

for some people they don’t work, they stay the same regardless of spread which is why some ONCs don’t use them.  She did say though that in my case they obviously are a good indication.

 

If you look on your blood form they tick boxes for most of the tests they do LFT, CALCIUM, FBC etc. At the bottom there is another part which says ‘others’. If they are measuring your TMs it will have CA15.3 written in there.

 

 

hope that helps.