Sophie - That was interesting what you said about your path report as I had one lymph involved although they removed 11 altogether. Also does the report indicate the level of oestrogen positiveness of the tumour? I also may do the decreasing steroid regime as I have definitely felt the lethargy dip since day 5 FEC2. Also has anyone else had the sensation where their skin feels just tender to touch? Had that a couple of days ago and wondered if it was also related to the steroids. I did my circuit training yesterday but I couldn’t do anything high impact as it just made my bottom really hurt!! Maybe it was just that Christmas pudding flabbiness and nothing to do with the medication at all!!
Morning
well - slept like a log! - so that was nice
Am thinking I may ask for my report next visit too now (see what you have started!). have no idea about vascular involvement but think mine wasn’t as has never been mentioned. I had 3 nodes involved but not a tumour in them just cells I think.
I seemed to sleep even when taking the steroids so didn’t notice a lull on day 4-5 really -just carried on sleeping all day!!! I took mine very early cos woke early at 6 each day (then dropped off again!) so had them all by 1pm - Rob woke me to take them - maybe that helped?
happy feccing & taxing to all of us on it today
hugs - jo
Ang, could it be the moisture in your skin drying out. My fingers, given the chance, almost stick together and bare feet to our wooden floors. Organic moisturiser several times a day works ok…well no cracks etc so far. TAX I think is worse in this respect if it happens…plantar palmar syndrome or something.
I took my steroids at 7am and 1pm , so quite early and did not sleep at all unless I took a sleeping tablet. If they continue with my chemo, I’ll ask about dosage - mind you, that should be TAX and that’s double dose anyway.
Hope no-one is suffering too much and good luck if Feccing or taxing.
Stella
PS I had Grade 3, clear margins not quite clear and vascular involvement too - hence the FEC and TAX.
Will be joining you all soon after what felt like the results appointment from hell yesterday but have now got my head around it after a sleepless night & many tears am a lil scared but know it will be ok.
Have been advised that although tumour is smaller than thought (13 mm) it is also more aggressive (G3) they are also doing further testing on lymph nodes as there are a few suspect areas which they think could be micro something or may just be a reaction to what has been happening in boob, they have given BCN permission to ring me as soon as results are in.
Basically if in lymph node, will need further surgery, if not they have said they will be looking to start chemo pretty much straight away, appointment with Onc next week.
Am cross with myself for “counting my chickens” on the basis of biopsy result instead of keeping an open mind till after surgery but then again in this game you tend to grab any bit of positive news as quickly as you can much the same as receiving negative news & believing its the end of the world when it really isnt.
I think they tend to tell you the minimum treatment they think you will need at biopsy time. Then when you’ve come to terms with that and they operate they then add any more treatment depending on what they find. So don’t be cross with yourself, it’s quite normal to be led to think things are not too bad and then find out later that there’s more.
I had a small lump - 11mm and no node involvement , so was told WLE, SNB and rads to follow.
But after op it was grade 3, and VI, so FEC and TAX chemo as well.
You will feel better once you know exactly what your path will be.
Good luck. Sorry you have to join us.
Sarah, sometimes the news just seems to get worse and worse! But lymph node involvement doesn’t necessarily make the situation much worse, only potentially worse with time. I had to have a clearance after a few cells were discovered in one node, and the cancer was bigger than the mammogram and scans had suggested, but still small and still only G2. However, the remaining nodes were clear.
This meant having chemo as well as rads and anti-oestrogen as originally planned, especially as I had a DCIS in my other breast a couple of years. This all came as quite a blow at the time, but the BCNs tipped me off that the clearance was clear, which was a very considerable relief.
All the same, the first surgery has probably removed the actual cancer from my body.
Well Sarah
join the club of the “bashed on the head with bad news” club. I too was hoping for just surgery and radio after my diagnosis (my cancer was “only” grade 1, albeit much larger than yours being 37 mm) BUT ended up needing two ops as margins were not clear and one node was affected (which meant I had to have an axilla clearance). I also had reconstruction at the same time which was a much worse procedure I had thought (LD back flap. Op lasted in excess of 6 hours. EEEEK! And terrible seroma problem followed). It took me ages to recover. And of course I needed chemo. Pooh!
BUT I have nearly come to the end of my awful cancer treatment journey. Had my last chemo on Wednesday and got away with SEs which were not too severe. Unlike some other ladies on this thread. Radiotherapy which I’ll need shortly doesn’t scare me at all.
We are all on the same boat here and you get great comfort from this website (and this thread). I was waxing lyrical about it to my GP this morning.
By the way, looking like a scary lobster at the minute. I always go bright red while on steroids. People might think I have just been to a tanning booth. If only!
Good luck to anybody having their chemo session today.
I have just joined the PP forum too but not sure if I have done it right…
Lulu X
Just popping in…good luck girls…am sending positive vibes for a se free weekend!!!
Just got results of blood test I had done yesterday…took new surgery nurse 4 attempts to get blood and I was turning green by time she had finished…
Neutrophils now a heady 3.89!! woop woop so I am off to Oxford to see a friend for the weekend…amazing how they can shoot up so quickly and means I can mix with the great unwashed!!!
Sarah…you are going to be fine, it gets a whole lot less scary when you have all the bits of the jigsaw…when you only have 8 out of 10 bits the other two seem dark and scary and a bit like the death eaters in the harry potter films…but once its all complete its a different picture and can be tackled head on, and we are all here to cheer you on xxxx
Morning girls, have not been on for a few days and will catch up with all your posts later, have had a crappy week, had stinking cold and had to have bloods re done pre chemo today they are back up so going for next cocktail later, cried as soon as i came of the phone!!! ,onc was very unhelpful at pre assessment and didnt get to ask the questions i wanted as she didnt seem to have time! very emotional day today have to go say bye to my sister and her oh in a min as they are of to mexico to start a new life, keep thinking i will go down in a minute but know i cant put it of much longer, just want to be strong and not cry but as the tears are coming as i write this know thats gonna be near impossible!!!
Well done to the 1st time feccers this week and to everyone having their next cocktails,
Hugs to everyone jam xxx
ooh Jam its really hard saying bye to youre sister will be emotional enough without all what you have been through ,dont be afraid to show youre emotions she’ll understand and im sure yours wont be the only tears xxxxxx big hugs just think somewhere to plan to go and stay with her when all this is over for you xxxxxxJulie ( drip drip see you set me away now )
Lulu really pleased you joined us on pp and can you turn youre face down i can feel your heat from here and its doing nothing for my flushes ha ha xx have a good weekend girls Julie
Jam, bless you! Tears are fine, it can be really therapeutic to have a weep with someone else, me amd my mum have had some fine group blubs! I know the feeling of wanting to keep it all in and be strong, but hey, let it rip. Hope you feeling better soon xxxx
Jam - you and your sis need Skype. We downloaded it recently on our laptop and I can talk to my sister in New Jersey and see her on-screen at the same time for free. She doesn’t seem so far away.
LiF - glad you are getting a fun break; you deserve it after the hospital stay from hell.
All Feccers and Taxers, good luck. I went for bloods this morning (3 ‘sharp scratch’ attempts to find a vein) and am waiting for a call to see if I have to be re-tested before Monday’s FEC.
I haven’t asked about my path report. I had no node involvement but didn’t realise the cancer could have its own blood supply. Mine was 5cm and grade 3. Not sure I want to know about prognosis becasue according to the stats on this site the risk of bc for women up to age 49 is about 2% (1 in 52). So telling me I’ve got whatever % chance of the cancer coming back isn’t going to reassure me. I might ask next time about the margins though - I’m not sure why!
Angie - yes, the oestregen positive score was on my path report (8/8, what else, lol, everything else I do is always to excess, so why should this be any different?!!).
Good luck if you decide to get your report (and millykins too, if you’re now thinking along those lines!). I just hope you have an onc. who is prepared to talk you through it, and explain what it all means, as some of it would have confused me! Just for eg - on lymph nodes, it says 1+ - well, I might have taken that as more than one, and wondered why I hadn’t been told, when in fact it was just one, and the capsule it was in had cancer cells - and obviously, stuff like that needs explaining.
Millykins - hope it all went ok, and you managed your visit to the shops on way home! I’ll be leaving for mine in about half an hour as my appointment this time is not until 2pm. Would rather get it over and done with first thing, if poss, but at least managed to get to library and stock up on reading material to keep me entertained this week.
Although there is always Come Dine with Me… we’ve gone a bit quiet on that topic lately!!
Nottsgal, good luck on the bloods, hopefully they’ll be fine and you don’t need any more sharp scratches coming up…
The path report doesn’t state the prognosis on it (that was on a seperate graph that the oncs draw up to figure out best treatment plan), so you wouldn’t be hit with that info if you don’t want to know. And you’re quite right - statistically speaking, hardly any of us would be likely to be here, and yet, here we are! For me, the one advantage of already knowing my odds, was that I wasn’t then as upset by the thought of vascular invasion etc etc as I might have been if I didn’t know that I’ve already heard the worst… However, it’s also just as easy for the onc. to look at it on their computer and tell you the bits you might want to hear, like the margins achieved.
I’m just born nosey, and want to know ‘why’ to everything…<grin> TAX? Why? Rads? Why? ANC? Why!!! Whereas one of the other ladies who had wle at the time I had my mx is adamant that she wants to know nothing at all - not what size/grade tumour was, what nodes were involved, etc etc - she just wanted to know what treatment was necessary and when it would begin. Fair play to her… but that would drive me mad. But equally, she thinks I’m barking for wanting to know…</grin>
Lulu…thx for joining PP. We need people like you in there as many of us are reeling a bit from FEC2 and tax. The idea is to keep us together as a strong group into the future as after chemo our treatments will vary…and also to get to know each other as real people with interests and talents and a real life (I can barely remember normality this week :S). So anyone having a good week please write something to take our minds off the pink stuff for a while.
Another crappy night and like Lulu I seem to have developed the red face syndrome. But hey ho another couple of days and hopefully should start to feel more human.
Jam hope your sister gets off ok and do have a good cry, I’m sure you won’t be the only one.
LiF have a great time and I’m glad the bloods are behaving themselves at last.
Good luck everyone having a dose today.
It’s an awful time when you keep finding out a bit more about your cancer. First you have one op and for me it was in the nodes so had a clearance and then found out it was in more. It seems that it’s always bad news after bad news but as they find out more information they can judge the next stage of treatment. It just seems to be never ending at times.
This comments book seems to be essential the things I’ve got are truly unbelievable ! I’m keeping a note of all offers of help so will be in touch when needed. If we do get together in York I’ll bring along what I’ll have and then you can see how it’s coming along and add suggestions. In the meantime keep them coming either by pm or on the pp messages.
am a lil scared but know it will be ok.