I bought some red grapes today Dawn....just in case

Oh the flattery!  I'm sucking it all in now because once I lose my hair and skin, I doubt I'll be getting much in the way of compliments....

Looking forward to hearing about your updates of victory :-)  Tova, check this out for some GOD encouragement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IinYDR92gBM

This is the true living GOD. 

As for the Oreos, that white center stuff you do realize that it last forever and also the stomach has rough time to breaking down.  Sorry couldn't resist

Watch the video!

not all chemos do this.  You'll have to find out what kind of chemo you're going to have.  I know one person who didn't lose hair but as far as I know the rest of my friends did.  But they all got their hair back and look just like they did (if not better) on the other side of chemo and radiation.   Two of the ladies like the way their hair grew back better than they had before. 

good girl.  Red is the best.    We prayed for you last night at prayer meeting.  You and my friend Cathy who is going thru the same thing. 

Tova!  DAMMIT !!  I don't know what else to say.  Everybody else has already said all the good stuff.  I know that Betty Lou died in 1987, after having been given six months to live in 1958.  I know that some kinds of breast cancer can be very successfully treated, I don't like the "aggresive" word, and I am hoping you are able to obtain a good result. 

Uhhh...before the hair falls out?....go on and lift up that shirt, girl!  You are HOT !!

I did.  Thanks.  That was the cutest baby, and I loved the little pocket on his butt.

That's the only part worth eatin!!

Thank you.  I really appreciate that D!

I have checked...I won't have hair after the second treatment.

Everyone I know that lost their hair, grew it back, sure, but it was never the same...and not as nice either.

Not that it matters.  It is what it is.

My hair grows really slow...as in not even 1/4 inch a month...so it'll be awhile before I have hair again.

Lol, don't hold your breaf!  Though I do walk around lifting my shirt up so my husband can see my six pack....he just rolls his eyes.  I tell him..."You too can have a six pack like dis, for the price of a little abnormal cell growth!"  buwhahahaha.

Tova - sorry to hear about your situation. I have to agree with the other comments here, you can beat it. You seem in great shape, strong and I know you are a fighter. The advances these days are simply amazing as compared to just a few short years ago. I know folks first reaction when they hear the "C" word is fear, but with great confidence in our current medicine (the wife is a cancer survivor) and your strong spirit I'll be cautiously optimistic for you.

Don't worry about the hair so much, especially if your hubby has some "future girl" fantasies (you have the bod for it ). Anyway, our thoughts are with you.

Today in church they announced one of the ladies had just finished her radiation.  I had no idea she had cancer.  She has a full head of hair and she looks so good I would have never have thought she was under going treatments. 

Be thinking of you tomorrow T...what time is your surgery? 

From everything I've read,.....radiation doesn't generally make you lose your hair., its the chemo.  The radiation can make you weak and not feel 100% though.  Some people take it better than others.  I think a lot has to do with how much radiation exposure you've had in life.  The more you have the more severe the symptoms.  And some people (previous radiation treatments) can't get it at all.  They've maxed out their lifetime exposure.

Lol, that's actually a GREAT idea.  Thanks!

Surgery tomorrow! 

They couldn't get me an official time slot for an OR on such short notice, so I will be waiting until one opens up....should be between 9 am to 2pm though...surgery will take about 3 hours...

They're taking the lump, trying to get a good margin (so all the non-cancerous tissue around the lump)...and several sentinel lymph nodes....(I told the surgeon to go ahead with a mastectomy if the material he has to take is 1/4 or more of my breast).....the boob just can't come back from that...and I'd rather get a new one than have some funky shaped deformed thing.

Once they get all that out, they'll be able to stage it...This time tomorrow I should know if its traveled....traveling is bad bad bad.

I'll be in prayer for you tomorrow.  Let me know later how things went and I'll bring you up for prayer on Wednesday night.  We've had so many awesome answers to prayer it's unreal.  19 days ago a 19 year old grandson of one of our members was in a coma looking like he was going to die from a motorcycle accident (going 80 mph with no helmet hitting a tree).  Anyhow he took 4 steps with help yesterday after being in a coma for more than two weeks.  The best he was given was living in a nursing home in a vegetative state.  Hmmm they're reading the wrong book!!

ya that's what's happened to my friend Cathy this time.  The first time she had breast cancer, quite a few of her lymph nodes were affected.  She had quite a few taken out under one of her arms and had limited arm movement after that for a while.  Not sure how it is today. 

one reason I'm glad, for the most part, I've stayed away from doctors. 

no I know, but usually radiation follows chemo and she looked, with a full head of hair, very distanced from any chemo.  I've known others who had their radiation with their hair still coming in or short, short.  Her's was fairly long and full.  

I love you.

Ouch.  Sorry I didn't see this article and replies until tonite.  Very sorry to catch this news, but like others here, I'm sure you'll beat it and go on long after the treatment has finished and the cancer has been excised.  Hang tough, Live Strong, and kick cancer's butt!

I hope and pray all is going well.

The surgery today is postponed until I can get in for an MRI of both breasts (They think there may be something going on in the other one too.)  I also have to meet with a genetic counselor and plastic surgeon.

It was up to me to postpone the surgery.  The surgeon said he could operate today, no problem. 

But if I have the BRCA gene (find out results of that in two weeks), they'll recommend a double mastectomy and I would have to have another surgery on top of the one today, probably two more total with reconstruction.  Or, of course if there is a problem with the other breast then I'd have to go in for a separate surgery for that too. 

So instead of having piece meal surgery which would require at least 3, I chose to wait until all the test results are back, I have all the information, then make a decision about what I want to do.  And the surgeon said they can do whatever I decide in ONE surgery (if I wait), even reconstruction!  So I'm waiting.

My husband vehemently disagrees.  He wants the cancer out now.  It's aggressive and he's right to be concerned.  I understand his position, but frankly I don't believe 6 weeks will make a difference, and if its does, then this cancer has likely already progressed too far to save me anyway.

I just can't see going under general anesthesia and surgery 3 times, with 3 separate recoveries, then hitting chemo....when by waiting 6 weeks I can do it all at once, with one recovery.

No worries.  Thanks!

Back at ya!

I am on the phone now with my friend who is on her second bout and she agrees with you.  Her first cancer was aggressive and she said not to get scared.  The tough part is just not knowing. 

Making a well informed decision is a good thing after knowing all the facts she said.   She also said your cancer is better than what she has since you are HERS positive and she's negative.  She said she can't take herceptin but you can.   Herceptin slows down the cancer.  You should ask about that she said.   She also asked why 6 weeks?  It shouldn't take that long to get back the test results. 

She also told me you should ask about a Pet Scan.  It's more definitive she said.   It shows a better picture than a c-scan.  It can show the whole body what's going on.  It lights up with a concentrated radio-active sugar solution IV. 

She also said she had her lump out at first and went to work the next day.  Sore but ok.   She said having a lump out is nothing.  Hers was 5cm.  Later she had the breast out with alot of lymph nodes out as well and that was more down time.  She was swimming at about a month but she said reconstructive surgery needs more down time she's heard.  Recovery period is alot longer normally. 

Good info KFC, thanks.  6 weeks is how long it will take to get Insurance approval, get the appointments and results for the following....

1.  MRI of chest

2.  Genetics Counselor .. they test for the BRCA gene

3.  Meet with a plastic surgeon

I'm pretty sure I am having the entire right breast removed.  My lump isn't as large as your friend's, but my breast isn't large either.  The surgeon said to get a clean margin (area that is cancer free) around the lump he will have to take 1/3 of my breast.  With radiation on top of that, well, it will be deformed there's just no getting around it.  B cups and smaller seem to have the least positive cosmetic results with radiation.  (The pictures make you gag.)

Not that how it looks is a primary concern.  Hell I'd take an ugly boob for my life anyday..heh, but I'd also take no breast at all over some deformed blob.

Plus, the chance I'll require radiation if I just have them take it off drops significantly.  I really don't want to take radiation.  Call me a child of the cold war, but I just don't want to do that to my body if I can get around it.

I know about Herceptin.  Actually being HER2 is NOT a good thing.  It tells the cells in my body to reproduce too quickly.  I see how she says its a good thing because now there is a treatment to disrupt that communication (Herceptin).  I will also need hormone suppression therapy since it was over 90% estrogen and progesterone positive.

This is what I expect to happen (with the info I have right now):  I will have the right breast removed, and the left if there is anything there (MRI should show me that)...they are taking several lymph nodes as well (to help stage it and see if its left the breast).

Once they take what they must take, the plastic surgeon steps in (same operation) and rebuilds my breasts using implants or tissue from another part of my body.  (I'll get more info on that once I meet with the plastic surgeon and I may decide to just be flat chested...though I doubt it).

I may still have to do radiation, hope not!  (depends on any lymph involvement) and then chemo. 

The biggest benefit is one operation, with all the information, and one recovery.  I preserve my strength for the chemo, and for any further problems if it spread.

I won't make decisions from fear.  And rushing to surgery seemed like it was all about fear (not mine). 

This may be a bad decision in the end.  It might be spreading as we write, spreading to places (lungs, liver) that will give me a 3 month prognosis (roughly). 

If that's the case, then I'll be dead.

I can think of plenty of places worse than dead though.

Living in fear is one of them.

One more thing...right now our Insurance won't cover a Pet Scan.  Unless there is cause (cancer in the lymphs and symptoms)....so we have to wait and see the staging....and we checked....PET scans run around here between $4500-$6500 cash...so it is not off the table even if the Insurance Co. says "forget about it."

I can see both sides.  But remind your husband (as much as I would be standing right behind him with full support should I be in the situation he is in), that ANY surgery comes with risks, and the fewer the better.

He is right - NOW is better.  You are right - FEWER is better.  In the end, you have to decide, and he will support you fully.  He is just scared because HE can't do anything.

it is a terrible feeling - almost as bad as what you are going through.

The prayers will keep coming as will the best wishes for the best results!

Very insightful Doc.  I'd say it is WORSE for the family of someone with cancer, than actually having the cancer.  At least that's my opinion so far.

Watching my aunt the last 5 years on chemo, sick and then the whole dying process.....she's at peace now while we're struggling with her absence.  So in a way, her cancer is still kicking ass and taking names.

I have only seen one side (and hope I never see the other).  I cannot say "I know how you feel", as I do not.  But I can say I know how your husband feels.

exactly.  That's what she meant and why she said it was better than what she has.  She cannot take herceptin. 

 Her cancer now is not cureable.  They can keep her on meds (which she'll be for the rest of her life) and keep switching them out as  she becomes immune with lots of diff alternatives until they run out.  The best they can hope for her is remission and what they doctors are trying to do.  She went 8 years cancer free and now it's back so she said she's not a great example other than being a survivor the first time.  But she said she knows lots of breast cancer survivors and  can only think of one death as a result. 

Same here.  While I know quite a few with this I've not lost any friends to death as a result.  And I've known two so far that were stage 4.  It's to the point now that while any type of cancer is scary, to me, pancreatic or lung cancer or maybe brain cancer would have me more afraid  knowing that those cancers are much harder to get past.  My friend's husband died of pancreatic cancer before he hit 40 leaving her with two boys under the age of 13 so this is hard for her boys now in their 20's to deal with. 

If you have six weeks, then make use of the time by getting a second opinion on diagnosis and treatment options. It matters where you go... My mom had non Hodgkin lymphoma in 92 and one doctor wanted to break a bunch of her ribs and operate immediately on a small mass in her chest, she went to another doctor who had a much less dramatic idea.  Shes still alive and cancer free today. Its not like the second doctor was easy. She did have to go through chemo and radiation, plus a bone marrow transplant, but we all believe that the first doctor would have killed her. Its always good to ask for second opinion. 

It can sometimes confuse things, but no one ever died of too much information.