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sickmom View Drop Down
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    Posted: Oct 09 2009 at 3:07pm
Hi, I'm new to this forum. My mom was diagnosed with bc recently, and she's currently waiting for her first appoint at MD Anderson next week. I'm really worried between the time she first found her lump to when she was DX to first official appointment, the tumor has been growing in breast for at least 5 months. She found her lump at the end of May, but waited until her annual appointment in August to address the lump and was DX on 09/14/09. We have to wait another 5 weeks for her appointment on 10/16/09.

I'm hoping the huge time frame won't significantly worsten my mom's prognoses. Unhappy

I'm wondering what everyone's time frame. Did we waited too long???

When did you notice the lump?
When did you go for your mammogram/ultrasound - Diagosed?
When was your first appointment?
How big was your tumor?
Nodes involved?
When was your first treatment?

Please advise and Thank you!
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Points: 376 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Beth Anne Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Oct 10 2009 at 4:44am
When did you notice the lump?May 27, 2007
When did you go for your mammogram/ultrasound - Diagosed? May 30
When was your first appointment?May 31
How big was your tumor?7.5 cm
Nodes involved?8
When was your first treatment?June 7th would have been sooner but I went to Hawaii for the weekend with my sister before I started chemo....


Beth Anne



Edited by Beth Anne - Oct 10 2009 at 4:47am
Dx 5/07 DCIS Stage3 gr9 A/C x 6, Abrax x 16 Bi-Mass 2/08
Navelbine x 12, finished radiation end of July 08. DX Brain Met's 2/09StageIV
CK3/09.Brain resection4/09 WBR
Dreaming of dancing with Ned!
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unklez View Drop Down
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Dear Daughter with Sick Mom,

With DW's BC, we moved very aggressively and rapidly from feeling the lump to diagnosis and surgery and it still took 2 months to get the surgery. We hear of so many women who waited 4-8 months to start treatment. A few things I would say:

1. You will be in good hands with a reputed center like MD Anderson.

2. Try and fix the things that are now in your control, i.e. the future course of action. I'd suggest you send MD Anderson a copy of the biopsy report and impress the scheduling nurse to give her a speedy appointment and treatment.

3. Yes the longer you wait to start the treatment the worse the prognosis but generally speaking, BC is considered a slow growing cancer. Also, the BC's in elderly patients is not as aggressive and proliferative as that in younger patients. What is the size, grade and KI67, ER/PR, Her2 status in her biopsy report?

Good luck

Wife Dx: Jul/09. Age: 37. Size: 3cm. BRCA: -ve. Lumpectomy: Aug/09. Micromet 1/9 node. Chemo Start: Sep/09. E5103. DD ACB-> DD Abraxane (Taxol reaction). Zometa (S0307). Canadian Fraction Rads.
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sickmom View Drop Down
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Hi Unklez,

My mom is only 48 turning 49 this December.

Her tumor at DX is estimated to be about 2CM. From the biopsy pathology report, the tumor is grade 3 poorly differentiated, and Triple Neg. Everything else is unknown until we see a surgeon/Oncologist. 

I tried and call weekly to see if they can fit her in earlier, but unfortunately, there were no cancellation. In any case, her appointment will be this coming Friday.
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123Donna View Drop Down
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Unklez,

There was a breast surgeon on a show I saw Friday - I think it was the Today show segment with Kathie Lee and Khoda.  She said something that I thought was very interesting.  When your diagnosed with bc, the first thing you should do is just breath - meaning take the time to consider everything going on in your life and weigh all your treatment options.  While you want to get treatment right away, it's not like it's going to double in size in a few weeks or months.  She said that a 1 cm bc tumor is made up of about 5 billion cancer cells that probably started growing 5 to 8 years ago.   Interesting, I always wondered how long I had the cancer and I guess until it gets a certain size you don't feel it though a breast exam or detect it in a mammogram.    
DX IDC TNBC 6/09 age 49, Stage 1,Grade 3, 1.5cm,0/5Nodes,KI-67 48%,BRCA-,6/09bi-mx, recon, T/C X4(9/09)
11/10 Recur IM node, Gem,Carb,Iniparib 12/10,MRI NED 2/11,IMRT Radsx40,CT NED11/13,MRI NED3/15
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Daughter & sickmom,

I had been having some sharp knife stabbing type feelings in my breast that came & went sporadically, randomly, etc.. for approx. 9 months or so before I had mammogram. It was always so short & brief, only lasting a split second and sometimes would not do it again for days or longer. Naturally, the procrastinator I am when it comes to my body ( going to the Dr.) I just kept saying " oh, it's just this, oh it's just that"....After several months of this randomness I decided to start doing more thorough self exams....each month I felt nothing...after a few months I thought I may have felt something but told myself I didn't even know what I was feeling for to start with as my breast are large & fibrous feeling anyhow. The following month I DEFINITELY felt the lump and made an appt at my regular family Dr. He did an exam and told me he didn't feel anything but he would send me for a mammogram. It was another month before I even got the mammo. You can guess the rest...yeppers, I was IDC , TNBC, nearly 4.0cm, stage 2b, poorly differentiated ...

After my diagnosis it took me 16 days to get into MDAnderson ( I live in Kingwood) but keep in mind that I made my OWN appt. My family Dr. said I didn't need a referral so I made the call the day of diagnosis. I feel that your mom will be in good hands at MDAnderson and that Friday will be soon enough. So often we have this dreaded beast inside us and don't even know it for quite some time. My 1st appt. was March 25 and I started chemo on April 9.

I am sorry to hear that your mom was diagnosed but I am happy that you are active in being part of her support system. She is blessed to have you on her side.

If you have questions and would like to speak with someone local, or someone that goes to MDA, please feel free to PM me and I will call you or give you my #.

Hugs,
Dawn
Dawn

Age 43 at DX

DX 3-09 IDC 3.9cm

TN-Stage2-Grade3

Taxolx9, FACx2, halted TX,

Lump.8-25-09..rads x 8wks.
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Points: 55 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bashamk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Oct 17 2009 at 5:19am
When did you notice the lump? No way I could have, I'm full of lumps (cysts) - had been having diagnostic mammograms every 6 months to watch something in the other breast - this was the 3rd mammogram
When did you go for your mammogram/ultrasound - Diagosed? 6/25/09
When was your first appointment? I had lumpectomy 7/13/09
How big was your tumor? 1.5 cm at time of surgery
Nodes involved? 0
When was your first treatment? 8/4/09

Seems like my timeline was pretty quick. My surgeon said I could have taken a 2-month trip around the world before surgery and nothing would have changed. Don't know if I believe that, as I had been having diagnostic mammograms every 6 months, and this lump didn't show up 6 months previous. But, who knows. They could have missed it over and over.
 
 

 
dx 6/25/09 age 45, IDC TNBC,
stage 1, grade 3, 1.5 cm
Lumpectomy, T/C x 4, 33 rads
Dx Dec 2015 Stage 4 metaplastic
Cell growth on nerves in shoulder to rt arm; mediastinal nodes; Bone; skin mets
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unklez View Drop Down
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Originally posted by sickmom sickmom wrote:

Hi Unklez,My mom is only 48 turning 49 this December.Her tumor at DX is estimated to be about 2CM. From the biopsy pathology report, the tumor is grade 3 poorly differentiated, and Triple Neg. Everything else is unknown until we see a surgeon/Oncologist.  I tried and call weekly to see if they can fit her in earlier, but unfortunately, there were no cancellation. In any case, her appointment will be this coming Friday.


Dear SickMom,

How was yesterday's doctor visit?

Love,

Wife Dx: Jul/09. Age: 37. Size: 3cm. BRCA: -ve. Lumpectomy: Aug/09. Micromet 1/9 node. Chemo Start: Sep/09. E5103. DD ACB-> DD Abraxane (Taxol reaction). Zometa (S0307). Canadian Fraction Rads.
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sickmom View Drop Down
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Hi Unklez,
 
Our first appointment went fine so far. A lot of paper work. They redid the mammogram, ultrasound and a fine needle aspiration biospy. They found another lump on her left breast inaddition to the IDC on the right, but believe it's benign - of course we won't know for sure until we get the results back from the biospy. We did get some relieve when the radiologist told us that the tumor didn't look like it grew, since the DX. She ultrasounded the area around the armpit, neck and between her breasts, and said her nodes look good. I pray for only good news from here.
 
We'll meet her surgeon on Monday.
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unklez View Drop Down
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Dear SickMom,

Good to know that nodes are not involved clinically and from imaging.

Just so you know DW had 2 focal points too, one visible only in MRI which eventually turned out to be benign. Keep your chin up and don't let all kinds of possible bad things haunt you until the diagnosis is fully completed. God bless.


Wife Dx: Jul/09. Age: 37. Size: 3cm. BRCA: -ve. Lumpectomy: Aug/09. Micromet 1/9 node. Chemo Start: Sep/09. E5103. DD ACB-> DD Abraxane (Taxol reaction). Zometa (S0307). Canadian Fraction Rads.
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I first felt me lump in July but since I had just returned from an extenside trip with my horses (and recalled being bumped by an equine head in the area) I figured I was just bruised.

However, when it was still a tender lump on Aug. 6 I went for digital mammogram, ultrasound, and core biopsy the next day. Had the preliminary pathology by Aug 11 which had me at 1.2 cm tumor, triple negative (though I did not know the significance at that point until I Googled it....*scare*) and it was diagnosed as MEDULLARY CARCINOMA (a big frickin' difference from IDC NOS  IMO).

Sloan Kettering is who changed it to IDC NOS, as they said the dx of medullary required a panel of pathologists to agree on ALL of the dx criteria. So, BIG switch in my mind from the non-invasive nature of medullary to the much scarier IDC.

Lumpectomy of 2.2 cm tumor and SNB performed at MSK on Sept. 9th. So one month from dx to excision. Started chemo 10/5 and this will be followed by rads.

I will always wonder if the tumor grew from a Stage 1 size to a Stage 2 size in that month. It felt like it had to my fingers but my surgeon said the ultrasound was probably just not as specific as the actual excision. Spoken like a true surgeon, but a damn good one.
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unklez View Drop Down
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Points: 1000 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote unklez Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov 04 2009 at 6:20pm
Dear Heidi,

My wife's pathology also says IDC NOS. We don't know what that means from a treatment and prognosis perspective. We asked but did not get any explanation beyond - there can be several sub-subtypes of IDC and this is not one of the known ones. Judging from your experience also, Sloan seems to do that often :-)
Wife Dx: Jul/09. Age: 37. Size: 3cm. BRCA: -ve. Lumpectomy: Aug/09. Micromet 1/9 node. Chemo Start: Sep/09. E5103. DD ACB-> DD Abraxane (Taxol reaction). Zometa (S0307). Canadian Fraction Rads.
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Unklez,

What does IDC NOS mean?

Donna
DX IDC TNBC 6/09 age 49, Stage 1,Grade 3, 1.5cm,0/5Nodes,KI-67 48%,BRCA-,6/09bi-mx, recon, T/C X4(9/09)
11/10 Recur IM node, Gem,Carb,Iniparib 12/10,MRI NED 2/11,IMRT Radsx40,CT NED11/13,MRI NED3/15
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unklez View Drop Down
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Originally posted by 123Donna 123Donna wrote:

Unklez,

What does IDC NOS mean?

Donna
 
IDC = Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.
NOS = Not Otherwise Specified.
 
But I don't know what the NOS really means.
 
 
Wife Dx: Jul/09. Age: 37. Size: 3cm. BRCA: -ve. Lumpectomy: Aug/09. Micromet 1/9 node. Chemo Start: Sep/09. E5103. DD ACB-> DD Abraxane (Taxol reaction). Zometa (S0307). Canadian Fraction Rads.
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Points: 224 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote scared Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov 14 2009 at 2:25am
Hello, your story is very similar to ours.  My wife discovered a lump in Oct 07 and forgot about it.  A cyst developed June of 08 and then she remembered her lump.  Tests were done and tumor confirmed.  I will not lie but finding it early increases survival statistics.

It is by stages, if we acted upon her cancer when she first discovered her lump, it is possible a mastectomy would not have been necessary.  But it being very aggressive it grew to 4.78 cm about the size of a fifty-cent piece and we had no other options than to have a mastectomy because there were no clear margins.

Stage 1 survival rates are better than stage two breast cancer (95% vs. 82%).  So, the sooner it is diagnosed and treated the better outcome could be expected.

I hope you both get the best news possible, I do not want to scare you, but this has been our experience.  I wish you all the best and this forum is a great source of information and fellowship.  

There are a lot of wise people here that contribute to this forum and I hope you find everything you are looking for.  

Dave
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waiting is the hardest part of this whole ordeal.
MD Anderson is one of the best places to be treated for cancer, especially TNBC.
 
Take a deep breathe!
 
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
--Sir Winston Churchill
DX age 45:12/08 IDC & DCIS TNBC. 2/09:lumpectomy, 2 cm, grade 3, -nodes, stage IIa, BRCA- Chemo:Taxotere/Cytoxan x4.Double mastectomy 6/09. Zometa   http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hollisimpsongough
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