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Coming out of the shadows with questions

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slysimp View Drop Down
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    Posted: Jul 25 2016 at 7:37pm
Hello! I have been reading for a couple of month now and I just can't find anyone talking about my worrisome symptoms. I am 54 and was diagnosed April 23rd with TNBC, 5 cm, stage 2. Had Pet Scan and Breast MRI, both were clear except for the single mass. The rest I kinda blocked out. I just finished round 4 of chemo, 2 more to go. Taxetere/ Cytoxan every 3 weeks. I had ran into a tall dresser corner one night and after that it felt like I had bruised my peck muscle, I remember thinking,"that's gonna leave a mark." That was in January. It continued to bug me on and off for months, then in April I was putting on a tank top and saw it! I immediately called the Dr. We thought it was a cyst, I almost didn't get the biopsy because of expense. Didn't think I needed it, well, GLAD I DID!  The onc said it was shrinking when he felt it, I asked him to check at 3rd visit because of you guys! To make sure the chemo was working, he said it was. But there is a huge mass of denser tissue there, it swells every night. I'm on my feel all day walking, and every time I get chemo it turns the area red and looks like it is bruising. Onc saw it the last time and commented it looked bruised and I told him nothing had happen to it. And that was that. Have any of you had tissue damage along with you cancer? Could treatment and test cause it? Thank you guys so much for being so open with your trials and tribulations! 

Sylvia
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AmyL View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AmyL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 25 2016 at 8:53pm
Hi Sylvia,

I'm glad you have been following us, and decided to post your questions. There are some really smart people on this site, and I'm sure someone will have an answer to your question. I know that there are different treatment protocols around the country, but I'm really surprised that with a 5 cm TNBC tumor your onc didn't say you needed Adriamycin/Cytoxan plus Taxol. It makes sense that with each treatment the tumor reacts, and in your case it turns red. Are you at a regional cancer center? I think it would be realistic to get a second opinion about treatment and what is going on with the tumor. I'm not much help with how it feels when the tumor shrinks with chemo because I had surgery first then started chemo, but I have read accounts on here of women who feel changes during chemo.

Best of luck Sylvia, and please keep in touch with us.

Donna, if you read this, what do you think?

Amy
Dx Dec '15, 1.1 cm, stage 1A, gr 2, TNBC, BRCA -, 1/16 lumpectomy with red/lift, 2/16 DD A/C x 4, Taxol x12, planed radiation summer '16.
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slysimp View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote slysimp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 26 2016 at 5:16am
Thank you Amy. I'm going to the Blue Ridge Cancer Center. The onc came highly recommend by one of the best drs we have here in town. I wondered about the treatment as well but have seen some accounts of this beening kinda normal treatment. The onc as well as the nurses have said I was getting the "hard stuff" when I asked about it. I'm normally passive when it comes to drs. Just because I know they are smarter than I.... But I feel I'm learn so much from you guys and am starting to question him. I pionted out to him the lawsuit of taxetere, he pulled it up and said when did that happen, I told him Dec of last year......
Thanks again!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gordon15 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 26 2016 at 3:28pm
Sly: you don't want to go bumping yourself while on chemo. What happens with chemo, is it breaks down all the cells in the breast tissue, (I read up on this, a lot, I'm not a doctor) for instance, if you read about Carboplatin/Gemzar chemo, one drug breaks down the tissue/cell, and the other goes in for the kill.

So, after bumping into something, you want your doctors to rule-out a hematoma but you could easily bruise tissue, and then the chemo is doing weird things to all the tissue, mostly vascular breakdown. You could request an ultrasound if you are worried.(shows liquid vs solid)

Also, by bumping yourself during chemo, you break blood vessels that are already compromised, so you don't want to do that. And then there's infection too/

I'm not advocating you need to be in a padded room, just some info :~)
wife: IDC/Lobular Stage2B 2008 lumpectomy/TAC+rads
TNBC Stage 3A/w/metaplastic/squamous Nov2015 Carboplatin-Gemzar chemo/masectomy Taxolchemo+rads 4-16
PET scan stable 9-2016/ 1-2017
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote slysimp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 26 2016 at 6:16pm
Sometimes I think a padded room sounds good! No, I bumped it months ago, really I kind of feel it was what started the cancer.... I cant find anything on that either, but my grandmother had a cancerous lump the size of a tennis ball I've been told. They say she told them it started after hitting that same place with a broom handle pretty hard.....That was in 1950's I think. The gave her so much radiation that my way older brother said she layed over his lap while he peel the dead back skin off. She lived a good long while after that.

Sylvia
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gordon15 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gordon15 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 26 2016 at 7:22pm
My wife had no problem with self-exams in 2015, since 2008.

She had a mammogram, after that she had a tumor present itself, 4 weeks later.

I questioned the surgeon-opinion, he said "mammograms don't cause cancer-tumor"

but I am sure the trauma from that mammogram presented what was there. I don't know if it was the impact of the mammo, it grew fast after that.

All the oncologists have dismissed my inquiry about maybe trauma from my wife's mammogram maybe presented some accelerated action of the tumor, which did not show up on PET/CT,    it's probably a dumb idea to think there is something to think about investigating... so much more to focus on...



Edited by gordon15 - Jul 26 2016 at 7:29pm
wife: IDC/Lobular Stage2B 2008 lumpectomy/TAC+rads
TNBC Stage 3A/w/metaplastic/squamous Nov2015 Carboplatin-Gemzar chemo/masectomy Taxolchemo+rads 4-16
PET scan stable 9-2016/ 1-2017
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