How often for checkups? What about diet?

Hello Everyone--

Thanks for all your generous and sensitive replies....

Spoke with my radiation-oncologist today. He's an optimistic guy who thinks my chances of testing positive for BRCA genes are unlikely, although I have an appointment Dec. 9 with my other oncologist to talk about this. He emphasized that I've had "maximal" care and good physicians--which is true, I've been very happy with them.

He said, yes, the chance for recurrence is higher with TNBC. Looked it up and found out the chances of surviving five years without a recurrence are 77%--a little better than I first thought--not that I'm not still at the holy crap stage. Most recurrences occur during the first three years. Which makes me wonder if getting checked up every six months is wise--more like every four months would make more sense to me, especially after what I've been reading here. I think I'm going to ask for a mammo/sonogram three times a year now...

Other than that, gotta live one day at a time and hope for the best. What a cliche, but it's true.

Just curious--has anyone become a vegan since their diagnosis? I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for years. But I gotta wonder about the hormones, pesticides and antibiotics fed to most farm animals. I worked for the FDA many years ago and discovered that we've been giving cattle DES since the 1950s.

Pat

Hi Krisa--

Pat,

Chaya,

Ok Susan dumb question here, what are you supposed to do with the tumor marker form?  Does it give you an idea of the good and bad numbers so that you can look at your results to see how you are doing?

Hi, my onc group doesn't do scans and I see both rad and med onc every six months. The med onc does bloodwork. I asked my med onc how I would know if something was wrong. He said, "You'll feel sick, maybe throwing up, or nauseau..." He didn't mention the 'two week' waiting period, but I've heard that my whole life from my mother, and most recently from my regular internal med doc. If something doesn't lessen or go away after two weeks, go get it checked out.

Yes Jacqui, it does get easier. I have even forgot some of the detail. I like to keep up...so I feel prepared....in case it does come back. I kept most of my wigs for that purpose too ! The fear tends to go away. Life isn't/ doesn't center around cancer. People know me that aren't even aware that that was my past. I still like seeing the onc 2X a year. I dropped the surgeon to 1X a year last year. Life goes on...

Thanks, Kirby! I am surrounded by a family who believes in the power of positive thinking, but once in a while I need a kick in the butt from someone who actually truly knows.

Jacqui,

     Yes, it is because it comes from an animal, and animal products (meat & diary) help cancer grow.

Huggs of Love,

   Tia

I'm kind of a pseudo vegetarian. Didn't ever want to go that route, but radiation took my ability to eat meat totally away from me. Chemo aready pulled my sweet tooth and made me cut out the coffee and milk, but I'll draw the line on cheese.

In a way it's good that I can't drink milk because I'm not too keen on the growth hormone additives. I tried the soy milk, but that did not go down too well. What I'm doing, since I don't want the growth hormones, I do buy imported cheese, not from England, but continental Europe. There, adding the growth hormone outlawed and the cheese and butter are more pure and much better.