surgery

[clisa]

How many of you ladies are still hanging on to the affected breast? I have not had my msectomy yet and am getting very anxious to do so. I understand that because my mets developed so quickly after my initial diagnosis (1 week) that adjuvant chemo made sense.

But now I up to session 10 of chemo with little to no results AND MY BREAST LOOKS AND FEELS AWFUL.

I am still struggling to get my liver mets under contol via chemo and I understand the priority there but I just think that by going ahead with my surgery - perhaps it could reduce the tumour load a bit and allow my body to concentrate on healing my liver.

I think everyday that it is coming out of my liver and spreading all around my stomach. It is terrrifiying.

Any of you ladies have a masectomy at this point or did all of you have surgery first? Feels out of control right now.

Help - need feedback.

Lisa

[Beth]

Hi,

I have not had surgery on my breast as I was first dx 2003 stage IV w/mets to
the liver. I have had a total remission, recurrance, and right now am on chemo.
The breast lump is 3 cm right now and at dx was 4.5 I am not planning on having surgery unless it starts to effect my chest wall.

Good luck with your decision,

Beth

[tousled1]

I was diagnosed Stage III ER/PR-, HER+, axillary node involvement (10) late Oct 2005 and started neoadjunct chemo mid December. I have had 4 rounds (once every 3 weeks) of A/C. Ultrasound has shown that breast tumor has shrunk a little but not much. I start 4 rounds of Taxatore (once every 3 weeks) tomorrow. Started my premed (Decadron) today. I will have surgery after I finish the Taxatore. Surgeon says lumpectomy is just as effective but I'm leaning toward a masectomy and possibly a double masectomy due to the fact that I already know that the axillary nodes are involved. Hang in there.