[Jackie07]

Hezzy,

I believe steroid does have the effect of making people look bulky. (Ever heard of those body builders taking steroid to 'swell' up their muscles?) I wondered if it has anything to do with your throat being swollen.

Your doctors might not be ignoring you - it takes time for the MRI to show tumor changes. A slow-growing tumor - like the 'neurocytomas' in my brain - reacts to radation 'slowly' (the three residue tumors haven't changed size since 3 doses of Gammaknife in 2003 - a good enough news for me) It is the fast-growing tumor that shows shrinkage within shorter period of time. But however fast our breast cancer might be, it's going to take a while. I remember my BC diagnosis in 2003 - it was 1.2 cm and the surgeon thought it had been growing for 2 1/2 years based on the super fast mitotic rate.

About your throat again - I'm thinking that your doctor might have thought that you were being too nervous. A 'choking' feeling sometimes is associated with our nerves. Is there a family doctor you can talk to and get it checked out? My husband shared with me one of his college experiences. Someone who was eating at the same table 'almost' choked to death by food, and that led to the worsening of hubby's 'Freshman' depression which then almost resulted in an eating disorder. He then dropped out of school and did not go back until 10 years later.

Depending on your health insurance policy, your oncologist might not be the best person to ask for certain tests/referrals. My oncologist sort of ignored my requests (instead, he gave me a prescription of antidepressant), so I went to my family doctor for help. He ran some tests and then gave me a referral to get my digestion problem solved (the GI doctor told me to eat yogurt - because all the antibiotics I had taken killed the good bacteria in my digestive tract - 2 weeks of yogurt will replenish the balance.) Naturally I don't worry about whether my cancer had spread to my abdominal area any more.

The gynecologist I was referred to (after talking to the geneticist) agreed with me that taking off my ovaries might cut some risk (40%)of my getting ovarian cancer - based on my own cancer history and family history. (Mother (86) is an 11-year survivor of Non-Hodgekin's Lymphoma; 2nd Brother (10 years my senior) is undergoing elective chemo (5-Fu) treatment right now after undergoing a surgery for colon cancer.

I'm sure my oncologist thinks I have over-reacted. The funny thing is that the gynecology/oncology surgeon supports my decision. Perhaps the medical oncologist felt his authority being questioned (he's correct in that there's no cancer in my GI tract, but he did spend some time studying the new growth of hemangioma in my liver that had shown up in the CT scan my family doctor had ordered for me - I did not dreamed up things, there's something growing there and it's good to find out it's not harmful) and the gynecological surgeon is used to doing the prophylectic procedure for patients like me.

Hope you are feeling/getting better every day.