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Re: mastectomy versus lumpectomy for HER2
'Lizbeth: re:Calcifications and microcalcifications
Calcifications are bits of calcium that can show up on mammograms as small, bright white spots. Most calcifications are benign (not cancer). However, certain patterns of calcifications are suspicious and need more testing. Tight clusters or lines of tiny calcifications (microcalcifications) can be a sign of breast cancer.
Calcifications are common and appear on about half of all mammograms of women ages 50 and older (and on about one in 10 mammograms of younger women) [7]. They may be related to older age, ....
Wow. This is gold. How I wished, reading it, I could have had a chance to know what these calcifications were back two yrs before i found my stage 3 cancer when the dumb radiologist, in my case (the one reading my followup mammo and ultrasound ) wrote "no this patient doesn't have breast cancer." Had I known that these calcifications were the basis upon which he/she made that decision, and had I known what u just provided us with....well.....I might have been able to have further testing elsewhere.
The majority of us found our cancer in stage three according to the polls. One researcher wrote that he believed (according to my medical oncologist) "HER2 cancer lines the ducts in spider-like formations for a really really long time before it gathers momentum to burst into a tumour formation."
I thought about this...the behaviour of her2 cancer cells after reading Denise's husband, Ted's, description of her last MRI revealing a massive tumour, suddenly appearing (it wasn't there one week earlier in that brain MRI) at the base of her brain stem. I was thinking maybe Her2 was working in her brain like it did on my breast....lying low inside tubes for a long time, waiting to gain the momentum to form an actual tumour, i.e. an object detectable on a scan.
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fall 2008: mammo of rt breast worrisome so am asked to redo mammo and have ultrasound of rt breast.I delay it til january 2009 and the results are "no cancer in rt breast. phew."
found plum sized lump in right breast the day before my dad died: April 17th 2011. saw it in mirror, while i was wearing a top, examining my figure after losing 10 lbs on dr. bernstein diet.
diagnosed may 10 2011
mast/lymphectomy: june 7 2011, 5/20 cancerous nodes. stage 3a before radiation oncologist during our first mtg on july 15th says he found cancer on the lymph node of my breast bone. Now stage 3b.
her2+++, EN-, PN-. Rt brst tumors:3 at onset, 4.5 cm was the big one
chemos: 3fec's followed by 3 taxotere, total of 18 wks chemo. sept: halfway thru chemo the mastectomy scar decides to open and ooze pus. (not healed before chemo) eventually with canasten powder sent by friend in ny (illegal in canada) it heals.
radiations:although scheduled to begin 25 january 2012, I am so terrified by it (rads cause other cancers) I don't start til february, miss a bunch, reschedule them all and finally finish 35 rads mid april. reason for 7 extra atop the 28 scheduled is that when i first met my rads oncologist he said he saw a tumor on the lymph node of my breastbone. extra 7 are special kind of beam used for that lymphnode. rads onc tells me nobody ever took so long to do rads so he cannot speak for effectiveness. trials had been done only on consecutive days so......we'll see.....
10 mos of herceptin started 6 wks into chemo. canadian onc says 10 mos is just as effective as the full yr recommended by dr. slamon......so we'll see..completed july 2012.
Sept 18 2012: reconstruction and 3 drains. fails. i wear antibiotic pouch on my job for two months and have 60 consecutive days visiting a nursing centre where they apply burn victims' silver paper and clean the oozing infection daily. silicone leaks out daily. plastic surgeon in caribbean. emergency dept wont remove "his" work. He finally appears and orders me in into an emergency removal of implant. I make him promise no drains and I get my way. No infection as a result. Chest looks like a map of Brazil. Had a perfectly good left breast on Sept 17th but surgeon wanted to "save another woman an operation" ? so he had crashed two operations together on my left breast, foregoing the intermediary operation where you install an expander. the first surgeon a year earlier had flat out refused to waste five hours on his feet taking both boobs. flat out refusal. between the canadian health system saving money and both these asses, I got screwed. who knows when i can next get enough time off work (i work for myself and have no substitute when my husband is on contract) to get boobs again. arrrgh.
I have a blog where I document this trip and vent.
www.nora'scancerblog.blogspot.com . I stopped the blog before radiation. I think the steroids made me more angry and depressed and i just hated reading it anymore
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