Hi everyone,
I am here on behalf of a friend at work. She was dx’d in January of 2008 with triple positive bc. She had neo-adjuvant chemo (TCH) and then surgery after about six months. No nodes were taken until her surgery even though the doctor said there was some swelling. After her surgery the surgeon told her that the first three nodes were “hard” (he thought due to the chemo) so he took more – they were clear. (If no nodes are taken prior to chemo how can they tell if there is node involvement and how is staging done?) She completed Herceptin earlier this year and is now on Arimidex.
Last week she mentioned having weird headaches and slight pain in one side of her head. She was scheduled for a follow-up appointment yesterday and I encouraged her to insist on a brain MRI, exaggerating her symptoms if need be. She is not very assertive and even though she was worried, she was not going to mention any of this at her appointment until I encouraged her to do so. She saw a PA (she has only seen her onc TWICE this entire time) who ordered an MRI and she had it done right away. The PA called her yesterday afternoon (the same day) to tell her that the MRI showed a “small” (1.6 cm!) lesion and referred her to a neurosurgeon. She was given a prescription for 4mg Dexamethasone due to slight swelling in her brain. The PA told her she didn’t think it was malignant but the neurosurgeon should be consulted. I can’t believe that a PA is telling her over the phone that her MRI came back with these results. Needless to say she is freaking out. I advised her to call the doctor’s office and insist on an appointment with her onc so the results can be explained to her by the doctor. She called the doctor’s office back and now has a PET scheduled for Tuesday, July 28, and an appointment with her onc on Aug 4, so she can go over all of the results with her. She also has an appointment with the neurosurgeon before her appointment with her onc. I was hoping I could get some ideas from all of you here before her appointments.
I would really appreciate hearing from our experts here on brain mets. Is there a chance that what is on the MRI is benign? If she does have brain mets what would be the best course of action? She has an HMO but so far has not had a problem getting treatment or tests approved. I don’t think she gets tumor markers done. Should she start?
She is so afraid that she is doomed and will die in a few months. I did my best to reassure her and told her of the many success stories here. I told her that I would ask questions of all you wonderful people on this board and see if I could get some ideas for her to take to her onc.
Thanks in advance for your help. I am so grateful for this support board and all of you wonderful people. You are the best!