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agness · 12-09-2015, 01:59 PM

-- part 4 --

Zoladex was hard and made my bones ache. I had a hard time climbing the stairs. I did water-based fasting for round 5 and most of 6 but it was rough going. My MO said that we could skip round 6 as I was in such pain but they we were going off into "grey territory". In hindsight I probably didn't need to do those last 1-2 cycles at all, I just didn't know any better.

The day after my 6th cycle they gave me another breast MRI (whole torso) -- why not earlier in the week when we could have used the data to decide not to treat -- and everything looked clear. Two nodes still lit up but until surgery we didn't know what they were. The energetic healer I see told me, I think it is going to just be scar tissue -- and you know she was right.

I was able to get a 7th dose of Perjeta before my surgery, so dual blockade with Herceptin/Perjeta for one cycle since the trials looked at 6 and 7 doses and I figured why not. It is harder to get Perjeta with Herceptin than Herceptin alone I can report -- been there, done that.

I delayed on my surgery; 4-6 weeks after finishing chemo they said, but I dragged my feet. If the drugs could work that well then why go about injuring myself to find out? It was agonizing. In the end it was about my kids and doing all that I could for them. Besides, I was able to get my breast surgeon to agree to do less. I had a lumpectomy and then based on a research study looking at whether SND was indicative of a PCR in the axilla (which it was about 95% of the time) she was willing (with another senior doc and researcher's blessing) to take less with the understanding that if we needed to do more we would. See in my case they told me that rads would take care of the internal mammary node that was affected and that they weren't going to do thoracic surgery to remove what was still there. If rads were good enough for one area then why not the rest? I read the footers on breastcancer.org -- a really high rate of ALND and a really low level of positives. Why hack yourself to bits and cause lymphedema if you didn't have to? My SND removed 3 nodes and they only found scar tissue. My only consolation was that surgery had basically ruled out residual cancer.

12-09-2015, 01:59 PM	#5
agness Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 285	Re: My leptomeningeal journey -- part 4 -- Zoladex was hard and made my bones ache. I had a hard time climbing the stairs. I did water-based fasting for round 5 and most of 6 but it was rough going. My MO said that we could skip round 6 as I was in such pain but they we were going off into "grey territory". In hindsight I probably didn't need to do those last 1-2 cycles at all, I just didn't know any better. The day after my 6th cycle they gave me another breast MRI (whole torso) -- why not earlier in the week when we could have used the data to decide not to treat -- and everything looked clear. Two nodes still lit up but until surgery we didn't know what they were. The energetic healer I see told me, I think it is going to just be scar tissue -- and you know she was right. I was able to get a 7th dose of Perjeta before my surgery, so dual blockade with Herceptin/Perjeta for one cycle since the trials looked at 6 and 7 doses and I figured why not. It is harder to get Perjeta with Herceptin than Herceptin alone I can report -- been there, done that. I delayed on my surgery; 4-6 weeks after finishing chemo they said, but I dragged my feet. If the drugs could work that well then why go about injuring myself to find out? It was agonizing. In the end it was about my kids and doing all that I could for them. Besides, I was able to get my breast surgeon to agree to do less. I had a lumpectomy and then based on a research study looking at whether SND was indicative of a PCR in the axilla (which it was about 95% of the time) she was willing (with another senior doc and researcher's blessing) to take less with the understanding that if we needed to do more we would. See in my case they told me that rads would take care of the internal mammary node that was affected and that they weren't going to do thoracic surgery to remove what was still there. If rads were good enough for one area then why not the rest? I read the footers on breastcancer.org -- a really high rate of ALND and a really low level of positives. Why hack yourself to bits and cause lymphedema if you didn't have to? My SND removed 3 nodes and they only found scar tissue. My only consolation was that surgery had basically ruled out residual cancer.