Just checking in!

[duga35]

Hi folks, its been awhile since I posted or interacted here, so I just thought that I would stop and say hello, see whats going on here, and give you an update on myself.


Wull, where to start.........
I found out that my particular case is indeed a weird one, and had really stumped the 4 oncologists in the office that I go to! My main oncologist has spent many hours doing research, and talking to cancer centers all over the world on if I should be treated. It is running at 50/50.
Cleveland Clinic, MDAnderson, etc, says not to treat due to the size of tumor. Another hospital in West Virgina, one in Brussels, and one in Holland told him to treat me.
So, he suggested in doing the OncotypeDX test to help me decide if I wanted to go thru treatment. It was expected that it would come back a bit on the high side because of the her2.
My score came back at a 52 with a distant recurrance at 10 years at 34%!!!
He told me that he has never seen a score that high, most people don't even score that close to 50, and the doctor at Genomic called him and said this was off the charts. (I've been a difficult person all of my life, just ask my wife!)
I went in this am to see him, and he now strongly suggested that I do the chemo dance with some Herceptin thrown in. He told me that at first he thought I only needed Tamoxifin, but now after talking to other experts , because of my age,and now this Oncotype score, I should do the chemo.
I agreed with him, and I start next Friday. I also have a bone scan on Tuesday, and a full body CT scan on March 19th.The main problem is that nobody seeme to know because there is no data on a 40 year old male with breast cancer.
So now I guess I get to be a genuine crash test dummy!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot....I also see the neurologist on Thursday to find out the results of my spinal tap, clavical MRI, and blood work. I guess at this point MS is pretty minor! I still don't see any symptoms of that and I'm hoping it is a B12 thing.

Does anyone know when the swelling and pain from the node removal goes away in your arm? It's still so swollen that I can't wear a long sleeve shirt. I forgot to even ask the doc today about that. He is very shaky and nervous when he talks with me so he prolly didn't even notice. Very nice guy, but I'm 6'5 and 300 pounds, and he is about 4 foot and 80 pounds soaking wet, so I think he is a bit shy and intimidated around me. I'm not mean or anything, heck I'm prolly one of the nicest ogre's he has ever met. So I dunno, maybe it's me. Would it be in bad taste to give him a deodorant gift box set for his wet armpits next Friday?