Decision Time

Just wanted to add that you don't pay for your actual Chemo drugs as public patient, only the ones to control side effects. I had been shopping around for private insurance when I found my lump! I am therefore going the public system at St George/ Sutherland Hospitals. Both my two friends who went the private path paid through the nose for everything from labwork to implants. It infuriates me that those who do the right thing are further dinged for things Medicare would cover if they were public patients! This may be my post treatment windmill at which to tilt! The hospitals will give many concessions to get you to go private in a public hospital - don't hesitate to bargain with them! Your story, age etc are very similar to mine - only I was the one pushing for the strongest chemo! I am doing Taxol weekly with Carboplatin added every third week for 12 weeks, then will probably do the AC.

Just wanted to add that you don't pay for your actual Chemo drugs as public patient, only the ones to control side effects. I had been shopping around for private insurance when I found my lump! I am therefore going the public system at St George/ Sutherland Hospitals. Both my two friends who went the private path paid through the nose for everything from labwork to implants. It infuriates me that those who do the right thing are further dinged for things Medicare would cover if they were public patients! This may be my post treatment windmill at which to tilt! The hospitals will give many concessions to get you to go private in a public hospital - don't hesitate to bargain with them! Your story, age etc are very similar to mine - only I was the one pushing for the strongest chemo! I am doing Taxol weekly with Carboplatin added every third week for 12 weeks, then will probably do the AC.

Hi Samantha. It is hard when the doc tells you something you're totally not expecting. I am 39, have Grade 3 TNBC, lumpectomy, node clearance on left side and total left mastectomy as lump was bigger than first thought, turns out 6 nodes involved. They said hit me hard with chemo too, I had no choices offered, but quickly accepted it was what was needed, I figured it was harder than what they would give a 60 year old. I am 16 weeks into chemo, 7 to go, had 4 x fortnightly now on weeklies. Chemo sounds horrible at the outset and while different people respond differently, I found all the anti nausea drugs work great, though you do feel unwell, I haven't vomited yet! Weeklies aren't nearly as bad, I have Carboplatin and Taxol week 1 then 2 weeks of just Taxol. Taxol alone is by far the easiest to deal with. I think previously they gave the whole dose 3 weekly but patients handle it better to have same dose spread over 3 weeks. I feel lucky as my side effects have been more annoying than anything, Fingers crossed nothing more serious happens. I wasn't offered FEC, don't know much about it. I have a port, it uses a needle too, but if they can take your blood through it, perhaps less needles. With 16 chemo treatments it made sense to me, especially as I only have one arm they can use due to the lymph clearance. It does require day surgery to put in and take out though, but putting it in didn't cost anything for me, thanks to the health fund and docs no gaps. Chemo is tough on little arm veins and sitting in the chair with 2 hands free is better. I am a private patient, I have only had to pay the excess from my original hospital stay for surgery. I sign the forms every chemo as technically I am admitted for the day but apparently the excess from Feb transferred over to the cancer centre. I have never had to pay for chemo meds, only the odd prescription for tablets, eg $16 for 5 or 6 scripts so far, not much. Check with your health fund but talk to the cancer centre, or breast care nurse if you have one. It is hard to decide some of these things, my advice is to look at it like the docs are giving you recommendations and take their advice, they know what they are doing,

Hi Samantha. It is hard when the doc tells you something you're totally not expecting. I am 39, have Grade 3 TNBC, lumpectomy, node clearance on left side and total left mastectomy as lump was bigger than first thought, turns out 6 nodes involved. They said hit me hard with chemo too, I had no choices offered, but quickly accepted it was what was needed, I figured it was harder than what they would give a 60 year old. I am 16 weeks into chemo, 7 to go, had 4 x fortnightly now on weeklies. Chemo sounds horrible at the outset and while different people respond differently, I found all the anti nausea drugs work great, though you do feel unwell, I haven't vomited yet! Weeklies aren't nearly as bad, I have Carboplatin and Taxol week 1 then 2 weeks of just Taxol. Taxol alone is by far the easiest to deal with. I think previously they gave the whole dose 3 weekly but patients handle it better to have same dose spread over 3 weeks. I feel lucky as my side effects have been more annoying than anything, Fingers crossed nothing more serious happens. I wasn't offered FEC, don't know much about it. I have a port, it uses a needle too, but if they can take your blood through it, perhaps less needles. With 16 chemo treatments it made sense to me, especially as I only have one arm they can use due to the lymph clearance. It does require day surgery to put in and take out though, but putting it in didn't cost anything for me, thanks to the health fund and docs no gaps. Chemo is tough on little arm veins and sitting in the chair with 2 hands free is better. I am a private patient, I have only had to pay the excess from my original hospital stay for surgery. I sign the forms every chemo as technically I am admitted for the day but apparently the excess from Feb transferred over to the cancer centre. I have never had to pay for chemo meds, only the odd prescription for tablets, eg $16 for 5 or 6 scripts so far, not much. Check with your health fund but talk to the cancer centre, or breast care nurse if you have one. It is hard to decide some of these things, my advice is to look at it like the docs are giving you recommendations and take their advice, they know what they are doing,

Hi Samantha. It is hard when the doc tells you something you're totally not expecting. I am 39, have Grade 3 TNBC, lumpectomy, node clearance on left side and total left mastectomy as lump was bigger than first thought, turns out 6 nodes involved. They said hit me hard with chemo too, I had no choices offered, but quickly accepted it was what was needed, I figured it was harder than what they would give a 60 year old. I am 16 weeks into chemo, 7 to go, had 4 x fortnightly now on weeklies. Chemo sounds horrible at the outset and while different people respond differently, I found all the anti nausea drugs work great, though you do feel unwell, I haven't vomited yet! Weeklies aren't nearly as bad, I have Carboplatin and Taxol week 1 then 2 weeks of just Taxol. Taxol alone is by far the easiest to deal with. I think previously they gave the whole dose 3 weekly but patients handle it better to have same dose spread over 3 weeks. I feel lucky as my side effects have been more annoying than anything, Fingers crossed nothing more serious happens. I wasn't offered FEC, don't know much about it. I have a port, it uses a needle too, but if they can take your blood through it, perhaps less needles. With 16 chemo treatments it made sense to me, especially as I only have one arm they can use due to the lymph clearance. It does require day surgery to put in and take out though, but putting it in didn't cost anything for me, thanks to the health fund and docs no gaps. Chemo is tough on little arm veins and sitting in the chair with 2 hands free is better. I am a private patient, I have only had to pay the excess from my original hospital stay for surgery. I sign the forms every chemo as technically I am admitted for the day but apparently the excess from Feb transferred over to the cancer centre. I have never had to pay for chemo meds, only the odd prescription for tablets, eg $16 for 5 or 6 scripts so far, not much. Check with your health fund but talk to the cancer centre, or breast care nurse if you have one. It is hard to decide some of these things, my advice is to look at it like the docs are giving you recommendations and take their advice, they know what they are doing,

Hi Samantha. It is hard when the doc tells you something you're totally not expecting. I am 39, have Grade 3 TNBC, lumpectomy, node clearance on left side and total left mastectomy as lump was bigger than first thought, turns out 6 nodes involved. They said hit me hard with chemo too, I had no choices offered, but quickly accepted it was what was needed, I figured it was harder than what they would give a 60 year old. I am 16 weeks into chemo, 7 to go, had 4 x fortnightly now on weeklies. Chemo sounds horrible at the outset and while different people respond differently, I found all the anti nausea drugs work great, though you do feel unwell, I haven't vomited yet! Weeklies aren't nearly as bad, I have Carboplatin and Taxol week 1 then 2 weeks of just Taxol. Taxol alone is by far the easiest to deal with. I think previously they gave the whole dose 3 weekly but patients handle it better to have same dose spread over 3 weeks. I feel lucky as my side effects have been more annoying than anything, Fingers crossed nothing more serious happens. I wasn't offered FEC, don't know much about it. I have a port, it uses a needle too, but if they can take your blood through it, perhaps less needles. With 16 chemo treatments it made sense to me, especially as I only have one arm they can use due to the lymph clearance. It does require day surgery to put in and take out though, but putting it in didn't cost anything for me, thanks to the health fund and docs no gaps. Chemo is tough on little arm veins and sitting in the chair with 2 hands free is better. I am a private patient, I have only had to pay the excess from my original hospital stay for surgery. I sign the forms every chemo as technically I am admitted for the day but apparently the excess from Feb transferred over to the cancer centre. I have never had to pay for chemo meds, only the odd prescription for tablets, eg $16 for 5 or 6 scripts so far, not much. Check with your health fund but talk to the cancer centre, or breast care nurse if you have one. It is hard to decide some of these things, my advice is to look at it like the docs are giving you recommendations and take their advice, they know what they are doing,

Sorry for the late reply. As a cancer survivor TNBC and Eostrogen + 3 years on, I followed my oncologist's recommendations and underwent 16 weeks chemo + 5 weeks chemo after lumpectomy followed by mastectomy. As a mother of 4 my will to survive and see my kids mature and start their own families was the only motivation I needed to follow my oncologists recommendations. Live every day to its fullest. As a public patient I received the best care from an amazing group of health are professionals and still do. I paid for the chemotherapy drugs, but the oncology nurses and doctors treat public patients with the same care and respect,

Hi Samantha, I appreciate this is a late comment and you may have made your decision by now.  My oncologist said the same about my chemo treatment.  She wanted to "hit it hard", but the difference in my case was that I'm trying to shrink the cancer BEFORE surgery, and it has already spread to the lymph nodes,  I can see why you are wondering why it should  be hit "hard" in your case when you seem to have been given the all clear on the surgery.  

I'm on six sessions of TAC (Docetaxel, Doxorubicin and Cyclophasphamine).  It is very interesting to see the different types of drugs being used by different oncologists  I guess it depends on the size, grade, stage of our cancers and our physical health as to what they recommend, and obviously there are no treatments definitlvely proven to be "best" for TNBCs.  You can always ask your oncologist why he/she has chosen that particular treatment.  It's good to be as informed as you can.  Samantha, very best wishes for strength and courage during your treatment.

 

Hi

 

I came across this blog today and my story is very similar . I was diagnosed last year at the age of 36

 

I have finished my treatment Feb this year and found it ok compare to others. I was wondering if you any of you out there that only had lumpectomy done ever wonder if having a mastectomy would be an option in the future to rule out or give ourselves a better chance of no reoccurrence?? I’m faced everyday now wondering if that is something that I should do just in case. Even though my oncologist gives me really good chances of no recurrence. Thanks for your input

 

 

 

Jitka