Pathology results
Hey everyone, I’m trying to understand my histopathology report from my biopsy and I’m hoping someone here has answers, as I won’t get to see a doctor till the 19th November. This is what the report says: ”The cores of breast tissue are infiltrated by an invasive ductal carcinoma. The tumour forms solid nests and cords of atypical ductal epithelial cells displaying a moderate degree of nuclear pleomorphism. In addition, several multinucleated giant cells are noted indicating invasive ductal carcinoma with osteoclastic giant cells.” I also have a Ki-67 of 30-40%. My report also states the cancer is oestrogen and progesterone receptor positive and HER-2 low. I do have a good understanding of anatomy and anatomical terms as I’m a science teacher- and epithelial means skin cells and osteoclastic should have something to do with bones. So does this mean I likely have metastatic disease with Mets in skin and bone? I’m likely just having anxiety but because I have so long to wait for the appointment and I can’t call the line until Monday I’m hoping someone else has had similar results.
Feeling "blue" on tamoxifen
Hello there, has anyone else felt flat, down in the dumps after starting tamoxifen? I have been on the little white pill 20mg for 2 months now, and my anxiety levels are also quite high, but I do have upcoming scans and alot of worries still. Any pearls of wisdom for helping to overcome my flatness? I exercise daily, trying to eat as healthy as I can. In all honesty I do miss a little bit of alcohol to help me relax!! Thanks ladiesMemory
For some as a result of diagnosis and treatment the effect on our memory can be distressing - fatigue or chemo induced or anything else in between, stress, anxiety, menopause! I have a sister who has early onset Dementia and on the road to diagnosis she was seen by a health professional, Neuro Psychologist. She has written a book and there's a precis of it here that some may find interesting or useful to someone you know Memory-wise - Dr Anne Unkenstein -- Allen & Unwin - 9781760296384 - Allen & Unwin - Australia (allenandunwin.com) Best wishes to all
another delay, sad and mad and very disappointed
Hi, I've had a disappointing week and I thought I would drop in with all you wonderful people and unload (sorry it feels like going down not up lately) I'm about 4 weeks into my 2nd time round, I had the lumpectomy in 2020 and now I'm ready for double mastectomy and not considering reconstruction. Had surgery booked for Friday 1st and I had a recent UTI but Thursday afternoon had the details and what was required then an hour later it was cancelled , I was so broken about that for a couple of days and just started to settle and now I am covid positive. When the test showed positive I just shut down don't really feel anything. I'm lost at the moment wondering what's next.. thank you all for being here, for your time and thoughts!!
No response to paclitaxel - anyone else?
Hi all, I was dx with early BC in August this year. I turned 40 this year. It's a grade 2(ish) invasive ductal. Hormone +ive, HER2 -ive. Because it was in my lymph nodes, my treating team wanted me to do chemo first (4x AC dose-dense, 12x weekly paclitaxel). I'm on the 4th pacli cycle (it's infusing as I type!) I had a progress ultrasound last week and when I spoke to my onc yesterday, he was a tad concerned that the tumour doesn't seem to be responding to this drug. He talked about maybe stopping this drug and going straight for surgery and hormone therapy. The chemo nurses assure me that people change treatment regimens all the time, and I tell myself that monitoring and reassessing is a GOOD thing. But I'm still in a dither. Also, every twinge, niggle, and sensation anywhere near ol’ leftie has me jumping out of my skin in panic, convinced that the end is nigh. So my questions to you all: Has anyone else been in the same situation? On a scale of 1 - 10, where 10 is Beet-faced-embarassed, how silly am I going to feel about this anxiety in a week or so? Is there anything I should do to get prepared for maybe having surgery(?) in the next few weeks? I had totally bumped that down the road as a problem for 2022! TIA!
TERRIFIED of Treatment
I’m not sure I can convey in writing how terrified I am I’m not sure there is a word to describe it the worry I feel is debilitating, I already suffer from anxiety and this is just exasperating it, i was diagnosed about a month ago and have had a Lumpectomy with good results margins were clear and lymph nodes were clear, my cancer is triple negative and they are still wanting me to have chemo and radiation. The plan is 12 weekly doses of chemo then about 15-20 treatments of radiation along with Herceptin every 3 weeks for a year. I am supposed to go to Hospital on Tuesday for Echocardiogram, Port Insertion and my first chemo. Everday for the last two weeks I have woken up at 6am in what I think is a panic attack I have tingles all over my body and shaking and I don’t want to get out of bed I’m at a point where I don’t think I’m going to be able to get myself to the hospital on Tuesday, and on top of all this I live in Melbourne so we have COVID to deal with which means no one can come to hospital with me I have to do this alone. I am terrified of having the port put in and the thought of it being in my body for so long is terrifying to me I am also completely terrified of the chemo and all the worry it will cause me between treatments having to monitor temperature etc etc will be so stressful for me. I have tried conveying this to various people (Doctors, Family, Psycologist) and all they say is you have to do this and take one step at a time, I feel like no one is really grasping how terrified I am and no one is helping me with the mental side of this, am I the only one that feels this way please HELP me as I don’t think I can mentally survive this and am seriously considering not going on Tuesday.
Growth during chemo??
I have had a lumpectomy, finished 16 rounds of chemo and 1 week post mastectomy. Prior to my mastectomy I had a CT scan on my back after a week of severe pain. This was 1 week after chemo finished. After seeing surgeon post op today they have concerns about something that showed up on scan. It wasn’t there in April before I started treatment so if it is a tumour, it grew whilst on chemo? I am miffed as to how this could happen? I have a PET scan on Wednesday and I am so scared! Has this happened to anyone else?
Biopsy
Had my yearly ultrasound and mammogram today, need to get fine needles aspiration tomorrow as something to check in lobular duct,not sure what,maybe fatty deposit,and a lymph node needs a needle aspiration too as thicker in a area,freaked out ,thought I was done with this 3 years ago .seems to all be very familiar, hopefully a fatty deposit but I’m thinking the worst, was first yearly check up I actually wasn’t worried about going to in last 3 years too,are fatty deposit common ?Home from Surgery
Hi, I'm home now (yesterday) and it's over. On the morning of my mastectomy surgery (Monday 18 May) I was feeling quite anxious but trying to remain positive at the same time. The staff were lovely but I found not as friendly as my first lot of treatment for wide local excision with nodes removal or perhaps it was me with more major surgery to have and super aware of everything around me! In recovery I had quite a bit of pain they had trouble getting me to a pain free point. Then taken back to a room to stay overnight. I was advised to peek at my scar as soon as possible and not to avoid looking as I would feel worse if I delayed looking. I could see a line of stitches when I looked down through my gown and thought well that's it! Snoozed in and out a bit with some pain relief. But didn't sleep much through the night. Doctors and Nurses saw me on Tuesday morning and asked how I felt and said they would perhaps look at sending me home on Wednesday and I could stay Tuesday night and sort out the pain relief issues. Nurse said to have a shower and see if this made me feel better. Well being a bigger girl getting dressed and undressed in front of a stranger is something I have struggled with. I married my first boyfriend! Young female Nurse was lovely and said she would help me. Being an independent person and sometimes stubborn I said I would try myself. Managed to get undressed - not easy I tell you. Someone needs to invent Velcro undies so I don't have to bend down to remove undies. I managed to fling them off around the room avoiding looking at myself. I turned the water on. Put my heavy drain tube bottles on the floor. Turned the water on and looked in the mirror. Well the sobs came loud and hard. The running water didn't drown them out as I had hoped. I knew I had to let it all out so I could deal with it and move on. Lovely nurse called out. Are you crying. I said nooooo. Sobbed louder. She said it's OK if you are, are you crying and I said yesssss. She said do you want a hand. God no, because now I was a hideous deformed beast! Stayed in the shower a long time and was ready to attack anyone who said it's time to get out. Someone else would like some hot water! Took a long time drying myself and put my brain back into gear with well - bad boob gone, want to live. It will heal. The hardest thing now was how do I get my legs through my undies! Wrapped myself in a towel and asked the nurse for some help. She was lovely. Wishing I had packed a lipstick because I wanted a bit of colour of my face. Nurse said I would feel better after breakfast. Had a few bites of breakfast and then threw it all up. Waste of a good shower. Got cleaned up again and had black tea and savoy biscuits
Endocrine therapy-induced hair loss (ETIHL)
Hi All, Food for thought (no pun intended). I'm considering taking supplements (are they safe? contraindicated?) and looking for proven topical scalp treatments (waste of money?). Started with this article: Management of hair loss associated with endocrine therapy in patients with breast cancer: an overview https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4864803/. "Vitamin C may loco regionally reduces the HL ...when locally applied with an oil-based buffer that enables vitamin C to pass across the hair texture. (Where would we find that?) Low levels of vitamin D in serum and/or lack of Vitamin D receptor have been found to be associated with HL ...However, it is still uncertain whether vitamin D supplementation increases the proliferation of hair follicles. Vitamin E has been shown to decrease the effectiveness of estrogen in the breast tissue and low levels of vitamin E are also reported to be associated with increased levels of estrogen. However, according to the results of the SELECT study in which an increased rate of prostate cancer was reported, Vitamin E carried a potential androgenic and anti-estrogenic activity in patients receiving Vitamin E supplementation. (So that's good for BC patient, right?) Folic acid is also reported to have a positive effect on hair health...However, unfortunately, there are some epidemiological studies that suggest folate may increase the tissue levels of estrogen, indicating that high levels of folic acid might lead to BC. (Sounds bad) Oral supplementation of omega-3 and -6 fatty acids is also known to positively affect the prognosis of BC (Bartsch et al. 1999) and many other cancers and also increase the apoptosis of BC cells in tissue cultures. Additionally, it has been recently shown that 6 months after the use of these fatty acids were found to protect and improve the hair health through antioxidant effects on the scalp tissue. (Definitely sounds like a good one) 5-alpha reductase enzyme inhibitors (local cream or shampoo forms) could possibly be the most appropriate and potent treatment options in the treatment of ETIHL. (I've no idea, and am suspicious of product claims anyway - but is there a good one available?)
