Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part IV - GAGWTA

^ Thank you both.

Yes, lmp, I believe they said there can be joint and bone pain with the aromatase inhibitors. Knock on wood, I haven’t really had that. I did have a headache and 🚽 issues for a little over 24 hrs with the reclast.

#1HF Thanks for that information. I read some testimonials on her IG. Interesting and reassuring. I hope I don’t have hair loss now that mine is growing back in again. I’m sorry you have some, but glad it’s not noticeable to others. It is hard seeing it in the drain, though, I’m sure. 😔
 
@luvmarypoppins How are you doing? Hope everyone else is well. GAGWTA!

Update, five weeks since last post.

I went through and finished radiation. Good experience once I got to the place where I got the second opinion. Staff were great. Of course, I’m exhausted, and I have a few burns and blisters here and there that are annoying, but overall feeling better and glad that’s behind me.

Next up I start on that CDK 4/6 inhibitor. My radiation oncologist told me that everyone in cancer care is very excited about the study results that are coming out about how well these are working in conjunction with the aromatase inhibitors, so that is good to hear. Just praying the side effects aren’t horrible.

Had some other testing done as follow up to when I was in the hospital and one scan in the middle of the night showed some funky things, but thankfully, all were normal. 🙏

My appointment schedule is pretty full into next year already. Hard to believe but this all started for me last January, so as of next month it will be a full 12 months that I’ve been dealing with this round of BC.

Wishing everyone a nice Thanksgiving. I feel like I have so much to be grateful for. 🥰
 
Hello everyone. It's been a VERY long time since I've posted on DISboards and especially here. However this showed up in my inbox and so I wanted to let you all know I was thinking of you.

@Pea-n-Me: I didn't got back to read your posts but I'm glad to hear you are through with radiation. It was about this time EIGHT years ago (Nov 2017) that I finished my own radiation treatment for breast cancer. I can still remember how painful the burns were at times but they gave me great cream for them which was wonderful. I was diagnosed in April 2017, had the lumpectomy, followed by 4 rounds of chemo followed by radiation. I also did cold capping during my chemo which helped me keep most of my hair except a huge bald area on top which I covered with hair and headbands.

Since January of 2018 I've been on preventive drugs. I think I did about 6 years of Tamoxifen and then I switched to a new oncologist, went off Tamoxifen to verify I was post-menopausal (I think I had been since I started my cancer treatments at age 45) and then started on anastrozole after that which I've been on since about 2024. No real side effects. I've had some osteopenia (slight bone loss) and of course weight gain and but otherwise fine. I think my oncologist plans to try this for another few years maxing out my post cancer treatment at about 10 years for now. We shall see.

I do think of others especially here and hope everyone going through battles are doing well. A return of any kind of cancer is always in the back of my mind of course. My mammograms every year have been clean but I recently went to a new ob/gyn doc who talked to me about my strong family history of cancer, my genetic testing (I don't have BRCA but I do have another genetic mutation that increases my cancer risk) and she recently did a scan of my uterus as a precaution (overall looks good except slight thickening, side effect of the anti hormone drugs) and she thinks I should even push for a pancreatic cancer scan just because my genetic mutation means a slightly higher risk of that and it's so hard to detect until it's too late. I have a family history of a lot of cancer including colon (mom's mom), breast/lung/brain (mom), stomach (dad's sister), brain (dad's brother), breast (dad's mom), melanoma (dad's brother) so I can't say I blame her for pushing me to have even more screenings done. I plan to try to talk to my genetic counselor again (it's been 8 years now) to get thoughts on that.

So for those of you in even more active treatment hang in there. I know that first year or two of diagnosis seems like endless doctor visits and treatments and I'm hoping you get beyond that soon.

@luvmarypoppins I am so glad that your last scan showed stable tumors and you get a break on oncology visits.
 
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Wishing everyone a blessed Thanksgiving. I thank God I am still here on this journey after 16 years.
Pea-n-Me, #1hf and dez1978 wishing all of you the best with your treatment plans.
Tomm. everyone is coming here. This was not the original plan. Sigh. Sat. Is little grandsons 1st bday party. So far 114 of the 144 people are coming. I am taking pain killers, sitting in the wheelchair and praying I don’t get covid.
Tues. I see the breast cancer oncologist, get blood test, see orthopedic oncologist and get X-rays. We’d. I have the big aortic/chest/pelvic ct. Fri. Dh is finally getting a colonoscopy and then in 2 weeks I see vascular surgeon and regular oncologist. I am getting very weary of all of this.
Check in when you can
GAGWTA
 

Happy thanksgiving everyone! Good luck to anyone traveling by air. We are on a driving trip to Jacksonville-Thanksgiving with our younger daughter, and then a short 2 hour drive to Disney for 10 days to meet our friends from upstate NY. Good weather here in Florida.
 

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