I was diagnosed with Stage 3 invasive ductal breast ca, 11 lymph nodes affected (total 30 removed from left), no distal mets. I was ER/PR positive, HER2 negative. I was premenopausal, but after all my chemo I have pretty much become menopausal, I guess you'd say.
I have received 6 chemo treatments. The first 3 were 5fu, epirubicin, and cytoxan. The last three were taxotere. They were spaced 3 wks apart, I am taking about 4 wks off, then will begin radiation to the scar and axilla area, about 35 treatments. THEN, because I was positive for a mutated gene, Im going to have my ovaries out. My oncologist is really encouraging it, because he wants to be able to treat me as a post-menopausal patient, and recommends that I take an oral drug, not tamoxifen but another oral drug, for 10 years rather than 5 because of my age and the rather aggressive nature of my cancer (It grew fast and spread to my lymph nodes, to a Stage 3, just since my previous mammo less than a yr ago, NEVER skip a mammo appt!)
My questions are these:
1. Has anyone else followed this chemo protocol and does it sound pretty typical? I read up on it and got a second opinion, but would like to hear about it from a patient, or at least, anyone with any experience of it,
2. There is a microsurgeon I have talked to who does lymph node relocation to the axillary area to prevent lymphedema. I'm interested in this. Are my chances pretty high to get lymphedema with 30 nodes gone? Has anyone ever had this surgery or know of its success? He would do it at the time I got reconstruction surgery, whenever I was able to have that.
3. If there is someone who had stage 3, with alot of nodes involved, and you had a reoccurance, how long were you cancer-free? And where did it return, breast or a distal site or bone, maybe?
I dont know why I asked that last question. I really feel as if I am already cured and it will never return, but my doctor told me that even with the treatment he recommends, I have a 40% chance of recurrance within, three years if I remember correctly. But he hates to give me statistics, He says, there is only one YOU. You personally have a 50/50 chance of it returning, and IF it does, we will cure you of that round also. I like that attitude.
Thanks to all...Kim