Chemotherapy worries

jmears said:

Hi Sue
I had a lumpectomy, no lymph nodes were positive but took 8 rounds of chemo and radiation afterward because of the aggressiveness of the cancer. So ... ever case is different. My Oncologist is very aggressive and admits to maybe going overboard but I rather take care of in now and be done with it. I was 43 when I started chemotherapy (Nov. 2000). I was still having my period. I had one more period after that and haven't had one since. My OBGYN said I went through Chemo-pause. As far as the side effects of that ... I had hot flashes ...but the Chemo causes hot flashes as well. I haven't had any hot flashes in 2 months now so I guess I'm through with that. I could not take HRT because my tumor was estrogen +. If you are not estrogen positive you can try some of the natural remedies like Black Cohosh (540mg. worked for me but my Oncologist didn't want me to take it because it does have plant estrogens). The tumor size, lymph nodes, Her2/new + or - (I was strongly + making my tumor aggressive), estrogen + or - ...all these things come into factor the treatment. You are young so they probably recommended a more aggressive treatment than if you were 20 or 30 years older. During treatment I worked 40 hours a week with an occational sick day ... but after my treatment was done ... I started feeling so very good. I hadn't realized how much the treatment effected me because it was gradual. One last remark ... I made my doctor convince me all the treatments I took were going to benefit me ... he actually drew me pictures and graphs. Good luck in your treatments ... let us know how it's going. Jamie

Hello Jamie,
I was extremely touched by the kind, caring and informative messages from you and also from Laura, Tara and Kathy. It's so, so helpful to be able to talk with women who have had similar experiences. I have a lot of supportive friends here but none who have had to deal with cancer. I think you're all extremely kind to write me.
Jamie, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with all the terms you use. For example you mention not taking HRT because you were estrogen positive. What is HRT? Although I'm American I've been in France for over 25 years and I must admit my knowledge of medical terms in English is not terrific. I re-read through the summary my doctor gave me which of course is in French. My French is good, but there again, it's my first time with this specific cancer vocabulary. From what I can deduce my tumor is also estrogen and progesteron + .
The size seems about 2.5 centimeters. What do you mean by Her2/new + or - ? My summary states that the
"test de surexpression de HER2" is negative O
and that there is an absence of surexpression of the oncoprotein HER2."
Any help in deciphering this? It's all greek to me. The Dr. didn't go through the report with me to explain any of this, in fact I don't think he expected to give me a copy. In France this is normally only given to the patient's General Doctor or GYN. But since I insisted strongly that I wanted a copy too they gave me one.
Anyway, I realise I'm probably being a bit of a pest asking all these questions and I really appreciate your taking the time to answer if you can. I'm seeing my GYN tomorrow who also hopefully can give me a little more explanation and guidance, not to mention perhaps the name of another oncologist (another new term for me - I only knew "cancerologue" in French)to whom I could request a second opinion as to treatment options.
This is quite a learning experience isn't it?
I think it's twice as hard for me to take all this in and accept the inevitable because I had a laser operation to correct my myopia on January 11th which has gone rather badly so far and I haven't recuperated my full vision yet. Feels like that old saying "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong". With hindsight of course I realise I should have delayed that laser surgery but at the time it seemed like a positive thing to do. Not being able to see clearly somehow makes it difficult to cope with other problems.
Anyway, thanks again for your support.
Sue

sueholm said:

Hi Sue...it sounds as if you will be going through the exact same sequence of events that I did. I think the important thing to remember is that the treatment recommended for you by your doctors is the result of all the trials that have been done to determine what is most likely to give the best results. So the research shows that your chances of remaining cancer free for the longest time, with your particular set of symptoms and stage of the disease, is to have chemo followed by radiation. I did a tremendous amount of research into my situation, the treatments, the research, and the upshot of it all was that I concluded that I needed to put my trust in the cancer specialists, who, above all, wanted to keep me alive as long as possible, using the best information they had. I just simply decided that I would be really foolish to think I might know better than these doctors who were dedicating their lives to trying to cure me. They might not succeed, I knew, but I felt they were my best shot. So I decided to accept the consequences of the treatment as by far the lesser evil. If you should enter menopause as the result of chemo, which I doubt, but I did not research because I had already reached menopause, then the question of whether u can be treated with hormones is going to depend on whether your tumour is estrogen receptive...meaning it grows with estrogen. If, like mine, it is, then estrogen hormones are the last thing the docs are going to give you, and they are very likely to prescribe Tamoxifen, which inhibits estrogen attaching to breast cancer cells, but which results in something like a 7 per cent better chance of survival for you.
Anyway Sue, it is some nine months now since I finished my treatments and I feel that I have had the good fortune to be able to throw everything possible at this cancer, and I will certainly never have any regrets that I failed to take a treatment that could have helped. If the cancer recurs, so be it. My docs and I did our best and that's all we could do. I also had radiation that went up the neck area to try to hit any more lymph nodes that might be cancerous in addition to the one that was found.
Best of luck to you. Is your tumour lobular or ductal? Drop me a line if you like...Regards. Susan in Canada

Dear Susan,
Thank you so very much for your message of February 9th which I just discovered today. (My computer went out for a few days). I also chanced upon your personal page by double clicking on your name and was very impressed by your personal page. You've done a magnificent job telling your own story in a way that is both clear and inspirational to those of us who still have to go through with the treatment. Since I first posted my msg on this discussion site, I've been to see an English-speaking oncologist more for explanation and peace of mind than for a second opinion. He confirmed what I already believed, that I'm in the most capable cancer center that exists in France, and for him in all of Europe. I doubt you've heard of it in Canada, it's called the Ren