Cancer: it ain't fun but sure as hell is interesting! (today's onc appt.)

Ro10 said:

My onocologist also said the insurance does not approve PET
I asked about a PET scan and my gyn/onocologist said insurance does not approve PET scans for UPSC. I too have Blue Cross. He said the CAT scan would give the information needed at this time. He said he does not agree with the insurance companies decisions. I know many have had CT/PET. I am not sure why theirs were approved. My three suspicious areas have been unchanged. If they grow bigger than 1 cm, maybe things will change for a PET.

Maggie I hope you CAT scan goes well for you. In peace and caring.

lindaprocopio said:

How BAD is this, that it being BREAST cancer is BETTER??!!
I'm baffled, but I'm smiling about it! It's almost too bizarre to be able to take seriously. I am very grateful that so far my cancer is hanging around in things I can live without (lymph nodes) and not moving into organs I absolutely need.

My husband did research and incidences of endometrial cancer metastasizing to those particular nodes in the armpit are .03%. (He didn't show me the source, and I'll do some resaerch of my own and let you know if he's wrong here.) I told my chemo-onc that my gyne-onc always checks under my armpits and he asked if he also routinely does a breast exam. I told him he does, and he said "Well then he's a good gynecologist because we are finding that women in cancer treatment rarely ever see their primary care doctors any more, and so oncologists try do more general exams to catch other unrelated health problems that the women may be ignoring." And that made sense since I haven't seen my primary care doctor since I got cancer. How about you ladies? Anyway, that's why my chemo-onc is even entertaining the unlikely 'primary breast cancer' idea. We just have to dig out that node and have a look.

I do feel wonderful! I'm getting ready for my cruise that departs next Thursday. I've 'fake-tanned' my legs and whitened my teeth and bought a lot of new clothes, and today I'm going to color my 1/4" crewcut so that it will look a little better if it's too hot for a wig or hat and I have to 'go commando'. 3 1/2 months out of chemo, it's still too short to fool anyone that this is a hairdo, but my scalp is at least fully covered now. We have a romantic balcony room on the ship and I've booked some shore excursion adventures for us in Bermuda, St. Thomas (where Vic and I were married), St Maarten & Puerto Rico: a boat tour into a water-filled cave; a submarine ride; a jeep waiting for us in one port with a guide to go to 2 famous Caribbean beaches; a tour of the Bacardi rum factory. I'm going to put cancer out of my mind and have a ball!

Thank you all so much for you support and ideas. It means so much.

lindaprocopio said:

Saw my gynecologic oncologist today,...
I saw my chemo-oncologist Thursday and my gynecologic oncologist today. Both would prefer that I have the lymph node cut out under my arm and the whole thing biopsied. But the breast cancer oncologist (who I won't see until after my cruise) told them via email that he prefers to do a sonogram-guided needle biopsy first. It seems like a wasted step, since none of us will trust a 'benign' result since the needle may have just grabbed the good cells and no cancer cells; and if the node is cancerous, I want it cut out anyway. But the breast cancer oncologist is the expert in underarm nodes, so I certainly want to be examined by him before we do anything.

My appointment with the gyne-onc today was an informative one. In his 30+ years of experience he has seen less than 5 endometrial cancers that metastasized to an underarm node, so he acknowledged how rare this would be. But he looked closely at my scans and could find nothing in the breasts that would make him think breast cancer was likely either. He had me lie down and then sit up and move my arm up and down and out, all the time trying to feel the involved lymph node under my arm, but couldn't feel it. Had he been able to find it, he said that he would have done the needle biopsy today himself just to get that step out of the way.

We talked about the other 'lit up' para-aortic lymph node. He said we may end up wanting to cut that one out also for biopsy if we find we are dealing with a new primary cancer, and that he would be the surgeon for that. It is in a difficult spot between an aorta and a kidney, and he couldn't do it laproscropically so it would be a larger surgery. He thinks we should just plan this one step at a time for now. HECK! There’s still a chance that underarm node will be benign!

He told me to enjoy my cruise and not think about any of this the whole time. And that's what I plan to do. We leave Thursday & won't be back until June 5th!

lindaprocopio said:

How BAD is this, that it being BREAST cancer is BETTER??!!
I'm baffled, but I'm smiling about it! It's almost too bizarre to be able to take seriously. I am very grateful that so far my cancer is hanging around in things I can live without (lymph nodes) and not moving into organs I absolutely need.

My husband did research and incidences of endometrial cancer metastasizing to those particular nodes in the armpit are .03%. (He didn't show me the source, and I'll do some resaerch of my own and let you know if he's wrong here.) I told my chemo-onc that my gyne-onc always checks under my armpits and he asked if he also routinely does a breast exam. I told him he does, and he said "Well then he's a good gynecologist because we are finding that women in cancer treatment rarely ever see their primary care doctors any more, and so oncologists try do more general exams to catch other unrelated health problems that the women may be ignoring." And that made sense since I haven't seen my primary care doctor since I got cancer. How about you ladies? Anyway, that's why my chemo-onc is even entertaining the unlikely 'primary breast cancer' idea. We just have to dig out that node and have a look.

I do feel wonderful! I'm getting ready for my cruise that departs next Thursday. I've 'fake-tanned' my legs and whitened my teeth and bought a lot of new clothes, and today I'm going to color my 1/4" crewcut so that it will look a little better if it's too hot for a wig or hat and I have to 'go commando'. 3 1/2 months out of chemo, it's still too short to fool anyone that this is a hairdo, but my scalp is at least fully covered now. We have a romantic balcony room on the ship and I've booked some shore excursion adventures for us in Bermuda, St. Thomas (where Vic and I were married), St Maarten & Puerto Rico: a boat tour into a water-filled cave; a submarine ride; a jeep waiting for us in one port with a guide to go to 2 famous Caribbean beaches; a tour of the Bacardi rum factory. I'm going to put cancer out of my mind and have a ball!

Thank you all so much for you support and ideas. It means so much.

lindaprocopio said:

Saw my gynecologic oncologist today,...
I saw my chemo-oncologist Thursday and my gynecologic oncologist today. Both would prefer that I have the lymph node cut out under my arm and the whole thing biopsied. But the breast cancer oncologist (who I won't see until after my cruise) told them via email that he prefers to do a sonogram-guided needle biopsy first. It seems like a wasted step, since none of us will trust a 'benign' result since the needle may have just grabbed the good cells and no cancer cells; and if the node is cancerous, I want it cut out anyway. But the breast cancer oncologist is the expert in underarm nodes, so I certainly want to be examined by him before we do anything.

My appointment with the gyne-onc today was an informative one. In his 30+ years of experience he has seen less than 5 endometrial cancers that metastasized to an underarm node, so he acknowledged how rare this would be. But he looked closely at my scans and could find nothing in the breasts that would make him think breast cancer was likely either. He had me lie down and then sit up and move my arm up and down and out, all the time trying to feel the involved lymph node under my arm, but couldn't feel it. Had he been able to find it, he said that he would have done the needle biopsy today himself just to get that step out of the way.

We talked about the other 'lit up' para-aortic lymph node. He said we may end up wanting to cut that one out also for biopsy if we find we are dealing with a new primary cancer, and that he would be the surgeon for that. It is in a difficult spot between an aorta and a kidney, and he couldn't do it laproscropically so it would be a larger surgery. He thinks we should just plan this one step at a time for now. HECK! There’s still a chance that underarm node will be benign!

He told me to enjoy my cruise and not think about any of this the whole time. And that's what I plan to do. We leave Thursday & won't be back until June 5th!

lindaprocopio said:

Saw my gynecologic oncologist today,...
I saw my chemo-oncologist Thursday and my gynecologic oncologist today. Both would prefer that I have the lymph node cut out under my arm and the whole thing biopsied. But the breast cancer oncologist (who I won't see until after my cruise) told them via email that he prefers to do a sonogram-guided needle biopsy first. It seems like a wasted step, since none of us will trust a 'benign' result since the needle may have just grabbed the good cells and no cancer cells; and if the node is cancerous, I want it cut out anyway. But the breast cancer oncologist is the expert in underarm nodes, so I certainly want to be examined by him before we do anything.

My appointment with the gyne-onc today was an informative one. In his 30+ years of experience he has seen less than 5 endometrial cancers that metastasized to an underarm node, so he acknowledged how rare this would be. But he looked closely at my scans and could find nothing in the breasts that would make him think breast cancer was likely either. He had me lie down and then sit up and move my arm up and down and out, all the time trying to feel the involved lymph node under my arm, but couldn't feel it. Had he been able to find it, he said that he would have done the needle biopsy today himself just to get that step out of the way.

We talked about the other 'lit up' para-aortic lymph node. He said we may end up wanting to cut that one out also for biopsy if we find we are dealing with a new primary cancer, and that he would be the surgeon for that. It is in a difficult spot between an aorta and a kidney, and he couldn't do it laproscropically so it would be a larger surgery. He thinks we should just plan this one step at a time for now. HECK! There’s still a chance that underarm node will be benign!

He told me to enjoy my cruise and not think about any of this the whole time. And that's what I plan to do. We leave Thursday & won't be back until June 5th!

lindaprocopio said:

Saw my gynecologic oncologist today,...
I saw my chemo-oncologist Thursday and my gynecologic oncologist today. Both would prefer that I have the lymph node cut out under my arm and the whole thing biopsied. But the breast cancer oncologist (who I won't see until after my cruise) told them via email that he prefers to do a sonogram-guided needle biopsy first. It seems like a wasted step, since none of us will trust a 'benign' result since the needle may have just grabbed the good cells and no cancer cells; and if the node is cancerous, I want it cut out anyway. But the breast cancer oncologist is the expert in underarm nodes, so I certainly want to be examined by him before we do anything.

My appointment with the gyne-onc today was an informative one. In his 30+ years of experience he has seen less than 5 endometrial cancers that metastasized to an underarm node, so he acknowledged how rare this would be. But he looked closely at my scans and could find nothing in the breasts that would make him think breast cancer was likely either. He had me lie down and then sit up and move my arm up and down and out, all the time trying to feel the involved lymph node under my arm, but couldn't feel it. Had he been able to find it, he said that he would have done the needle biopsy today himself just to get that step out of the way.

We talked about the other 'lit up' para-aortic lymph node. He said we may end up wanting to cut that one out also for biopsy if we find we are dealing with a new primary cancer, and that he would be the surgeon for that. It is in a difficult spot between an aorta and a kidney, and he couldn't do it laproscropically so it would be a larger surgery. He thinks we should just plan this one step at a time for now. HECK! There’s still a chance that underarm node will be benign!

He told me to enjoy my cruise and not think about any of this the whole time. And that's what I plan to do. We leave Thursday & won't be back until June 5th!