Dear Elaine,
Brilliant news, I am so happy for you, I can only imagine
the stress
level waiting for the results, we all go through it.
Its wonderful you can move on with life and I wish you all
the best for
2007 a new life, new reconstruction, I hope it is everything
you hope
for.
Fiona
Single mother (44 yrs old) with two daughters 2 year old and
six years
old was living in Bangkok with my own consulting business
when diagnosed
Jan 06 after six months of being told I had mastitis &
blocked milk
ducts (five hospitals, nine doctors two surgeons all got it
wrong
including a breast cancer centre), immediately moved back to
Sydney,
Australia - Stage IV - Mets to Bone T9 & L4, lymph
glands left and right
arm, gland behind breast bone, ER-/PR-/HER2+++ started Chemo
14th Feb 06
- FEC x 1 /Herceptin x 1 then switched to weekly Taxotere
70mg/Herceptin
200mg six weeks on, two weeks herceptin only. Scans done
6/06 great
results, some of my team believe its arthritis at L4 not
cancer and
significant improvement everywhere, double mastectomy done
20/7/06 with
axillary clearance both sides 22 glands from left, 13 from
right, lymph
glands totally clear (yippee), DCIS small pocket found in
left breast,
nothing in right breast, more of the same chemotherapy, Bone
Scan L4
uptake T9 gone, MRI clear, PET scan no active cancer,
radiation twice
per days seven fields completed 12/06, more chemo planned
for the new
year.
-----Original Message-----
From: ibc-bounces ibcsupport.org [mailto:ibc-bouncesibcsupport.org] On
Behalf Of Elaine
Sent: Saturday, 30 December 2006 11:53 AM
To: ibc
Subject: [ibc] How we live-or-die by those tests!
I had a PET scan last week which was to basically end my
chemo
treatments of
the past 15 months (stage IIIB, included bilateral MRM
surgery). I
fully
expected an 'all clear' results, especially as the weekend
was Christmas
and
everyone was happy, busy, and the docs offices would be
closed on
Monday.
The test result was that there is a SUSPICIOUS SPOT at the
hilum of the
left
lung. My IBC was on the right side, but no matter, a spot
is a spot, is
a
scare of major proportions! I spoke with my onc doc on
Tuesday to see
how
much importance he placed on this mysterious spot and he
said we should
do a
CAT scan to find out if it warrants serious concern, so I
was on
pins-n-needles until this a.m. (one week later) when I had
my CAT scan,
of
both chest and abdomen (since my liver enzymes were elevated
also). I
can
tell you here that drinking that barium stuff is awful.
Banana
flavoring
aside, its still drinking chalk and I shudder still as I
write this.
Technician said the radiologist would call my doc if there's
'anything
significant' and otherwise the typed report would be
available Tuesday
afternoon. Another long weekend?!! I phoned my onc doc
about 4PM
today..."any word from the radiologist
yet?"..."no, sorry"....but then
about
half an hour later, the wondrous call came back..."fax
report from the
scan
shows no problems, so go ahead with your plans for
reconstruction and
have a
wonderful new year." Phew...dodged a big bullet
there!
So I am happy, no...ecstatic...that the chemo is done and my
tests are
clear
again, and I have my DIEP flap reconstruction plans already
in place for
mid-January. Please wish me luck. I feel like I'll need
lots of it,
but I
am truly looking forward to 2007 with renewed spirit.
And I know that I'll have this near-panic everytime I go
back for
retesting,
but this is part of having IBC. We live with it, we go
forward as best
we
can. Thank you one and all for your encouragements when
asked, and your
good wishes given freely and generously. Hugs, -Elaine
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