← Return to Optional double mastectomy over single. What helped you to decide?
DiscussionOptional double mastectomy over single. What helped you to decide?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Jul 15 4:57pm | Replies (59)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "Hi! @californiazebra: I am so sorry about your breast cancer recurred in the chest wall 7..."
Yes, my heart just sank when I felt a tiny hard lump on my bony chest just two days before my annual ultrasound. I just knew it was cancer. I was in a bit of disbelief after being told I only had a 3% chance of recurrence. They removed the tumor and a bit of the pectoral muscle it was in. There was a positive margin in the muscle now too small to see on a scan. Hard to hear that too. I had 37 radiation treatments and then went on Kisqali and Letrozole. I can’t have chemo because of a rare pre-existing hereditary neuropathy. He said chemo would leave me in constant pain forever and I can’t even take pain meds. My oncologist said he wasn’t sure chemo would be effective on this cancer anyway. I also had PT as this surgery caused ROM issues and cording just as the mastectomies did. The cancer came back 3x as aggressive (Ki-67 50%) and highly hormone driven. My oncologist said the cancer was so aggressive that cells likely got away to other parts of my body before the tumor was removed. That was a rare moment of candor because he likes to sugarcoat things. I like facts. He tends to say something different every time I ask about my prognosis so it’s really just a wait and see. No visible tumors at the moment and I have CT scans of the chest, abdomen and pelvis every 6 months. There’s always scanxiety waiting for results. Initially I also had a PET scan, bone scan (different that DEXA), breast MRI and a brain MRI. I’ll stay on the targeted meds so long as they work (3.5 yrs so far). I’m not sure what’s left in the arsenal if another tumor pops up. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Again, so far so good and I’m pleasantly surprised by that. Thanks for asking.