I haven’t written since April when I was one month into taking Anastrozole following 25 radiation treatments, preceded by a lumpectomy (5mm) and excision of 3 sentinel nodes for DCIS.
My radiation left me with a painful rash which led me to take a long weekend off before starting my drug.
A month into Anastrozole, I felt no different. Three months in, the side effects have started, mostly in my hands, which are so claw-like stiff in the morning, that I have to work them several minutes to ease the pain - they also get this way at night. Though I am experiencing some other mild joint pains, (stiff leg joints & lower back), the brunt of it is in my hands. OH, and did I mention the weight gain?! Ok, that’s a discussion for another time! 😳
My next followup is July 5th at which time I will discuss these issues as well as the possibility of taking an alternative drug - I have a few friends who switched to Letrozole w/o joint issues, so we’ll see. My surgeon asked to try to hang in there & discuss these options with my oncologist.
I wanted to briefly discuss the “invasive” word that I’ve seen discussed. My 5mm lump (found on routine mammogram- not felt/discovered by me or my GYN even a month before mammo); was labeled post-biopsy, “invasive ductal carcinoma in situ”. When I saw the word invasive, I almost fell over, but I was quickly schooled not to confuse “invasive” with “metatastic”. I was then told that in the breast cancer world, invasive means that cancer has invaded your otherwise healthy tissue. I was further told that “types” are determined post extensive biopsy - HER2 Neg, Estrogen/Progesterone Pos; and that “stages” are determined post surgery/Biopsy (for me, Stage1A -, except for Sentinel Nodes, which are examined initially during surgery (my 3 were Neg), then further examined post surgery - all 3 were clean, as were the outer margins of the tissue in my breast.
My point being, my cancer was confined to that 5mm area, even though initial biopsy reports after mammogram called it “invasive” DCIS. A scary word to the patient, but to those in the cancer field, not so much.
As always, this is my journey & I never try to speak to anyone else’s, other than to empathize and wish you all well with yours. ❤️