Breast cancer spread to lymph nodes. Would you choose chemo?

@lisakinpa thank you for your response, information, and words of encouragement! All of this is so overwhelming for sure. I'm happy to hear you had minimal side effects. Reading about yours and others journeys has been helpful. ❤️🙏

I was in a slightly different boat as the triple negative cancer I had was very fast and had spread to my lymph nodes within a month between mammograms and then the cancer got into my skin and chest wall, but I had a similar regiment as you: 5 months of chemo and then 35 rounds of radiation (although with surgeries and a year-long chemo pill I also took).

For me chemo was the easiest thing I did. I had found a study online either through Harvard or the Mayo clinic where they had people fast during chemo - basically at 12 hours before and a few hours after. This really helped my side effects although I ended up fasting longer I had infusion on Wednesdays so I would have a dinner Monday night and then not eat anything until dinner Wednesday night. It kept my nausea down. It definitely recommend taking all the bowel movement medicines they give you, I skipped it for a bit and was in misery.

There's lots of great advice out here for managing the symptoms. I also lost weight but that was because I was 38 and had just had a baby so I was slowly shedding that as I went through chemo. The surgeries were harder on my body and the radiation, since it was every day, was too.

Good luck!

@kware75 If you are HER2- and ER+, the Oncotype will be an important factor in deciding on your treatment. Women with one positive node don't necessarily have chemo. Radiation is another story.

If you don’t find a naturopathic practitioner near you, some chiropractic clinics may offer iv infusions.

There’s also a phenomenon of iv infusion-only clinics popping up around the country that cater to people wanting to maximize their health but they aren’t able to give the super-high dose you need to kill cancer; women need up to 100g.

I wonder if an osteopathic doctor would consider this, too. If you search PubMed “high dose iv C cancer” there are studies that show the safety and efficacy. Perhaps showing these studies to a doctor would persuade them to accommodate you.

Yes, I’ll keep this group posted as to my outcome.❤️

I was in a slightly different boat as the triple negative cancer I had was very fast and had spread to my lymph nodes within a month between mammograms and then the cancer got into my skin and chest wall, but I had a similar regiment as you: 5 months of chemo and then 35 rounds of radiation (although with surgeries and a year-long chemo pill I also took).

For me chemo was the easiest thing I did. I had found a study online either through Harvard or the Mayo clinic where they had people fast during chemo - basically at 12 hours before and a few hours after. This really helped my side effects although I ended up fasting longer I had infusion on Wednesdays so I would have a dinner Monday night and then not eat anything until dinner Wednesday night. It kept my nausea down. It definitely recommend taking all the bowel movement medicines they give you, I skipped it for a bit and was in misery.

There's lots of great advice out here for managing the symptoms. I also lost weight but that was because I was 38 and had just had a baby so I was slowly shedding that as I went through chemo. The surgeries were harder on my body and the radiation, since it was every day, was too.

Good luck!

@kware75 . How many nodes did they find positive? Were they axillary or sentinel nodes? How many nodes the surgeon remove ?

@seathink thank you for sharing ❤️ this is very interesting and will definitely be researching this today. I appreciate your help. You were so young!! How are you doing good now? I hope well! 🙏

@polianad22 HI, they only removed the sentinel node and it showed positive micromet .5mm. Only one was removed. The radioactive material they injected before the surgery only showed the path to that one. But my oncologist said we can "assume" that it traveled to others and elsewhere I'm my body. I am getting a second opinion and also have another appointment with my current oncologist.