Lroethler's Journey:
- 1 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 2 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 3 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 4 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 5 Drug or Chemo Therapy Icon Drug or Chemo Therapy
- 6 Side Effects Icon Side Effects
- 7 Side Effects Icon Side Effects
- 8 Side Effects Icon Side Effects
- 9 Side Effects Icon Side Effects
- 10 Side Effects Icon Side Effects
- 11 Side Effects Icon Side Effects
- 12 Radiation Icon Radiation
- 13 Drug or Chemo Therapy Icon Drug or Chemo Therapy
- 14 Celebration Icon Celebration
- 15 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 16 Other Care Icon Other Care
- 17 Oh No Icon Oh No
Patient: Breast Cancer > Invasive (Infiltrating) Ductal Carcinoma
Patient Info: Living with cancer as a chronic illness (undergoing adjuvant therapy), Diagnosed: almost 16 years ago, Female, Age: 67, Stage IV, HER2 Positive: No, ER Positive: Yes, PR Positive: Yes
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Experience Icon Descriptions
Procedure: Drag this icon to show a procedure.
Radiation: Drag this icon to show a specific radiation therapy experience.
Drug Therapy: Drag this icon to show a specific drug therapy experience.
Clinical Trial: Drag this icon to show a clinical trial experience.
Side Effect: Drag this icon to show experience with a specific side effect.
Oh No: Drag this icon to show when something bad happened (e.g., cancer’s back, lost job).
Celebration: Drag this icon to show when something good happened (e.g., last treatment, hair is back).
Loss: Drag this icon to show a time of loss (e.g., lost hair, lost loved one).
Decision Point: Drag this icon to show a time when you had to make a tough decision.
Other Care: Draft this icon to show a time when you needed other care (e.g., hospice, psychotherapy).
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Found lump
Oh No
12/2004 - found lump under right inner side of breast, no health insurance! Waited six months until I had health insurance in June 2005 to see doctor. Then got laid off work.
Lumpectomy
Procedure or Surgery
This person has yet to add any details about this experience.
Diagnosed
Oh No
2005, Invasive Ductal Cancer, ER+, PR+, HER-, early stage (1.6cm tumor), no nodes.
Sentinel lymph node biopsy
Procedure or Surgery
In retrospect, I wish I'd had the axillary node biopsy instead of the sentinel node biopsy. The latter only uses the node(s) nearest the involved breast. Since I'm now stage IV, it's likely that there were nodes involved that weren't observed because they weren't part of those removed in the sentinel node procedure.
Chemotherapy
Drug or Chemo Therapy
I still experience side effects of chemo, even after seven years: neuropathy in my feet and severe osteoarthritis throughout my body that my doctors suspect was accelerated by taxol. Would I change that and skip chemo? No. I'm now stage IV and have lived seven years cancer-free. Had I not had the chemo, I might be dead now.
Hair loss (alopecia)
Side Effects
I shaved my hair completely off as soon as it started falling out. It was a very freeing exercise. My sister sent me a collection of my deceased mother's hats and I had fun wearing them plus some scarves friends gave me. My hair came back in fine, just slightly thinner than it was before but originally it was very thick, so no one really notices.
Nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy)
Side Effects
This is the worst because I still suffer from it. During taxol treatment my hands and feet were affected but now it's just my feet. It can be quite painful at times. Gabepentin helps some but it never completely goes away.
Fatigue (tiredness)
Side Effects
This person has yet to add any details about this experience.
Side Effects
This person has yet to add any details about this experience.
Thinking problems
Side Effects
I don't think I've really ever regain my full cognitive abilities. I definitely notice the difference pre-chemo brain and post-chemo brain. It may be small but it stands out because the work I do demands fast thinking and the ability to resolve problems quickly and correctly.
Chemo brain
Side Effects
Thought I was losing my mind; couldn't remember anything! Was really rather silly.
External radiation
Radiation
So tired! Everyday; more tired than when in chemo. Had I just had radiation, it might not have been so bad but chemo had already worn me out. Even with a "break" between the two, radiation treatment wore me down completely.
Hormone therapy
Drug or Chemo Therapy
Aromatase inhibitor drugs made my joints ache! Docs switched me to tamoxifen but that caused uterine bleeding so we stopped it. In total I had five years of hormone treatment but now they are beginning to recommend ten years. I wish I'd continued, despite the possibility of uterine cancer: a year after I discontinued Tamoxifen, the cancer has spread to my bones.
Finished treatment
Celebration
10/2011 - finished hormone treatment
12/2012 - CT Guided Needle Biopsy, right shoulder
Procedure or Surgery
This person has yet to add any details about this experience.
Other Care
This person has yet to add any details about this experience.
Cancer has spread/Metastasized
Oh No
Seven years cancer-free and suddenly my life is once again thrown into chaos by this disease. I did every thing right: lumpectomy, radiation, chemo. There were no nodes involved in my surgery. No one, not one of my docs expected this. But here I am - an "outlier". One of the small percentage of early stage women who despite everything must accept cancer as an unwelcome guest in our bodies until it beats us into acceptance. No matter what we do, it's hiding in there somewhere, ready to strike again. Our only revenge is to live well and enjoy life despite it.