Capriness' Journey with Invasive (Infiltrating) Ductal Carcin...
- 1 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 2 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 3 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 4 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 5 Drug or Chemo Therapy Icon Drug or Chemo Therapy
- 6 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 7 Celebration Icon Celebration
- 8 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 9 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 10 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 11 Radiation Icon Radiation
- 12 Drug or Chemo Therapy Icon Drug or Chemo Therapy
- 13 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 14 Drug or Chemo Therapy Icon Drug or Chemo Therapy
- 15 Loss Icon Loss
Patient: Breast Cancer > Invasive (Infiltrating) Ductal Carcinoma
Patient Info: Receiving hospice or palliative care, Female, Age: 61, Stage IV, HER2 Positive: No, ER Positive: Yes, PR Positive: Yes
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Procedure: Drag this icon to show a procedure.
Radiation: Drag this icon to show a specific radiation therapy experience.
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Diagnosed
Oh No
July 23, 1996. Found a lump while serving in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica.
Lumpectomy
Procedure or Surgery
Edges weren't "dirty" but they were too close for the surgeon's comfort. She scheduled another surgery.
Axillary Lymph Node Dissection
Procedure or Surgery
5 of 9 nodes were positive.
Lumpectomy
Procedure or Surgery
She had to take a bigger margin of the original lumpectomy. But this time the new margins were dirty. There was still ore cancer in there.
Chemotherapy
Drug or Chemo Therapy
There's nothing good you can say about chemo. Sorry.
Double Mastectomy
Procedure or Surgery
X-rays showed shadows that the doctors couldn't be sure of so I opted to have double mastectomies.
Remission
Celebration
Breast tissue from the double mastectomy was completely clean. Since I had the mastectomies after the chemo, that told me that the chemo had worked since the margins from the second lumpectomy had been dirty.
Breast Reconstruction (Flap)
Procedure or Surgery
Had tram-flap reconstruction on both breasts. That had to be the most painful surgery I have EVER had! When I woke from surgery I couldn't breathe because the surgery involved trauma to my diaphragm and it didn't want to move. Also I couldn't stand upright. In later years I've always had chronic back pain because my back muscles had to take over holding my torso upright. I don't recommend this surgery to anyone. If you're thinking about having it, please think very hard about it.
Cancer is back/Recurred
Oh No
Cancer came back in my brachial plexis in 2005. I made it 9 years! XXX! Why??? I was so positive I had been cured!
Surgery
Procedure or Surgery
Surgeon had to remove tumor from my brachial plexis which is the nerve bundle in your chest that controls your whole arm. Thank heavens he was able to save my arm functionality. He also had to remove my pectoral minor muscle and about a third of my pectoral major muscle.
External radiation
Radiation
I had radiation to my whole right chest and extensive radiation to the tumor site sine the surgeon hadn't got it all because he had wanted to save my arm function. Radiation was fine while I was going through it but after-effects were bad. I had a lot of cracking and bleeding from the burns because I started chemo afterwards which caused the radiation to "flare." Also, it shrunk my right reconstructed breast so much that it's only about half the size of the left one.
Chemotherapy
Drug or Chemo Therapy
Chemo sucks. What can I say?
Cancer is back/Recurred
Oh No
2009 cancer came back in my lungs. It's now stage IV.
Hormone therapy
Drug or Chemo Therapy
I take monthly shots of Faslodex and daily Arimidex tablets. Either the Faslodex or the Arimidex cause me bone pain so I started palliative care to handle the pain.
Loss
This is Teri's brother. We lost Teri today, June 18, 2014 at 11:45am. Thank you all for what you do.