StamPurr

Hi, Just saw you are from east county. I'm off of Avocado Blvd but it is La Mesa address. Love this site! It makes me feel better, if I can help someone with a question. Where are doing your treatment? I go to Sharp Grossmont to the cancer center. If you are up to it, would love to talk or meet in the near future. In the meantime, I hope you are doing well. Barb

Hi. Well, my PS does it in 3 steps. The first is the toughest--he moved fat from my belly and inserted into pockets on my chest. Then did a tummy tuck & moved my navel. The second is an in-house procedure where symmetry, shape & size are determined. The last is nipple creation & tattooing. I am going to like the final results, I think. And BTW--I thought I was just updating my wall, I didn't mean for everyone in the world to see my entry about this! Oh, those OLD PEOPLE who don't understand technology!

Hope things are going well after your surgery. Thinking of you.

Sending along best wishes for successful surgery this week and a complete and uneventful recovery. God bless!

Your answer on the crying question reminded me so much of myself. Car crying seems to happen a lot with me. I have an hour commute to work. There is way too much alone time to think. At least when crying in the car there is no one around that I have to try to explain why I'm crying. I'm sure other drivers think that I've lost my mind, but that's ok. They are free to think what they like.

By the way, going by your picture, I would have guessed you were younger than me. I'm 41. Kudos on aging so well even with the battle you've fought.

I didn't know what TNBC was, I read the lab results and it said "Negative, Negative, Negative" and I thought well that sounds really good! I'm still shocked by the TN thing too. Leaves you in a state of "what happens next after chemo is done"? When my oncologist said there is not meds or scans, no after treatment blood tests, just stay in tune with my body. I thought... What the heck!!! It's always in the back of my mind, I try to keep it at bay but even now, after more than a year out of treatment, I still have an occasional moment of break down. I talk to God on the way to work some mornings and that's when I pour my heart out begging for no recurrence of cancer. I know we're all gonna die of something one day, but I want to see both of my sons (27 and 23)get married and have babies first. This is still all new to you, you have some big dicisions to make so don't let anyone sway you into something your not comfortable in doing. I went flat chested for almost a year before my second attempt at reconstruction. I wore the mastectomy bras with the gel boobs. I'm from the deep south (Gulfport, Ms) and found them to be extremely hot. My chest would sweat. The first thing I would do when i got in the door from work was take of my bra and my wig (chemo) and wash my bald head in the sink to cool off. I didn't wear the bra on the weekends.

BTW, I heard something very interesting several months ago on the nightly news... They think TNBC isn't really a breast cancer at all. They want to start treating it as an ovarian type of cancer which would mean a different type of chemo. They said just because it "landed" in the breast area doesn't mean it's BC. I thought that was very interesting.

I to had taxol for 12 weeks along with herceptin for one year. I just finished my last taxol treatment this week . I had a double mastectomy during the middle of my treatments. I wanted to let you know my plastic surgeon had me take 15,000 units of vitamin a before my surgery. The reason is due to the steroids you have for taxol does not allow you to heal. So he had me stop taxol for at least 4 weeks prior to surgery and take the vitamin a. I have not had one single problem with my surgery or the expanders. Check with you surgeon about the vitamin a prior to surgery and see if u can benefit from it. Good luck to you!!

Hi StamPurr, The AC before, then surgery, then Taxol after surgery is due to the clinical trial I am in. The AC resulted in excellent shrinkage of my breast with the ductal carcinoma, so my surgeon is ready to go ahead with surgery. If I hadn't had the shrinkage my team wanted, I would have come off the trial and gone straight to Taxol. I am still seeing my oncologist this coming week to be sure this is the track i am taking.

Thought I would pop in and say Hi!!! Hope things are going well for you. Have a great weekend!!

Hi stampurr,

How are you? Sounds like you are having some blues. Hang in there!

I saw that you were on taxol weekly and was curious how that was going. I will be starting it about sept 6th, either weekly or every other week. Not sure which to do.

Hugs.

Hi Stampurr!! Glad to have you following me. I'm always interested in others that have TNBC. I just finished my treatments in June. I had a very aggressive tumor that was a stage 2a with no lymph node involvement. I didn't have to have any radiation. I had surgery first, only one side mastectomy. I'll have reconstruction at some point, not sure when. I see my plastic surgeon this Friday. I got great news this past Friday though. I had my PET scan last week and there was no cancer detected. So it is possible!! Good Luck with your treatments! If you have any questions, ask away!!

I am always interested in other triple negative BC stories and wonder how they are doing. So I hope to follow you and wish you luck with everything !

Do you know what surgery you are going to have ?

I am a lot like you. I was diagnosed last year, stage III, triple negative. My tumor was very large, so they started with chemo (4 months), bilateral mastectomy after that, and radiation after that. It gets better... the diagnosis and shock of it all is the worst.. it will be ok.

I remember it being hard to know what to think at this stage. All the numbers don't mean anything yet. Make sure you are comfortable with your team. The chemo and treatments will do their job. Your job is to put your mind and attitude to work getting you through this with the best outcome possible.

I remember those first weeks as the scariest because there is no plan in place yet...assemble your team then trust them and consult with them every time you have questions or doubts about ANYTHING as you start your journey...please know that you are not alone...you will discover how special your friends and family are and you will find new friends who will be there for you every step of the way...good luck and God bless...

Hello and welcome, we are glad you found us. Here is a link to our cancer dx page for your type of cancer. Take a look at it to get you started on some information. You will notice at the bottom of that page 4 of our active users who have had that journey already, you may wish to contact them for their experience and wisdom. Also, any questions you may have just post them in the questions tab and everyone will see them there and be able to help you.

https://www.whatnext.com/conditions/cancer/breast-cancer

There are also subtypes listed on this page to narrow down the type of cancer to match your dx.

Also, if you can take a few minutes and fill in some details of your journey so far, it will help others as they try to answer questions for you, it also helps others as they search through the data base to find someone like themselves. Confirming your email will allow you to receive updates and notices from the site when someone answers your questions or writes on your wall.

Thanks for being with us and let me know if I can help you find any information on the site. After you have an opportunity to look the site over and see what great things there are here, we encourage you to invite your friends, family or anyone you know that may be helped by the connections on WhatNext to join the site also. Just click this link to invite them to join. http://www.whatnext.com/recruit-a-friend

Greg P
3x survivor
Team WhatNext

Ugh. So sorry about your diagnosis. Only a few weeks after hearing the news, you are probably still reeling from it. I hope you are getting your team together and feel confident in your doctors. This is such a scary time for you. I cried at the drop of a hat most days until I actually started my treatment; then I focused on beating the disease instead of fearing it, I guess. Hopefully you will soon feel that inner strength that you have but maybe don't realize. I prayed for strength and courage every day and found a pink bracelet that had those two words engraved in it, which was the first thing I put on each day. That's what you need: strength and courage. Im hoping for the best as you get your plan together and ready yourself for this fight.

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