<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>A&R'sMommy's Journal RSS Feed</title><link>http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/mynbcf/members/arsmommy/journals/rss</link><description>A&R'sMommy's Journal RSS Feed</description><item><title><![CDATA[Doing Really Well on Tamoxifen (so far!)]]></title><link>http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/mynbcf/members/arsmommy/journals/8247</link><guid>http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/mynbcf/members/arsmommy/journals/8247</guid><description><![CDATA[I started taking my Tamoxifen on July 1st, and so far, so good…after 8 pills, none of the icky side effects I was expecting (hot flashes, night sweats, etc.) have hit me.  Maybe they still will, but my oncologist said I would probably start experiencing the side effects within the first week.

The only things I can sort of point to as side effects are being hungrier than usual (like I am during PMS time…for sweets, especially chocolate) and having no period.  The extra hunger seems to have passed in the last couple of days, though, so who knows?

The no period thing is a bit disconcerting.  I don’t know whether to attribute it to the Tamoxifen.  I figure it’s a combo of that and my having only had 3 periods (at irregular intervals) after last breast-feeding my son.  I even took a pregnancy test before taking my first Tamox pill.  Can you imagine???  It’s not like the risk of getting pregnant has been all that high for us (who’s in the mood these days, right? – LOL) or that getting pregnant was ever easy for us anyway.  Would be just my luck to turn up pregnant again after my husband and I had decided two kids was perfect for us and being told that getting pregnant wasn’t advisable given my BC situation (all that estrogen, and all).  How embarrassing would that be to have to tell my oncologist – LOL!!!

Anyway, maybe my experience will help those of you who are stressing over taking the Tamoxifen, worrying, like I was, over the side effects.  I guess some people do okay on it, so I would say give it a try if your oncologist thinks it’s a good idea.  

BTW, the things I have started doing differently lately, most of them based on reading other women’s tips for alleviating the side effects, are as follows:  (1) taking 4-6mg of melatonin before bedtime (I’m sleeping great and waking up rested), (2) avoiding artificial sweeteners, and (3) eating a lot less red meat…although most of that is because I won’t eat it unless it’s hormone-free, which eliminates a lot of my options.  Oh, and I’ve even started back to drinking a little red wine with dinner the last week, and that hasn’t triggered any hot flashes, either.  Go figure!

I’ll post again if anything changes…but keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t!

Hugs and prayers to all,
Judy
]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[It DOES get better!]]></title><link>http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/mynbcf/members/arsmommy/journals/8106</link><guid>http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/mynbcf/members/arsmommy/journals/8106</guid><description><![CDATA[It DOES get better…!

I think I read that on this site – probably way more than once – but I don’t think I really believed it when I was stuck in that stage where the thought that “I have breast cancer” crept into every minute of my waking and even sleeping hours.  

I was diagnosed with DCIS on 2/29/08, and had a right mastectomy on 5/15/08.  Those 2-1/2 months in between were hell.  I never knew what anxiety really meant until I lived it.  Even though I was “comfortable” with my decision to have the mastectomy (with tissue expanders to be put in immediately to start the recon process), I was petrified…not of the procedure itself, after all, I’d been through two earlier surgeries to try to clear the margins, and neither one of those was so horrible.  It was the aftermath I was so afraid of.  How was I going to feel waking up with a missing boob?  How would I react seeing myself for the first time?   How would I be able to take care of my little boys while I was trying to recover?  And the big one:  What if they found another type of cancer???

Well, here I am 12 days post-op, and I’m feeling great.  Not yet 100%% physically, but everything has been better than I had imagined.  Even though I woke up in a lot of pain, I knew it would be only temporary until the nurses could get the right level of pain meds in me, and sure enough, they did.  I was wrapped in bandages around my entire chest, and my plastic surgeon told me I would stay wrapped until I saw him in a few days, so I didn’t have to look at anything missing or ugly.  So, instead of waking up all grossed-out, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me.  Maybe it was a sense that all the cancer was outta there…which was confirmed a week later by my final pathology report:  SNB confirmed no node involvement, and nothing but DCIS was found!  I felt better mentally and emotionally by the evening of my surgery than I had in months.  At first, I thought it might be all the pain meds, but that feeling has not yet gone away and I’m practically pain med free.  So, as I read on this site before, it DOES get better!

I could go on and on with the details of my recovery – and I’m pleased to share with anyone who has questions about what to expect – but the bottom line for those of you just starting on this journey is this:  Have hope…It DOES get better!

Judy

]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Whirlwind, New Baby, and Sooooo Many Decisions]]></title><link>http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/mynbcf/members/arsmommy/journals/8047</link><guid>http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/mynbcf/members/arsmommy/journals/8047</guid><description><![CDATA[My story is that I found a lump late in my 2nd pregnancy, and sort of dismissed it as just the boob getting ready for nursing.  I kept forgetting to mention it to my ObGyn at all of my prenatal visits...more concerned with the baby...and since it didn't hurt unless I got bumped there, it just kept slipping my mind.  So, after my son was born (12/4/07), I had the lactation nurses and the doc who was on duty that day look at it, and that started this whole process.  I had to go to my regular ObGyn to look at it; he referred me to the hospital’s Breast Center for an ultrasound; then back to my ObGyn for a referral to the breast surgeon who did a core biopsy which happily diagnosed it as a benign fibro adenoma.  All of the above happened by the time my baby was about 6 weeks old.  Meantime, BTW, I kept breast feeding on the good side, which seemed to surprise the doctors that I could do.  I thought that was amusing...they reacted to that as though I was so talented, when, in fact, breast feeding for me even for my first son, who’s now 2, was a challenge (never enough milk).  Anyway, my surgery to remove the fibro adenoma was on 2/22/08, and on 2/29/08 I went back for my follow-up and the path showed it was in fact DCIS (Stage 0, mid-grade…2 out of 3).  At this point, I had to stop breastfeeding so they could get a clear picture of what was going on.  All the milk and the distension of the cells makes it hard for the docs to really see what's going on.  My breast surgeon, at my original appointment with him to get the results of the ultrasound, even said my pictures, when compared to a non-lactating woman looked, "Ugly...SCARY ugly."  (Yikes!)  I had an MRI on 3/13/08 and on 3/21/08 got the results of the MRI...confirming nothing going on in the left side and no node involvement, so lumpectomy with rads was still the recommended course of action.  On 4/8/08 I had my second surgery, but didn't get clear margins, which I found out on 4/14/08.  I got an appt with the plastic surgeon on 4/17/08, and he agrees with the breast surgeon that, even if I try for another lumpectomy, which my breast surgeon is willing to do, I would need recon.  So, my decision is to go with a right mast with recon (tissue expanders) starting immediately, which would mean no rads required.  I’m just waiting for my surgeon’s office to call me back with a surgery date.  I was pretty calm about my decision until my husband, whom I love dearly and feel so bad for because I know he’s stressed and worried about all of this – and, like most men, is a “fixer” – started questioning my decision.  He wasn’t doing it in a mean way, but his first reaction was to try again with the lumpectomy and rads (although, at this point, I don’t think it’s really called a lumpectomy???).  Problem is, the doc can’t guarantee they’ll get all of the DCIS, which would mean yet another surgery (and no choice but to have a mast, then).  Aside from the inconvenience of weeks of rads treatments, I’m concerned that my skin will be compromised by the rads and the delay to get the recon going may make recon more difficult and the result not as good.  Not to mention the fact that, without the mast, I'll be worried that there could be another kind of cancer hanging around in there, too, even though everything is still showing only DCIS, but now high grade (3 out of 3).  Oh, and in the meantime, my husband got a great job offer out of state – something we’ve been working toward for the last 2-3 years! – so we’re trying to figure out how to orchestrate THAT into this whole whirlwind, if possible, but putting my health decisions first of course.  Can we stop the world now?  It’s spinning way to fast, and I’d like to get off!!!
Judy
]]></description></item></channel></rss>