I have the same issues with novocaine and any other local aesthetic. I , at 5'4" 120 lb will need much more than any one else, I've had biopsies, podiatrist and dentist not believe me until I'm screaming pain! It's always been this way for me.
It's frustrating isn't it?!!!!!
Lorraine

I am a knitter. So I knit when I could. In fact, I love knitting so much, that when I was preparing for the mastectomy and they told me about recovery and all of that, I actually asked the doctor about how long after surgery until I could knit again? Funnily enough, that's when I learned my surgeon also was a knitter (and a quilter) and so she completely understood why I was asking! Related: during chemo at some points the neuropathy in my hands made it too difficult to knit. And I remember being extra upset about it all during those times!

I also watched a lot of light, funny, etc tv shows and movies. Nothing sad. Nothing depressing. Nothing heavy. With netflix, I was able to find shows I liked and watch them from episode 1 to the end. Many a tv marathon was had!

I also became addicted to the facebook game Castleville. A silly addiction, but fun and definitely good at taking my mind off of things. =)

It's hard to tease out what's being caused from what, but this medicine, I think is adding to my fatigue (which I'm still having a ton of just since treatment started period). I've also noticed it's playing with my moods. Basically it seems to take my emotions and magnify them. So I rarely just feel "okay." I'm not happy, I'm super happy. I'm not sad, I'm in tears. I'm not anxious, I'm on the verge of panic attacks. Also, I'm much quicker to anger. I rarely have felt angry in my life, and now I'm angry once a day! Although, it's still relatively new (I'm only in my second month of taking it) and it does seem to be tapering off a bit (thankfully!). The other thing is I'm having trouble sleeping, which started a few weeks after I started the medicine.

That said, I originally started with tamoxifen and had to go off of it because the side effects were beyond anything I decided I was able to live with. And the fareston is much kinder to me. And I feel these side effects are ones I can tolerate. Phew!

I was diagnosed April 26. And underwent surgery on May 18. We knew from the original biopsy that a mastectomy on the right side had to happen first. And so I was put on the schedule right away for that. At that point, it was up to me to decide if I wanted to also do a mastectomy on the left side. My doctor talked to me about the options and pros/cons to doing the left side. Then I went for an MRI. The MRI showed something on the left, but we weren't sure what it was. At that point, I could have opted for more tests to see specifically what was going on, but for me, it cemented what I was already leaning towards: a double mastectomy. Since I opted for that, we decided not to do any further testing.

So, overall I had about a month, but I knew in less than 2 weeks what I wanted and we were just waiting for an OR to open at the hospital.

As a side story: when we got the schedule, my doctor's office told me I had two choices for surgery: Friday, May 13 or Wednesday, May 18. Without missing a beat I said "Oh, I want the 18th." The nurse commented that she wouldn't have surgery on Friday the 13th either. And I laughed! I missed the fact that the first option was a Friday the 13th, but my birthday is May 16 and I didn't want to be sick/sore/or possibly still in the hospital on my birthday! Cancer, I knew, was going to screw a lot of things up for us, and I wanted to hold onto that day myself.

My cancer was discovered by accident. An accident I am truly grateful for.
I went for my yearly check-up with the gynecologist. My old practice's office had shut down, so I was actually meeting a new doctor. Of course we went through my health history and she noticed that I had written my mom had breast cancer, and the doctor started to ask me specifics about my mom's cancer. I couldn't really answer them. I didn't know which side, I didn't know what stage. I told her my mom had surgery and no chemo or radiation and beyond that I didn't know anything. The doctor, after figuring out I had not much to offer finally asked "Are you and your mom estranged?" I chuckled (because I talk to my mom daily) and explained, I was 10 at the time. I wasn't really told much. And my mom doesn't talk about it now and I've never asked. Which led to saying my mom was 30 at the time.

At this point, my doctor told me I needed to have a baseline mammogram in the next 6 months, since I was 31. And that I should have really had my first mammogram at 29 as apparently recommendations are to start them at an age one year before your mom's age at diagnosis. But then she hesitated. And said, but you're so young, I'm not sure how often to mammogram you at this point. Given my age, she didn't really want me to start them yearly, so she advised me to meet with a breast specialist to get a plan in place. Then she did my exam, proclaimed that everything was great, I was pretty healthy and could come back in a year.

So I went home, and called the specialist and made an appointment. I remember going to her office the next week and the doctor said "So, what bring you in today?" And I told her "Honestly, I don't know! I don't have any concerns and neither does my other doctor. Basically I'm here to get a plan from you about how often to get mammograms." So we went over health history and then she started her physical exam. And that's when the questions started. The right side is significantly larger and heavier than the left. Has it always been that way? No? When did the changes start? Oh, look, your nipple is pulling in a bit ... has that always been that way? No? Okay, when did that start? It feels like you have cysts, have you ever had an ultrasound? No? Okay, Let me whip my machine out and check for you. And in all these questions, especially when I was telling her it hadn't always been that way. That what she was asking about had started about a year ago, I just knew, something wasn't right. I left her office with orders to get a diagnostic mammogram by the end of the week - basically she told me to get in ASAP.

I went home and cried. And cried. I was terrified to make that mammogram appointment. But I did, and I got in three days later. I had the mammogram. Then I had to go get more pictures. Then I had to go get a few more enlargement pictures (at least I think that's what they called them). Then I had to stay and get an ultrasound. Then the doctor wanted to come in and check the ultrasound. All of this within about 2 hours, and ending with: You need a biopsy. It's probably calcification, but we need to be sure. Oh and btw, you've got some cysts in there you should think about removing.

So a week later I was back at the hospital to get a biopsy. And the following week, I was hit with the news it came back positive.

The total time period of all of this: first visit with gynecologist was April 1. The news of the cancer was on April 26.

I don’t work with a lot of breast cancer patients so I can’t answer this question. In general, though, I encourage patients to talk with the nurse or doctor to learn how to best manage long-term side effects of treatment. Think also if social work needs to be involved. That is, is the patient still able to work full time post-treatment? Are they having a hard time paying their bills? Is there medication available to treat their side effects, but they can’t afford it? Because many cancers are now coming to be seen as chronic diseases, more attention is being given to the idea of survivorship and what we can do as health care providers to lessen patients’ ongoing post-treatment symptoms.

This is a huge and hard question and I have no magic answer. There are docs who, no matter how you bring up the question of hospice or end of life planning, will never go down that road with the patient and absolutely will not want the nurse bringing up such questions, either. In these situations, if the hospital has an ethics committee they may be able to help. If palliative care has been consulted they also may be helpful. However, we’re all familiar with medically futile care and how emotionally difficult it is to be pulling out all the clinical stops for patients when there is nothing to suggest our care will in any way help them.

For doctors who are more open and able to discuss end of life planning, I keep the conversation focused on what the patient has said. If she says she is done with treatment I communicate that. If he says he just wants to go home and die, I pass that along, too. I encourage physicians to be as clear as possible and to be consistent. When a patient is very ill and several different services are looking after him, the patient often gets as many different reports of prognosis as there are physicians involved. Making the inpatient attending aware of everything the patient has been told by different doctors can at least help insure that that doc’s message is consistent.

Ultrasound is really an extension of the physical exam. Diagnostic ultrasound can be used to further characterize a palpable lesion (i.e. cystic versus solid). It can also be used to identify a correlate of a mammographically lesion/abnormality and characterize this as well. Once a lesion is identified on ultrasound, the ultrasound can be used to guide various needle procedures such as cyst aspiration to assist targeting and ensure complete decompression. It can also be used to guide larger core needles to their target to endure accurate sampling. If a lesion is seen on ultrasound, using this modality to guide percutaneous biopsy is generally preferred over stereotactic localization and guided biopsy as it it less complicated (and less uncomfortable) for both the patient and breast surgeon. Ultrasound can also be used for monitoring percutaneous excision or ablation of benign lesions (i.e. fibroadenomas). Ultrasound of the axilla may identify abnormal lymph nodes and be used to guide fine needle aspiration (FNA) to see if they contain metastatic cancer cells. Intraoperative ultrasound can be used by the breast surgeon to localize the lesion to be excised including aiding the ability to obtain clear margins at excision. Finally, after final pathology confirms clear margins, if a patient is an appropriate candidate for APBI, ultrasound can be used by the breast surgeon in the office to percutanously access the surgical cavity and guide placement of the device which the radiation oncologist will use to insert (and remove) the radioactive seeds.

Most core biopsied done today are with vacuum assisted devices due to the improved size and quality of the core samples retrieved and also the ability to remove multiple cores with a single insertion.

See the following answer for further details on vacuum assisted core biopsy: http://talkabouthealth.com/what-are-the-advantages-of-using-a-vaccuum-assisted-core-biopsy-versus-other-options

The doctors say the lung mets was too small to be symptomatic, but I was losing weight, feeling exhausted, feeling slightly nauseous (nothing like chemo, but noticeable) and simply feeling lousy -- VERY different from my norm. I was repeatedly denied testing. Five months later my oncologist finally agreed to a CT scan. I was told it was normal. 2.5 months later my primary care physician saw me and said I didn't look well. He ordered a second CT. Turns out the original scan had shown a lesion that was misdiagnosed as a benign granuloma ... something I was not told about at the time. The second scan showed that the "benign granuloma" had more than doubled in size. It was biopsied and was a lung met. I changed oncologists and had the lobe surgically removed. Difficult surgery, but worth it. I'm very happy with my new oncologist, whom I've had for 5 1/2 years.

METAvivor is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in January 2009 to fill a critical gap that was unfilled by anyone else. Finding no place where we could donate funds specifically for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) research, we began a program to raise funds and award our own MBC research grants. Having established our own local MBC support program when no support for MBC existed in our state, we began offering advice to others as to how they could establish their own local support programs. And to accomplish these missions, we became very intent on raising awareness and advocating for increased MBC research and increased MBC support.

In 2011 METAvivor began its 30% for 30% campaign. It advocates that 30% of breast cancer research funds and 30% of breast cancer support activities be devoted to MBC for the simple reason that 30% of breast cancer patients metastasize.

METAvivor grew out of a local MBC support program established in 2007 by METAvivor co-founder, CJ (Dian) Corneliussen-James. METAvivor is 100% volunteer-run, mostly by patients with MBC.

METAvivor puts 100% of all donations into its annual MBC research grants. 100% of all grants awarded go directly to MBC research. 100% of all proceeds from fundraisers after expenses go into our MBC research grants (excepting proceeds from silent auctions and store sales which help us with basics such as supplies).

We are VERY appreciative of offers to help. We can always use assistance. Go to our website (www.metavivor.org) for ideas. Look under "volunteer opportunities". You will find a wide variety of areas where we can use assistance. If you find nothing there that works for you, then email kelly@metavivor.org and she'll work with you to find an area suited to your talents. Thanks for asking !