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Posted by Penny on 3/3/2009, 11:39 pm, in reply to "Question for Penny..."
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I had to be off chemo for a few weeks before I could have surgery to let my blood counts come up and gain some strength. The tumors I had grew while I was off chemo but it didn't spread to anywhere else. I've chosen this route three times.
My story is rather long and complicated but I'll try to keep it short.
I've actually been down this road four times with mets. Original dx was in '04. The first recur in '06 was small and surgery removed it with no chemo after. The second recur in Jan 08, was in four places. Chemo worked on two and the other two were removed with surgery last Aug. The last recur came up just a few weeks after surgery. Chemo didn't work and it was growing 1/2 cm per week, so I had major surgery in Dec. to remove the met in my chest wall and it had spread to one interior mammory node under my breastbone.
All the doctors around here said it couldn't be done but my onc found a guy in Jacksonville at the Mayo Clinic who said he could do it and had a plastic surgeon that could put me back together. So much of my chest wall had to be removed that they had to take one of my stomach muscles out and move it up to the middle of my chest. They also took part of my breastbone and bits of four ribs to make sure they got clean margins. So far so good. I get another pet in April to be sure it's gone.
If she truly only has one node under her arm that still shows up on the pet/ct, I wouldn't think a few weeks off chemo would be enough time for it to spread but that's just my opinion. She may not even need to wait that long. If her blood counts are good, they may be able to do it sooner.
It's definitely worth gettin another opinion and looking into. I truly hope you find the help you need.
Hugs,
Penny
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