Surgery – My lumpectomy scar is healing nicely, as is the scar where they removed my lymph nodes. What I didn’t know and wish I was warned about (or I should have done research before the surgery) is that there is a different type of recovery when you have lymph nodes removed. My right arm from my elbow through my shoulder is sensitive. It's hard to describe how it feels or doesn't feel as some parts are numb. It can take months to recover. Also, I lost all feelings in my arm pit. I’m told that I may never regain sensation in that region. There’s also a build-up of fluid in the area. It’s called seroma, which is common. Next week I go to physical therapy to help with the mobility and reduce the fluid. My prayer is that I don’t get a life-long case of lymphedema which is constant swelling of my arm throughout my life.
Pneumonitis – I came off the steroids on the 18th and usually the cough comes back by the next day, but it hadn’t, so I thought I was cured. Well five days later the cough and fatigue returned. Maybe it took longer for the symptoms to manifest because I was on steroids for so long. I made an appointment with the pulmonologist for October 1st. I didn’t want to go back on steroids so I just lived with the symptoms. As it turns out, by day 10 I was feeling better – not coughing as much and more stamina. When I met with the doctor, I was considerably better. He was a great doctor, listened to my history. We both concluded that the pneumonitis was going to work its way out of my system on its own. Also, I had been chemo free for longer so that was helping. It’s been three weeks off of steroids and while I’m not 100%, I’m about 90% back to normal and grateful.
Radiation – I meet with my radiation oncologist next week. Then I start radiation soon after that. I’m not sure if it will be for 4 or 6 weeks of daily treatment. Everyone (people from my cancer group) tells me that radiation is “a piece of cake” when compared to chemo. Tiredness is the biggest side effect, they say. I hope that’s the case and that there’s no medical surprises.
Stomach – My biggest side effect during treatment dealt with acid reflux and heartburn issues. I had acid reflux or GERD before cancer and the chemo exacerbated the symptoms. Some days were so uncomfortable for me. Things got even more complicated when I was put on steroids. It made the acid reflux worse, but there were new symptoms that I was experiencing – constant bloating right underneath my rib cage and heavy pressure on my chest. This went on constantly for almost two weeks. On a scale of 1 – 10, my discomfort level was 7 or 8 most of the time. My oncologist referred me to a GI doctor who performed an endoscopy and it turns out that I developed a hiatal hernia.
A hiatal hernia is where your stomach moves up to where part of it is in your esophagus. What causes a hiatal hernia? One of the causes is excessive coughing. Since the pneumonitis resulted in excessive coughing, perhaps I developed it during this time. I had an endoscopy in 2018 and didn’t have a hernia, so I know it developed recently. Now that I’m off steroids, I’m happy to report that I haven’t had much of an issue is this area.
Work – I am back to a 40-hour work week. Throughout the chemo treatment, I was working 32-hours each week and 8-hours on short-term disability. I then took 2-weeks off for surgery. I still have a lot of doctor appointments – follow ups, mainly, but I’ll take them during lunch breaks, etc. Even when I start radiation, which is daily, it’ll take about a half-hour out of my schedule, so I’ll adjust my work hours accordingly and still maintain 40-hours.
Recurrence – While battling cancer most of my focus wasn’t on getting through these last 7 months, instead it’s been how can I make it to 5-years cancer free. While I’m so grateful to be cancer-free now. I know that triple-negative breast cancer has the greatest recurrence rate when compared to other types of breast cancer. When you look at the recurrence rates for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) the numbers are depressing and a bit confusing. I’ve read 19% chance up to a 40% chance of recurrence. These numbers aren’t encouraging. However, I had a conversation with my oncologist recently that brought good news. She said because of the stage of my cancer and my pathologic complete response after chemo and surgery, my recurrence rate is at 10%. This is a huge relief. I mean 10% isn’t nothing, but it’s better than 40%. Again, another reason to be grateful. So I’m still focusing on 5-years – after that my recurrence rate falls to a 2 -3% chance of recurrence – but I know there’s little I can do so I try to not worry about it.