Hi, wonder if anyone could help me? I am trying to support a mate who was diagnosed with breast ca just over a year ago.
I am getting confused about what treatment she's having and wondered if anyone could shed some light, if possible.
She's 50 and had a total mastectomy and an axillary clearance (2 affected nodes). The tumour apparently contained protein receptors so she had a bone and CT scan, both thankfully clear. Since then she has undergone chemo and radiotherapy.
She's been back at work for 2 months but she has to take mornings off once every- is it 2 or 3 weeks? -to have an IV infusion of something, possibly protein blocker, that takes about 2 hours a time? She has to have a heart ultrasound regularly as I think that whatever this infusion is can affect the heart muscle? And if the u/s result isn't good, she can't have that period's infusion. I think she was due 14 of these periodic infusions.
She will also be on Tamoxifen, I think for '5-10' years. Is that taken as tablet/s? And how often do you take them?
I have another friend with a different cancer whom I am also trying to support but I am embarrassed to admit I've got myself a bit confused about what my first friend's treatment regime is and fear that she might think I've just been nodding along when she's explained and wasn't really listening!
She's down at the mo because her latest infusion was cancelled because her heart U/S didn't 'look good'. She's 'fixated' on having all the infusion treatments (which I do totally 'get'!) but I feel I can support her better if I understand better what's going on!
TIA