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Hi, I’m Inge. I am a Stage-IIIc Triple-Negative, Inflammatory Breast Cancer survivor. I was just diagnosed last December 2022. I’m a survivor because I’m still here. I’ve just completed my 24 weeks of chemotherapy. The first round was once a week for 3-4 hours every week for 12 weeks. The second round was once every three weeks for 2-3 hours, give or take, for 12 weeks more.
The next step will be surgical excision of my entire right breast (total mastectomy), and any nearby lymph nodes under my arm and above my collar bone. I’ll have to wear a couple of drain-tubes and collection bulbs for a couple of weeks to keep fluid from building up in the surgical area, and probably need to start rehab right away to regain mobility and strength in my right arm. That will be important for the next step in my treatment.
The next step after surgery will be my radiotherapy (radiation therapy). That will require several weeks ( 6 to 8 weeks approximately) of focused exposure to intense radiation twice a day, every day. The hope is to eradicate any remaining cancer cells the chemotherapy and mastectomy didn’t take care of. Since can can recur from just a single mutated cell left behind, this final step in my curative therapy is very important. I’ll have to have regained much of the mobility in my right arm since the radiotherapy will require I am able to lift my right arm to above my shoulders, so the radiation can be focused where it needs to be.
After surgery and during and after radiotherapy I’ll be receiving another 24 weeks of immunotherapy. This will be administered every 3 weeks for about 2 hours each time. The immunotherapy trails show that this therapy is most effective when administered for an entire year (12 months).
Anyway, wish me luck and tell us about your story. Don’t forget to include a photo