Female Health Issues After Breast Cancer
Dr. Elena Kamel: You’re welcome.
Operator: Viola from North Dakota is online. Please go ahead. Viola, North Dakota.
Viola: My question is: I finished radiation two months ago. I have breast cancer and I had lumpectomy. I feel, I’m supposed to keep it massaged and I can feel like hard rocks in that side of the breast. Is that something that I should… I don’t know what to do about it because sometimes they hurt as I massage it.
Dr. Elena Kamel: Have you seen your surgeon? Have you gone back to show them what you’re…
Viola: No I haven’t.
Dr. Elena Kamel: I would definitely advise you to do that. You definitely want to go back and ask them.
Viola: Would the radiation cause it? That’s what I’m wondering.
Dr. Elena Kamel: Well the radiation can cause hardening of the skin and induration of the tissue, but if you feel something that is hard as a rock, I think you need to let your surgeon see you. So I would pickup the phone tomorrow morning and...
Viola: The reason I’m asking is because I was on the short-term radiation. It was only 16 treatments, but the rads, I guess it’s called were, they were supposed to be 220, but I was given 265. So it was increased and I don’t know why. Again, I didn’t really get a satisfactory answer, I guess, when I asked, so I…
Dr. Elena Kamel: Well I would definitely go back to the surgeon and possibly also to the radiation oncologist and let them answer your questions because you should get your questions always answered, but they should examine you.
Viola: Is tiredness another thing that’s common after radiation?
Dr. Elena Kamel: Very common.
Viola: Really, because I am, I find myself tired a lot.
Dr. Elena Kamel: Very common and most people will tell you that it takes them approximately six months to get rid of the fatigue.
Dr. Elena Kamel: But that is a very common symptom.
Viola: What about being nauseated?
Dr. Elena Kamel: Being nauseated from the radiation?
Viola: I don’t know, I mean that’s, you know…
Dr. Elena Kamel: I would actually say that that is not a very common side effect.
Viola: It isn’t, okay.
Dr. Elena Kamel: So you may want to just chat with your internist and make sure that the rest of you is evaluated.
Viola: I’m 79.
Dr. Elena Kamel: You’re entitled to be evaluated.
Dr. Elena Kamel: Don’t forget to make that phone call tomorrow morning.
Viola: All right. I sure will. Okay then…
Operator: Marilyn from Arizona is online. Please go ahead.
Marilyn: Hi. I just have a question from another question that came up after somebody asked, aromatase…
Dr. Elena Kamel: Aromatase inhibitors.
Marilyn: What is that? Is that Herceptin?
Dr. Elena Kamel: No, it’s the medicine that this young lady was referring to is Arimidex and it’s a type of… It’s the cousin to Tamoxifen but for the menopausal woman. It has different host of side effects because, as I was mentioning before, its biggest side effect is affecting bone. What it doesn’t do that Tamoxifen, for example, did is it didn’t have the issues of stimulating estrogen receptors. So, for example, the issues of uterine cancer that we can see with Tamoxifen, we don’t see with Arimidex and so…
Marilyn: Okay.
Dr. Elena Kamel: But to qualify for Arimidex, one has to be postmenopausal. One has to have the estradiol levels and FHS that are in the menopausal range.
Marilyn: Oh okay. I have finished my chemo and I’m on Herceptin and I haven’t really had any like follow-up tests after the chemo was done to like see where I was at. I get ongoing blood tests and I thought they were checking CA-127 to 129, but I heard you mention 125.
Dr. Elena Kamel: The CA-125 is for ovarian disease.
Marilyn: Oh okay. Now what I was wondering is I’ve had a Well Woman Exam and she found a mass, so they sent me for an ultrasound and a scan and…
Dr. Elena Kamel: May I ask where?
Marilyn: On the left-side when she was doing the digital exam and they say that I have cysts, but I have pain in my, I can’t tell you where they are, the ovaries or whatever, but in the…
Dr. Elena Kamel: How old are you?
Marilyn: Fifty-nine. They say that I have cysts on my hips, so I don’t know what the mass is. I ask her to please do another physical exam and she still felt a mass and so she said, “Well maybe it’s stool” and I’m like…
Dr. Elena Kamel: On ultrasound, you had a pelvic ultrasound and they saw a cyst?
Marilyn: Yes.
Dr. Elena Kamel: Of the ovary?
Marilyn: No.
Dr. Elena Kamel: A cyst of what?
Marilyn: The outside of the ovary.
Dr. Elena Kamel: Was it off the…
Marilyn: That doesn’t make sense does it?
Dr. Elena Kamel: No.
Marilyn: They’re telling me that I have cysts around my left hip.
Dr. Elena Kamel: I think you need to sit down with your docs or maybe visit with an orthopedic person and…
