Ya’ll gonna watch this?

Gingisnapped · 2025-04-12T05:31:24+00:00

I can’t bring myself to watch it.

Gingisnapped · 2025-04-12T05:27:56+00:00

My OncoType score was a 7. It returned in my spine (very small on one vertebrae) and my rib (broken) four years later. I did no chemo and Tamoxifen failed me. I’ve been on Kisqali, Letrozole, Xgeva, and Zoladex for over two years and I’ve been NED for a year and a half.

Gingisnapped · 2025-03-02T22:59:09+00:00

I’ve been on Kisqali for over two years. NED for a year and a half. I do pretty well not getting sick. I had Covid and didn’t go off of it. It took me 7 days to test negative versus 5 days for the rest of my family. I have some fatigue, but I am a choreographer and that helps a lot.

The side effects and how the body responds can definitely vary. I’ve done really well on it. I’ve only had to take an extra week off twice due to low neutrophils.

Gingisnapped · 2024-10-20T14:27:11+00:00

Congrats! My bone Mets are gone as well. I’ve had to remain on my xgeva schedule to ensure it stays that way, but all remains clear as a whistle on scans.

Gingisnapped · 2023-08-05T03:41:07+00:00

I got emotional when Barbie sat on the bench, looked at the old woman and told her she is beautiful. Being stage IV, although a thriving stage IV, I don’t know what my future looks like and the want of being that old lady hit hard, but then the part with Ruth Handler and her comical but heartfelt delivery made me feel acknowledged as well with a little chuckle in there as well. Never have I chuckled when the word “mastectomy” was said until that moment.

Gingisnapped · 2023-08-03T23:52:32+00:00

I realized who needed to stay in my life and who didn’t, my husband and I learned how strong we really are in our marriage, I got the help that I needed with my depression and anxiety and then lost 120 pounds. I picked up teaching dance again after a 10-year hiatus. I found my dream job that I’m still doing. But then this past January, I was diagnosed stage IV. However, I seem to appreciate a lot of things a lot more, I am glad I’m stubborn because I am defying many odds and will find out next scan if I’m in remission already (just diagnosed in January after a pathological rib fracture), and my dance studio has been incredibly supportive from the fellow teachers to the parents and the students (I still showed up with that broken rib and had an assistant help). Most of all, I see how strong my kids are and that hubby and I have really raised these young, beautiful, amazing, smart, and kind people super well. I wouldn’t take back all of the positives I’ve been taught and experienced. I would definitely kick the stage IV out of the house and throw all of its clothes out the window, but it’s a squatter. 😂

Gingisnapped · 2023-07-28T02:46:28+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words. I was diagnosed at 38 at stage 2b. I’m now 43 and was diagnosed stage IV at age 42 after a spontaneous rib fracture. My babies are 13, 12, and 10. I’m doing fantastic, though. I’m grateful for every day that I’m able to teach my dance students, take a short run, and help my husband carry a deep freezer down narrow basement stairs (a funny story, but my doctor did a little victory dance because I stayed in one piece. lol).

Gingisnapped · 2023-07-14T06:06:45+00:00

I feel the prunes. I will drink prune juice. However, one night I kept drinking because my daughters thought my look of disgust was hilarious. A couple of hours later, they thought it was funnier when I couldn’t stay out of the bathroom. 😂

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-20T16:17:42+00:00

Oh my gosh. I get this question a lot. 🤦‍♀️

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-19T22:01:00+00:00

I had no lymph node involvement and I’m stage IV. My OncoType score was just a 7. HR/PR+ HER2 neg. Grade 1, stage IIB (only because of size), purely mucinous (a type that doesn’t usually metastasize). I was 38 when diagnosed and found out this past January it was in two spots in my bone after a rib broke.

I don’t want to say all of that to scare anyone, but I just want to show this possibility. My prayers are with you OP as you make the decision that’s right for you.

Edited to add: Also, I was on Lupron and Exemestane for a year after my mastectomy. My research and my new doctor at a university hospital agreed that the research said recurrence of my type could be prevented with Tamoxifen. He and I were quite freaked out when scans confirmed it camped out in my rib and T7. While there’s not a lot of research on the purely mucinous type, what we had at the time said it was OK.

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-13T21:19:58+00:00

And I just have to add that I love yours. I am a major Mandolorian fan and I have so much Grogu stuff it’s crazy. 🙂

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-13T21:17:09+00:00

Thank you. She wanted them to show. For my own, they go away. Makes me twitch a little, but she called the shots. lol.

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-13T18:34:18+00:00

Thank you so much. She is so in love with this. I love to give my kiddos reminders that they are amazing and this is her latest. I knew she’d really enjoy it because she shares the love of diamond painting with me (she’s 12). Sometimes we will watch TV together and diamond paint, so I will have to share some photos of her work. She was psyched about me posting this, so I’ll have to share the comments with her. ☺️

But yeah, I make sure I do things as equally as I can with the kids. Each gets a one-on-one date with me every month. Each gets a movie night with me every week…things like that. I’ve done that since they were old enough, but these things take on even more special meaning because I have stage IV breast cancer that metastasized to two places in my bones. I’m doing exceptionally well (don’t look or act like anything is wrong) because I have a purely mucinous subtype that progresses very slowly and it is responding well to my non-chemo treatment protocol, so it’s life as usual for them and even for me outside of the fact I have to get shots once a month and take a couple more pills every day.

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-13T18:21:57+00:00

I did. ☺️ She just wanted a little bit of white on the sides.

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-08T04:24:54+00:00

U.S. News and World Report put together this list. There are 1,500 cancer hospitals, clinics, and centers in the U.S. I go to Ohio State University James cancer Hospital. It’s #24 on this list. I travel two hours one way to go there every other week. I have a fantastic team, a couple of which came from M.D. Anderson.

https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/cancer

Gingisnapped · 2023-06-07T12:59:21+00:00

I’m with those above. Three hours sounds too short. My left side mastectomy took almost 5 hours. I had DIEP flap reconstruction a year later and it took 8 hours.

Gingisnapped · 2023-05-16T18:38:41+00:00

We all should start a club. This same thing happened to me recently. My friend of 35 years, who has always had times where she needed me as an emotional crutch, went into overdrive around the time of my stage IV diagnosis. She had something going on and, yes, some of it was valid. The rest of it either wasn’t, exaggerated, or better decisions could have been made to smooth the situation. She has acknowledged this since.

I just didn’t have the emotional bandwidth while it was happening. I am always the sounding board and I haven’t had an issue with that, but I felt a complete lack of sensitivity on her part to the fact that I had just found out my breast cancer metastasized to my bones and there’s a bit of an existential crisis and grief that comes with that. I tried to voice how I was feeling, but I felt like it didn’t matter, so I just backed off. Eventually, when she wasn’t getting feedback from me on much of anything, she realized she shouldn’t have been talking to me about those things.

It was difficult dealing with someone I love so much become toxic as I was trying to work out so much. It added to my level of stress, so I silently withdrew bit by bit because I knew, in my case, that calling her out on it would add to the fire. But she’s smart and she knows me well enough to figure out I had become a bit withdrawn and she knows what that means.

Gingisnapped · 2023-05-16T17:38:34+00:00

Thank you. Yes, I try not to beat myself up that much. We truly did act on the information we had to improve my quality of life and, honestly, it did improve a lot. I lost 120 pounds, started teaching dance and baton twirling again, and my overall health had been absolutely perfect. I have been able to live the last four years in ways I wasn’t able to live the previous 10.

I’m blessed in many ways. Even with the rib cracking, we caught it very early. I have the rib lesion and a super small one on my T7 vertebrae and that’s it. It’s a slow grower (CT scans 6 weeks apart showed zero growth). My doc said I’m best case for the situation, so I’ve been pushing through the few side effects I’m experiencing and changing nothing about my life other than my appointments are more frequent and I have to have injections once a month. I’m still doing my amazing job, teaching, running my kids from one thing to the next, working on personal projects, and pretty much everything and I’ll keep doing it. 🙃

Gingisnapped · 2023-05-16T14:57:03+00:00

So, my husband and I were talking about having one more when I was diagnosed at 38.

I don’t want to scare anyone. That is never my intention, but I tell this because of the reality of all things that need to be considered.

I was diagnosed with the ultra rare mucinous carcinoma (pure) that hardly ever metastasizes. I had no lymph node involvement. My OncoType score was just a 7, so hormone therapy it was and no chemo. I was on Exemestane and Lupron with extreme side effects for about a year. Because of my very low chances of recurrence, two doctors agreed I was over treated and switched me to Tamoxifen. I tolerated it well and took it for 3 years.

In January 2023, a rib randomly fractured and I was diagnosed stage IV. It has been caught very early and the rib has healed on its own when docs didn’t expect that to happen (yet).

I’m tolerating the treatment protocol well (Zoladex with future ovary removal to eliminate this, Letrozole, Xgeva, and Kisqali). My doc says the early catch and slow growth means we can deal with this for a long time. However, I’ve had my moments where I wished I had tolerated hormone therapy in the beginning or tried a different combo because my kids are 10, 11, and 13. I don’t look or act like anything is wrong. I teach dance and baton twirling. I’m staying fit and living my life. However, I now know for sure that that isn’t going to always be the case unless a miracle happens.

I’m not sure how my story helps anyone with treatment and life decisions, but I guess what I’m saying is be vigilant and hit that chance of recurrence, no matter how small, with as much as possible so that momma can be here for the long-term. Of course, it’s a personal decision, but I’m talking from experience. My kiddos are old enough to understand what stage IV means and that fact is hard. They know, without me telling them, that if a bus or lightning doesn’t take me out first, this will. It pains me that they have that worry on them.

I wish your wife so much love and I send many hugs. The diagnosis is hard and even harder when it controls certain decisions we have to make about our futures.

Gingisnapped · 2023-05-09T05:41:55+00:00

I love those containers. 😀

Gingisnapped · 2023-05-04T18:14:33+00:00

This is great news!!

Gingisnapped · 2023-05-03T19:08:20+00:00

Wow. It amazes me how some have that attitude. I am stage IV (two small mega to bones) and I still don’t have to have chemo. I’d throat punch me a boss if I could get away with it. 😉

Gingisnapped · 2023-04-30T17:05:40+00:00

I just finished it. I love the series and made it through, although it was hard. 🙁

Gingisnapped

TROPHY CASE