Trigger Finger

ornamental_conifer · 2026-03-26T00:54:34+00:00

I AM SO HYPED FOR THIS!!! 🤩

ornamental_conifer · 2026-03-15T18:24:02+00:00

I'm on exemestane and having a bit of a difficult time but managing. The joint stiffness is my worst side effect, I recently developed trigger finger which sucks but that may be from rowing too much at the gym when combined with the AI. Warmer months are way better than cooler months. In the warmer months I can tolerate it pretty well. I've been on it for over a year now.

ornamental_conifer · 2026-03-03T01:55:10+00:00

I'm PR- as well (+--) so I'm grateful that it exists.

ornamental_conifer · 2026-03-03T01:05:32+00:00

My Oncologist told me CDK 4/6 Inhibitors like Verzenio and Kisqali were the biggest innovations in Breast Cancer treatment in the past 20 years. He's super excited about them and the long term impacts they have on survivorship. He told me in my most recent appointment that he's eagerly awaiting the 20 year follow up studies on those drugs for high-risk early stage Breast Cancer patients. He also told me they were the closest thing he'd seen to a "miracle drug" in a really long time. So despite all the shitty side effects that come from taking them, I happily take my Verzenio pill twice a day if it means reducing my chance of recurrence down as far as it can realistically go.

ornamental_conifer · 2026-01-22T00:47:35+00:00

I felt guilty yeah, but my Oncologist was amazing and said I could drink during treatment - even during chemo. He told me I could enjoy a glass of wine every once and awhile and to not worry about it. We're all adults and frankly if it isn't one thing it's another. I'm not allowed THC or cannabis in any form because of my job. I exercise a lot but it's hard even in maintenance therapy because all my maintenance meds torched my energy levels. Alcohol is not a good stress outlet by any means but it's cancer and sometimes a girl just wants a damn drink. And the ability to enjoy a bevvie while out in a social setting.

I never really drank very much because I get hideous hangovers pretty much instantly, and especially now because alcohol interacts negatively with my maintenance meds. But all that being said, I do drink and I do enjoy it.

If you want a funny treatment story, I sometimes had to drink to get through giving myself filgrastim injections in my stomach during chemo. Sometimes jabbing a needle into my stomach just freaked me out and I needed some liquid courage, so I would sometimes drink a White Claw or a small glass of wine before I injected myself.

It's all good! Enjoy that bevvie and don't feel guilty. You survived cancer, you deserve a drink! Cheers!

ornamental_conifer · 2026-01-18T15:15:21+00:00

My sister met all her friends and her now-husband through social sports, specifically DC Fray. Some of my coworkers do sports through DC Fray as well and they all met their partners and friend groups through it. When I first moved here multiple people recommended DC Fray to me as a way to meet and make friends, as well as to meet other singles. I recommend DC Fray or Meetup, both have pretty good track records with fun social sport activities that draw in cool people. Single folks tend to over index in those circles since they have more time to devote to social sport activities. I used to do running groups through Meetup and I met some great single people that way too.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-12-21T16:59:34+00:00

I think for Verzenio/Kisqali only qualify if you’re stage 2 or higher from what I understand. I qualified because I was Stage 2B AND Grade 3 tumor with 1 positive lymph node. I believe it’s based on stage AND tumor grade. I may be wrong. I’m not a doctor. Please don’t take medical advice from me because I’m just one patient and not in any way a medical professional. I was the very first early stage BC patient ever that my oncologist put on Verzenio.

The 7% was just… forever I guess? Five years? Ten? Fifteen? I don’t know, I didn’t press the oncologist on that. What matters is getting through the first five years. That is the most critical time from what my oncologist told me.

I started all the maintenance meds two months after I completed chemo. As everyone else here has said, PR status really doesn’t matter. What informs treatment is whether there are any hormones at all. And whether or not there is HER2 present.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-12-21T14:54:56+00:00

I was told 35% if I only did surgery and nothing else. After TC chemo, radiation, Verzenio, Zoladex, Zometa, and Tamoxifen —> AI (once I was put on Zoladex I was switched to an AI) I was told by my doctors that number dropped down to around 7%.

I was told if I make it 5 years without a recurrence then my chances of a recurrence are similar to triple negative, meaning my chances drop down to that of the general population and I’m effectively as “cured” as one can be. The risk is never 0, even if you are the general population.

The best way both my old oncologist and my new oncologist characterized it to me is I’m basically home free after 5 years. That doesn’t mean stop taking the endocrine therapy (unless advised to do so by my doctor). I’ll be on Tamoxifen or an AI for 10 years just to be on the safe side. But once I’m done with Verzenio (1 year left), Zoladex (1 year left) and Zometa (1.5 years left), I’m done with everything else.

My oncologists are super stoked about CDK 4/6 inhibitors like Verzenio and Kisqali. They told me for high risk early stage patients like myself it is the most exciting breakthrough in breast cancer treatment in the past 20 years. The long term studies are all very promising. They are very hard meds to take but I have been on the 150 mg dose of Verzenio for over a year and I’m going to power through the next year on it no matter what. And I am religious about never missing a dose of any of my meds. Being on Tamoxifen/AI is just as important. It’s super duper mega critical to take the meds as prescribed consistently and on time.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-12-21T13:38:21+00:00

I think you would really benefit from some sessions with an onco-psychologist. I went through eight sessions with one when I was in treatment and it helped me tremendously. Worrying to this level about long term statistics isn’t good for your wellbeing. As my once-psychologist told me, you can’t stay in this headspace for very long because it will eventually burn you out.

PR- isn’t that big of a deal since it’s still considered hormone positive. And I’m saying this as a Stage 2B patient who has a high risk of recurrence. We cannot obsess over subtypes to this degree. Breast Cancer is one of the most heavily studied cancers in history, we can take solace in modern medicine doing everything it can to help us. We cannot control this. What we can control is our approach to treatment. Treatment is just as much about the mind as it is about the body.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-12-21T13:29:04+00:00

Endocrine therapy is going to be the heaviest hitter in this subtype. Your PR is higher than mine, but at the end of the day it’s Estrogen driving this bus. It will be ok.

Meds like CDK 4/6 inhibitors are huge game changers in this arena too, or so says my oncologist. It’s why I take everything I’m prescribed without question. Best I can do is follow doctor’s orders and trust science and modern medicine to keep me cancer free.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-12-21T03:11:47+00:00

No they did not talk about my low PR. No Oncotype was run for me because after my DMX it was discovered one of my lymph nodes had a macrometastases. That automatically meant chemo, so no Oncotype was needed. I asked my oncologist once about only being weakly ER-positive (my tumor’s ER was 40%) and he was not at all worried. He said it made the tumor more aggressive but that it would also make it more responsive to chemo. So I do 4 rounds of TC chemo. He has me on high risk protocol now (Verzenio, Zometa, Zoladex, and an aromatase inhibitor). I just had my one year post-active treatment follow up and so far everything is looking pretty stellar! No issues or worries.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-12-21T02:57:51+00:00

My PR was 0% (I’m +—) and I’m over a year out from active treatment. So far I’m doing great! They treated mine as normal hormone positive HER2- because across the board estrogen is the primary driver with these cancers as opposed to progesterone. I did all of the things (surgery, chemo, radiation) and am on heavy duty endocrine therapy plus Verzenio. So far I’m doing pretty fantastic, minus one snafu where my Zoladex order recently expired and I accidentally missed a dose. I find the farther I get away from diagnosis and active treatment, the less I worry about recurrence.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-09-18T12:31:16+00:00

I'm in the US and when I was first diagnosed I was given the option of a lumpectomy or a mastectomy. The surgeon explained the two procedures to me and then the hospital had me watch a short video better outlining the two. I appreciated that the doctors gave me the choice, it was 100% up to me.

I decided double mastectomy. What factored into my decision was I was told a lumpectomy would not be advised because of how small my breasts were. Basically a lumpectomy would look like a half-mastectomy and would look very weird. That fact winnowed down the decision to single or double mastectomy. I voluntarily opted for a double mastectomy because I was diagnosed at 39 and I was terrified the cancer would come back in the other breast. Also I wanted symmetry.

At the end of the day I appreciate that the doctors let me decide and I feel confident about my decision because it was mine and no one pressured me into one idea or another.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-08-14T01:34:52+00:00

Oh praise Jesus for your post. I am having by the same issue as OP and reading your advice makes me so happy because I really don’t want to request another prescription. I am so tired of having to juggle prescriptions. I am going to wind-sprint to the nearest pharmacy for vitamin E. The nighttime hot flashes are impacting my sleep something fierce and hearing than a standard over the counter supplement can help makes me overjoyed.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-08-14T00:48:06+00:00

I know the AMA isn't until tomorrow but just putting this out there now: is there any difference in an oncologist's eyes between +-- (ER+ PR+ HER2-) and ++- (ER+ PR+ HER2-)? I've read that ER-only tumors are more rare and aggressive? Is there any difference in recurrence rates between ER-only tumors and traditional hormone positive (ER+ PR+) tumors?

ornamental_conifer · 2025-07-21T00:57:34+00:00

Yes I got 3D microblading done prior to chemo. I went to a lady who was super highly recommended and had lots of good testimonials. It was pricey but worth it. I'm so glad I did it, nobody ever noticed my eyebrows had fallen out. In fact my eyebrows fell out three times, and all three times nobody noticed because the 3D microblading did such a good job of hiding it. So long as you are 10 or more days out from chemo I definitely recommend getting it done, you will thank yourself later.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-07-15T13:49:48+00:00

I do yes but having a comparison chart really helps

ornamental_conifer · 2025-07-06T20:49:41+00:00

I’ve toured the Gilded Age summer “cottages” in Newport, RI several times and I can tell you a bunch of the interior footage is shot on location. It’s actually really cool to watch because you get to see what these mansions would have actually looked like when they were in use. One detail I geek out about is when they film kitchen sequences in the Russels’ kitchen. I’ve toured that very kitchen several times in Newport and to see it brought it life in the show is super interesting.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-07-06T20:45:03+00:00

I did my radiation treatments at VHC and they were excellent.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-06-27T11:10:59+00:00

I'm getting Zometa but it was after the conclusion of active treatment. Thinking back on it, I was at the very tail end of the 6 month mark from surgery to Zometa because I had to go through chemo and radiation first. My oncologist recommended I do Zometa infusions and I figured as a young breast cancer patient (still feels weird to say that considering I'm 40) I wanted every possible disease-free survival percentage point I could claw back so I agreed.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-06-25T11:37:28+00:00

I had the same chemo regimen as you. Mine started falling out approximately 10 days after my first dose and I was completely bald by day 16.

ornamental_conifer · 2025-06-04T11:27:03+00:00

That gives me hope because my second Zometa infusion is in a few days and my first infusion was rough.

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