I was so excited to meet up with some of my pink sisters that I met at last year's conference in Seattle and also met a few new faces from our TNBC group. I had fun rooming with TNBC sister, Angie Munoz whom I met in our online support group and face to face at C4YW Seattle 2013 Conference. In our down time, Angie and I went to Disney World, Disney Hollywood and then to Animal Kingdom with pink sisters Tammie Tupen And Tracy Gordon. I attended 3 of several session; Emerging Research in Metastatic Breast Cancer with Dr. Kathryn Ruddy; Advocacy and You; and a Discussion group on Talking Triple-Negative breast Cancer. A bunch of us pink sisters went out for dinner and dancing at Congo's at Disney downtown and on another night we all went to a Japanese grill before ending the night with the conference's Saturday night's dance that is always fun with more dancing. We spent our evenings hanging out at the pool and hot tub talking about life till early morning hours.
Next year's conference will be held in Houston, Texas and am so thrilled about meeting up with these ladies again and learn more of the latest breast cancer medical breakthroughs.
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| TNBC sister Sara, Juls, Melissa and Shanese |
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| Melissa and TNBC sister, Lisa Southerland O'Connor |
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| Melissa and TNBC sister, Angie Munoz |
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| Melissa and pink sister, Sheryl DeHaven "Beyond Boobs!" |
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| Melissa and TNBC Sister Raymon Bessix "Beyond Boobs!" |
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| TNBC sister, Sara Kouten |
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| "Triple Step Towards the Cure", Lori Flowers and Melissa |
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| Melissa and TNBC Sister and Author, Ann Pietrangelo |
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| TNBC Sister, Roxanne Martinez and Melissa |
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| TNBC Sisters, Amy, Jeanna, Sara, Lisa and Melissa |
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| Melissa and TNBC Sister, Ishiuan Hargrove |
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| TNBC Sisters Melissa, Rebecca Edwards Newman and Angela |
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| Dancing with my pink ladies at Congo's |
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| TNBC, "I Won't Back Down!" |
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| Melissa and Dr. Kathryn Ruddy, MD, Oncology |
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| TNBC Sister, Elizabeth Luttrell and Melissa |
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| TNBC Sister, Shelly Finfrock Gardner and Melissa |
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| TNBC Sister, Tanya and Melissa |
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| Annie of the "Annie Appleseed Project" and Melissa |
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| TNBC Sister, Gin Marks "Beyond Boobs!" and Melissa |
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| " I fight for all of my TNBC Sisters!" |
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| Melissa, Stacie, Angie, Dusty, Angela, Jeanna, Tammie and Shanese |
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| Melissa, Angela Angie, Dusty Showers "2nd Baseman", Stacie and Sara |
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| Pink Sister, Tammie Turpen and Melissa |
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| Dusty, Angela, Jeanna, Shanese, Tammie, Juls, Melissa, Angie, Sara, Stacie and Lisa |
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| http://triplesteptowardthecure.org http://www.youngsurvival.org http://the2ndbasemen.org |
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| TNBC Sisters! |
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| TNBC Sisters |
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| "Beyond Boobs!" Good Health Fairy and Melissa |
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| "Triple Step Towards the Cure", Carole and Melissa |
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| Young Survival Coalition CEO, Jen Merschdorf and Melissa |
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| Melissa and TNBC sister, Traci Gordon |
Notes from Emerging Treatments in Metastatic Breast Cancer:
Metastatic Breast Cancer is cancer that spreads outside of the breast and underarm auxiliary nodes.
Keep cancer under control as long as possible... minimize size effects.
Treatments:
- Platinum
- ER Inhibitors
- Parp - Repair DNA for TNBC patients who are also BRCA positive.
In TNBC, recurrence is early.
Notes from Talking Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Discussion:
3% of tissue is left after mastectomy so look for skin changes after mastectomy such as pimples or nodules changes.
There is no tumor marker that detects cancer. Check for blood changes... make sure everything is leveled. If you're suddenly anemic, would want to do testing to see why there is a change.
Watch for new aches and pains, head aches, pains that aches at night and symptoms that don't go away after a few days.
Discussion with the Medical Experts:
Flaxseed is being studied for possible Estrogen Blockage.
10 year Tamoxifen is more effective than 5 years.
IBC- Research in understanding the biology of Inflammatory Breast Cancer...
What kind of IBC?
Push more MRI than 3D Mammogram
TNBC- Platinum drugs are more effective
BRCA Testing- Free the data
New proteins making in more complicated in understanding disease.
Not ready to quit fighting when 5-10% are metastatic at original diagnosis
Exercise- Evidence in prevention and ease cancer symptoms such as fatigue.
No data in diet.