This is a good place to post your topic because there is a lot of participation here. Yours is a topic of interest to many. Thank you for posting this. It must have been a tough 5 days with the implanted device. Heartfelt wishes for a return to full health. Enjoy that kitchen too!

Thanks Socks! The first and last days with the SAVI were the hardest for me ( inserting and removing) but really worth it all to have the radiation administered internally with no outer skin burn.

I do enjoy the kitchen. I just can't do all the cooking and baking I would like now ( lifting restrictions). But down the road hopefully will be different. :)

Yes, I'm glad you posted here. "Everyone" is touched by cancer. I'd rather hear a diagnosis using words I've heard before than a diagnosis with all new words. I will probably google it to get more details but I'll read everything you post.

www.savisisters.comThanks Imhappy. If anyone wants to know about the SAVI for internal radiation for breast cancer, I will answer any questions I can from my experience. At first the thought of the SAVI device creeped me out being partially in my body and the rest of it being hooked up to a machine for radiation....but it is amazing technology! I am so grateful I qualified for it. The website linked below is SAVI Sisters.

my niece was recently diagnosed with breast cancer at age 41. Unfortunately when I checked the SAVI site, there are no doctors listed for Maine. I wonder why it isn't more available... =(

Roxanna, I am sorry to hear about your niece's diagnosis. It is a "knee buckling" experience to be told you have cancer, at least it was for me.

Do not think that there are no doctors in Maine doing SAVI just because they are not listed on the SAVI Sister's website! My wonderful dr was not listed there, yet he has been doing this treatment about 8 years. I live in KS and in fact there is only 1 testimonial from a KS gal and she had a different dr at a different hospital. I have concluded the list on their site is not all inclusive.

I would call cancer centers in your area and ask if they use the SAVI. Call major hospitals in your area too.

My surgeon was the one who suggested the SAVI to me. She works closely with the less than 2 yr old cancer center here. Because of the location and size and type of my breast cancer, she thought I would qualify as a candidate for it.

I wish your niece the very best! Please let me know about her treatment.

Thank you drewsmaga. I treasure your prayers.

Thank you, tea4all. She has just started chemo with radiation later (don't know when). I'll send her the SAVI site -- maybe she can look into it.

Roxanna you are so welcome. I had never heard of the SAVI until my surgeon mentioned it. I think the word needs to be spread far and wide. That is the main reason I started this thread. We live in an amazing age.

Send your niece my very best wishes for a full recovery and Internet ((hugs)) from me to you both. May she have gentle, compassionate, and wise medical people working with her! The hoops to jump through are not pleasant but one dr told me "let's get this in your rear view mirror so you can move on".

The part that stays in your body. Does something stick out or how do they connect you for the next treatment?

Yes Imhappy, part of it is inside the breast and part of it sticks out of the breast. Here's how it works: at the time of the lumpectomy the surgeon inserts a soft balloon on a catheter that he fills with liquid to hold the space of the tumor tissue that was removed. Then 2-3 days after surgery, the surgeon removes the soft balloon and inserts the SAVI. It goes in collapsed but once in position in the breast, the surgeon uses a "key" to attach to the device and expand the SAVI part in the breast to fill the lumpectomy cavity. The SAVI is inserted up to the little round disc and approximately 4-6" (my best guess) of flexible catheters stick out of your body. During each treatment each catheter is hooked up to about 2 foot long catheters that are hooked up to the machine holding the radiation "seeds" (I think of them like tiny bebees). Once the machine is turned on, a wire pushes a seed down each catheter stopping where the dr (oncology radiologist) has programmed it to stop and then continues on into the SAVI inside the breast. Then the process is reversed to remove each seed in each catheter. No radiation seeds are left in the catheters so the patient is not radioactive. (You are checked with a Geiger counter). Since the radiation is internal going to the place the tumor was, many side effects from external radiation (like burned skin) are sidestepped.

I had 2 treatments a day approximately 6 hrs apart for 5 days. Before each treatment, I had a CAT scan to make sure the SAVI was still in the correct position. After the last treatment the SAVI is removed. Whew!

i will try to attach a photo showing what the SAVI looks like. It is all more amazing than I can adequately say. Don't hesitate if anyone has questions. I will do my best to answer them.

That picture came from the website I linked here:. wzzm13.com

There is more information and even a brief video about the SAVI at that website.

I am so happy you came to The kitchen table. Aren't these women great and grateful to have you here. Welcome tea4all !! U added so much with your story. Stay awhile. I'm learning new things everyday and need these women. This group has supported me so much during my battle with spinal stenosis and sciatica. Lots of their own stories and support.

Thank you Maggie! I hope my explanation wasn't too graphic for some readers. If it can help even one person that spreads the word that eventually gets to someone who can benefit from the SAVI then it would be wonderful.

The difference in number of days of radiation, less fatigue, less damage to healthy tissue, etc are a few of the worthwhile advantages of the SAVI over external radiation. Difficulty sleeping is the biggest negative that I experienced--but it was manageable. Oh, and not being able to shower until 48 hrs after the device is removed is another negative. ;P

Some gals can wear a bra that has a hole in the side to accommodate the device. Because of the placement in my breast, I could not, so everyday they wrapped two wide (about 6" wide) ace bandages around me after dressing the open incision with the SAVI sticking out of it. That held everything in place and usually contained the drainage. Once the SAVI was removed the wound begins to heal from the inside out with starey strips holding it together and seepage quickly has subsided. I am grateful for this technology and that I qualified for it.

I'm surprised about your treatment given the diagnosis you cite. It's my understanding that DCIS would only warrant than watch and wait. Perhaps you have a family history of breast cancer that prompted this procedure? Was your lumpectomy non-benign?

I'm constantly reading studies showing over-treatment of 'potential cancers' that are only visible now due to heightened diagnostic tools. These 'maybes' generally disappear on their own. I've had several diagnoses of DCIS non-invasive that were gone by the next mammography. (I never want to do another stereotactic!)

Chi sue you are right that a stereotactic biopsy is no fun...but when it turns out to be high grade (aggresive) non invasive cancer then you are happy to have had a biopsy. Yes, cancers are prevalent on my mothers side of the family--breast, ovarian/uterine, thyroid, and colon. I was amazed that the genetic testing came back negative for me-- and very grateful! That means no currently known gene associated with cancer is in my DNA. However, research continues and new genes will be discovered. My genetic results are kept and if down the road a marker is discovered that is associated with cancer then my dr and I will be notified.

What is a 'high grade non invasive cancer'?

Chisue it means aggressive cancer that has not spread through the duct wall to other parts of the breast.

Thanks, Tea4all. I did Google this and learned more. After three lumpectomies, I have never become 'an interesting case'. My re-checks show no changes around the little 'markers' they insert -- or anywhere else. I've had kidney stones -- even surgery for a staghorn calculus. I could believe that my body is prone to forming calcium deposits. I have no family history of cancer, and I have felt 'over-treated'. I'm now past 70 and tired of being repeatedly alarmed to no useful end. (Hence my questions about the need for treatments -- evidently valid for you.)

Chisue my biopsy pathology showed medium grade non invasive (contained, not spread) ductal cancer. However, the lumpectomy pathology came back high grade ( more aggressive) non invasive ( contained, not spread through the duct wall) and the tumor was larger than they had thought it would be. It was still tiny but still larger than expected. Thankfully all margins were clear of cancer.

i am glad for you Chisue that mammograms showed your DCIS disappeared on its own! That is wonderful! We live in a marvelous age of technology to be able to detect that. Everyone needs to keep up on their mammograms and have well informed doctors.

Chisue, we were posting at the same time. Three lumpectomies oh my. Those are no fun and neither is the emotion that goes along with them! I am 64 which is the exact same age Mom was when diagnosed with ovarian/uterine cancer. She passed away 6 mo later. Even though that was over 30 yrs ago, the irony of it all played on my nerves.

I'm sorry you lost your mother to cancer. I'm hoping research develops testing for that 'silent' cancer. Some blood tests look promising. Maybe, as we have more females in medicine... (The PSA has been around a long, long time.)

Thanks Chisue. Research is beneficial. I am very thankful that the radiation of today is so totally different from the early 80's. That is good!

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. I underwent a lumpectomy and had radiation with a SAVI device. I had read some articles about using devices for internal radiation, so when my doctor said I was a candidate for SAVI, I elected to have it. Five days of radiation twice a day was a much easier prospect than six weeks of treatment.

Silverdove you are only the second person I have heard from who has personally been able to use the SAVI. (The other person is my SAVI Sister from KS who just went through the treatment in March.). if you don't mind sharing, how long did it take you to get this experience in the rear view mirror and move on? I am just 1 week + 1 day out of radiation so I have just begun the healing process. Next week I hope to go to physical therapy for exercises for my arm on the surgery side. Do we always (forever) have to accommodate that side --like carry the purse on the non surgery side, etc.? Thank you so much for writing! I can hardly wait to be able to say like you "back in such and such year I had ....." You are an encouragement Silverdove!

Sorry that I am so late responding, tea4all. I have not experienced any after effects from the SAVI treatment. Perhaps this is because my cancer was located in the top inside quarter of my breast, so my arm was not affected and I did not need any physical therapy. Apart from the surgery scar and the slight indentation there, my breast looks the same as it did before.

Silverdove that is wonderful! I am happy for you! Thank you for sharing.

To each of you that posted, THANKS, for the information, and encouragement. May my prayers be with each of you for sharing and healing.

Marie

Marie I am glad to share this info/experience. I hope it will help someone who may never have heard of this procedure. Thanks to for prayers. No one can have too many. I appreciate that.