Hi I have only recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and I am reeling from the effects of the roller coaster I’m experiencing. Can anyone reassure me that I will get some normality and control back into my life?!
Hi Yvonne,
Sorry you need to join the forum, but welcome and I’ll see if I can post on this new version. I just wrote a long reply to you - don’t know where it is now!
Things will improve and you’ll get some control as soon as you know what your treatment plan is. Waitlng and adjusting to the news is the hardest bit. The take each day at a time and each stage of treatment at a time. try to plan treats around your treatment and accept all offers of help from family/friends.
I was diagnosed in Aug 2010. I had lumpectomy and SNB. Unfortunately the tumour, although small, was grade 3 and with vascular invasion, so I had to have chemo (with a break in the middle to have my appendix out!) and radiotherapy. I was a fairly fit 58 year old at diagnosis. I tried to walk every day during treatment (even if only a crawl round the block at times). I finshed active treatment in May 2011 and gradually improved my fitness, so that by September I had regained my fitenss so that I was back walking, cycling and dancing.
So yes you will get there, even if it’s a bit of a long haul.
Best wishes. Stella
Yvonne
My heart goes out to you. It really does. I can remember vividly how I felt when Id just been told I had breast cancer. March 7th 2011. I thought my world had ended. And if Im honest, I felt like that, deep down, for a long time. But you DO get through it all. And come out the other side!!! I spent all of last year saying to anyone who would listen, “This time last year…” and then bursting into tears at how my life had changed. But now, when I say “This time last year…”. I realise how far Ive come. And Im quite proud of myself, because I couldnt imagine it.
You must just feel numb right now. Complete disbelief. Fear. Anger. Alsorts of feelings. But trust me when I say, things do settle and level out again. It may take a while, but I promise you will get there.
My very best wishes to you, and good luck with your treatment. Please keep in touch and let us know how youre getting on
Love Mandy xxx
Hello Yvonne, Yes it comes as a blow when you get doagnosed with breast Cancer. There is so much to take in. All of it new and you can feel overwhelmed and lost. But this site has many good helpful people who are willing to hold your hand and help you through all this. I do not know if you have a treatment plan in place from your hospital doctors or not. When that happens and you need to go to the hospital I would recommend taking someone with you as it is hard to take it all in. From now onwards try to write down any questions you may have so that when you go to the hospital you can ask the doctor and nurse about your concerns. I found it easier to listen to what they were saying then before I left the room I would check my list to see if there were any unanswered questions that they had not covered. Is there a Breast Care Nurse in your hopsital or a Maggie Centre nerby? I found both to be most helpful. Meanwhile please keep posting your messages on here and we we be there to hold your hand and get you through this nightmare. Try to take one day and a time. Love Val
Thank you for your replies, it helps so much to know there are people out there who really understand. I feel like I’m in a dream, it’s as if it is happening to someone else. I make responses but it’s not really me! Then every now and then it really hits home and I’m so scared! I had my pre op assessment today and it made it so real!
I know where you are with that - I have my pre-op assessment today - not sure if it is just for my SNB next Monday or for my mx on 29th as well. I can totally sympathise though I sometimes feel when I am talking about what is happening as if I am talking about someone else entirely! I assume we will feel better about it once all the treatment is over and we can just get on with getting better! We will I am sure feel more in control then!
Hope your pre-op went ok yesterday and that you managed to ask all the questions you wanted to 
Thanks for your post Liz; the pre-op was fine all done, ready now for next Wednesday. How did your pre-op go today? Will you have the SNB result before you decide to go ahead with the mx or have you already decided you’re having the mx? : )
I was not really offered the option on the mx - my two cancerous ducts are so large and so far apart that nothing else was suitable!
All clear on the pre-op so far - not all results in of course but BP and ECG were normal but BOY did it take a long time!
There was a walk-in clinic today apparently and the queue for the assessment was literally out of the door! They took me and my partner and one other couple round to cardiology pre-op in the end!
We got to the hospital at 11.30am and were not finished with till nearly 4pm!
Straight to McDonalds for lunch! (Having not eaten since breakfast at 8am! - still good practice for Monday for my SNB!)
Apparently they want me to go in for the results of my SNB when they are through so two more trips to Guy’s before my mx!
I don’t know about you but I am glad to be one step closer to having it over with! Scary thought about Lymphoedema though! I must look that up! - Talking of which MORE reading to do!! Still at least they keep you informed!
Glad your pre-op went ok
Gosh sounds a horrendous time for your pre-op visit, it’s distressing enough having to go for all of that without being there so long. I agree about wanting to get on with it. I can’t believe that only 2 weeks ago I was blissfully unaware of the nightmare to come!! It has been especially long this last week living with a diagnosis of breast cancer. So many of the ladies on the site talk about how this all very quickly becomes a distant memory - roll on that eh?!
All the best for Monday xx
Monday tomorrow 
got to be up early so that I can have finished breakfast by 7am!
One thing weird tho I have to be at the SAL (Surgery Admissions Lounge) for 11am in one wing of the hospital and I have to be at Nuclear Medicine for an appointment in another wing of the hospital at 11.15 - oh well hopefully they know what they are doing - we have decided to get there early and hope for the best!
Thanks for your good wishes, Yvonne - good luck with yours too xx
Good luck Girls. Thinking about you tomorrow. Val
thanks Val 
Hope today went ok Liz have been thinking about you.
Well - what a saga - still I daresay other ppl have had it worse!
Arrived at hospital for 11am appointment at about 10:30 - Went up to SAL (Surgery Admissions Lounge) to register my presence - no one knew what to do with me so they sent me down to Nuclear Medicine for my 11:15am appointment for my blue dye/radiation injection.
Nuclear Medicine sent me back up for my notes having tried several times to ring SAL to get my notes sent down but the line was permanently engaged.
When I got back up to SAL and asked for my notes they suddenly decided that they knew what to do with me and got me changed into hospital gown (no one told me, as far as I know, that I needed my dressing gown and slippers so I borrowed hospital ones) and surgical stockings.
The researcher came by and heard my name mentioned so took me into a cubicle, went through the paperwork with me and got me to sign my consent forms.
The nurses then fussed about me not having slippers over the hospital non-slip socks so got me some silly foam things.
By the time I got down to Nuclear Medicine again it was gone 11:30 and I had missed my place in the queue - finally got my injection just before 1pm - SAL nurse having said that I might be as early as 12:30 going down to theatre!!
Back up to SAL - by which time OH was a bit pressed for time so he left to go home and get things ready for me and do all the things he needed to do before I got home.
More form signing
I waited till about 2 or 2:30 before the anaesthetist was ready for me.
Nice man - very helpful - shame about the student doctor who put the cannula in but at least he succeeded first time!
Don’t remember much after that until 4pm coming to in the Recovery Room - reached my hand up to touch my tube and Sharon the VERY nice recovery nurse came and took it out for me.
Very whoozy - which I expected - very thirsty - which I expected - had some water.
Sharon topped up my morphine
took my BP and sats - all normal
BP and sats were taken automatically every now and then all the time in the Recovery Room
Sharon came several times and checked on me and made sure I was comfortable. She was lovely.
At about 5pm I was sent to Day Surgery Unit - more disorganisation.
They rang OH at about this time to get him to come and fetch me - expecting me to have been changed at ready for him by the time he drove the half hour drive.
One nurse? HCA? insisted that I had something hot to drink (because of IBS can’t tolerate tea or coffee so was soup of indeterminate flavour) and some digestives. They gave me a painkiller in pill form. (Dihydrocodeine if you are interested)
Was sipping water too - all through.
At some point I walked carefully to the toilet to spend a nice blue penny - might have been after I was sick - can’t remember!
0H called by nurses at 17:40 and again at 17:50 to say I was ready to collect and could he hurry and get her. Second call was taken on car hands free and he said he was nearly there.
OH arrived at 18:15 and was surprised to find me not actually ready - after a bit of discussion he went back to the car to make sure it was not clamped and to talk security into letting him leave it there a bit longer.
Nurse came and took out my cannula and then tried to get me up and changed so I could leave - I got as far as a nearby chair and had to sit down - too whoozy and nauseous - back to the bed - where I was almost immediately sick - lovely blue colour. Was glad OH was not there!
At some point it was decided that they would send for someone to give me anti-nausea medicine. I think this was before I was sick so maybe I was not immediately sick. Timings are a bit hazy!
OH came back and I was still not well enough to get up so he went to wait in the car in case security decided to clamp it anyway. Nurses agreed to get me dressed and take me down in a wheelchair sometime in the next 15 minutes.
The male nurse came back to give me anti-nausea and I said I didn’t need it but then just as he was leaving I changed my mind - woman’s prerogative!
Cannula reinserted but because I was so dehydrated it collapsed just as he was trying to insert the fluid so he had to fit another one - another nurse helped him this time so he managed to find somewhere and it stayed this time so I got the medicine - this time they left the cannula in place whilst I got dressed by this time it was gone 7pm - the DSU shuts at 7 but these kind nurses stayed late for me.
Eventually got down to the car to find that OH had gone to look for me! Just as I had persuaded the nurse to ring him he turned up.
So reunited we drove away at about 7:40pm!
Wow!
Sorry to hijack this thread, but why aren’t the “Website feedback” posts showing in “Latest posts”? Have they been deliberately excluded?
How about PMing a moderator?
I have just discovered by reading a post from Mike elsewhere that a Website Feedback link is at the top of every thread so no need to have it on Latest Posts.
I rang my BCN today as the dressing on my biopsy wound is getting very uncomfortable and driving me demented! She says that as it is 5 days since my op I can change it
I asked her how many nodes had been removed and she said four - I then asked if my results were in and she said all four were benign! Cor the relief as I should imagine everyone here can understand - I can now have a relaxing weekend before my mx on Tuesday with one less thing to worry about - I just wish everyone here on this site could have such good news
Hope you are all as well as can be expected - thinking of you all
Best wishes
Liz
Dear Liz
Can’t tell you how good it is to hear good news. I am so pleased for you. As you say it is a great relief. Enjoy the weekend sunshine
Best wishes Yvonne
Thanks Yvonne
Hope you enjoyed the sunshine this weekend too
Have you had your results yet? When is your mx/WLE?
Good luck
Liz xx