Am I cured?

Life after a breast cancer diagnosis Recovering from treatment
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Hello all… long post coming!

Hoping some of you can answer some Outstanding Q’s post treatment.

I received my diagnosis of G2, Stage 2 DCIS in December 2022. During 2023, I had the following treatment:

Lumpectomy and Lymph Node Removal
Chemotherapy
Radiotherapy
Zolendric Acid infusion and
On Going Anastrozole for the next 10 years.

I had a mammogram in late November, no suspicious areas. Next Oncologist appointment is due in the middle of January.

I’m finally feeling less exhausted, tentatively resuming a social life, and thinking about a return to work. I’ve been on some post treatment “Moving Forward” courses, and have an additional few things scheduled this month to help me return to normal. These have been really helpful, but I don’t feel it’s been enough.

Throughout my treatment, I was supported by a friend, who had been through a very similar treatment and diagnosis. She got her all clear in March 2023, only to deteriorate very quickly and then pass away with a secondary cancer in November. She was the one who insisted I sign up to all the post treatment initiatives, for which I am really greatful. I miss her support.

I genuinely thought I was “OK,” with everything. Turns out, that every single twinge I’m getting in my left boob, if I feel the tiniest of bumps, I’m paranoid that it’s coming back. I’ve got another lump where the first one was, no one can tell me if it’s scar tissue or anything else. I can feel a bump under my left boob alongside where my bra sits. It’s that normal?

I genuinely want to believe that all the invaders have gone and I can declare myself “cured.” Will I ever feel cured?

Sorry for the long post, thank you for reading.

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Dear user 123,

Welcome to the forum, the one you didn’t want to join, we have all been there, now we are here for you. There are some lovely supportive people here to help and listen.

Unfortunately, I can’t say if you are cancer free, but feel you need to call your breast cancer nurse for support, she will have all your records and will be able to talk you through, your surgery and treatment. Understandable you are concerned after losing your dear friend, however so nice to read you were able to support her.

Please let us know how you are getting on, take on day at a time. Wishing you well going forward with health and happiness ahead.

Biggest hugs Tili :rainbow::pray::rainbow::pray:

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In my view you can only be considered “cured” if you die of something else, but then maybe if you had lived longer, you might have died of breast cancer. It’s a very odd disease where you can be apparently disease free for years, then it comes back either a new primary or a secondary diagnosis. Looking at research projects here, I saw one which looked at markers in blood samples that identify secondary breast cancer early.

So maybe if these were introduced for us women with so called early breast cancer, we could plan our futures better. We might be more certain but more depressed who knows? I like knowledge myself. The same number of women seem to be dying annually of breast cancer (12,000 a year).

In recent years the rate of women being diagnosed with breast cancer has increased so I wondered why this was. , Possible causes could be lifestyle changes e.g. later pregnancies, more child free women, women being fatter, HRT, hormonal birth control, more alcohol consumption.

If it’s not any of those things, maybe docs are being more likely to diagnose pre cancerous conditions as breast cancer, e.g. DCIS and LCIS. So the definition of what is breast cancer has been widened.

If anyone has any other ideas about why there are so more women being diagnosed, compared with deaths per year, please let me know. I\ve just thought of one more - there was a baby boom in the 1950s after the second world war, meaning there are more women entering the period of highest risk of getting breast cancer i.e. those aged 60 and above…

Seagulls

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