Hello everyone…diagnosed on my 45th birthday!! Just had surgery last
week…25mm tumour…14 lymphs…3 cancerous (PHEW) not many…however DCIS on edge of healthy tissue shown on pathologists report…up to me now if I have them go in again to take abit more to see if that has DCIS then have a mastectomy, if positive, or have one anyway…what a choice…Surgeon would have recommended a mastectomy if she had known about the DCIS…nothing on the mammogram.
still abit sore under my arm but that is to be expected…full movement back though.
onwards and upwards to the next stage …chemo
hi Barbara - just said hello on the other post - what a shock… when do you have to decide by and what do you think you’ll do? A friend of mine had a mx for dcis 10 yrs ago and that seems to be pretty much the treatment doesn’t it - at least you’d get surgery out of the way - did they do node clearance or node sampling - I was down for sampling where they said they’d take about 6 or so but he did clearance once I was there and 1 node was involved so it saved me going back for more surgery to clear the rest as they seem to do…me too for chemo - just had first one last wed…take care and rest up anyway…mary x
Hi Barbera, Mary…not following you around the site Mary…was just browsing and this bit feels close to what happened to me on Friday, and am still trying to get my head round it!!
I had a wide local excision op 4weeks ago, IDC…then results on Friday.Cutting things short…the breast nurse told me they had found DCIS in the margins of the tissue they’d taken, so thought that MX was the way to go. It was a bit of a shock…but it was the only option offered…so I agreed…she went to set up an appointment with the plastic surgeon…but came back with the onc. who looked at the size of my breast and said WLE…same as before…was feasible!!! So my head had ping-ponged between having 2 boobs, 1 boob back to 2 again!!! I understand your dilemma, so you have to go with whats comfortable as well as safe for you as an individual!!!Phew!!
Anyway Barbera take care
Helen xx
Helen - I did think of you when I read cheekybint’s post! what a decision…mary x
Hi Mary…Yes it was a bit…but I’m going with the flow now…well at the moment!!!
Helen x
Hi Cheekybint
I have just read your comments and was glad to find someone who actually feels the way I do at the mo! I was recently dx in late Jan and had a WLE + SNB(2cm,grade 3+sml dcis, ER+ Her2-) early Feb. I am going for 2nd surgery in 2wks for, hopefully, clearer margins and LN clearance as 1 of the 2 nodes were positive (can’t really understand why I need them all out)?
Chemo is planned 3-4wks after surgery followed by rads & tamoxifen (why can’t I just get my ovaries taken away as my c is oestrogen receptive)?
My scars after 4wks have healed well but I am left with a very sensitive nipple in which I cannot bear clothes/anything touching me. It is stopping me from the getting out and about & every step or bump is agony and I walk around most of the time like the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and it doesn’t seem to be easing!
If this does not go, I would consider having a mastectomy at my next surgery rather than being left like this! Decisions! Decisions
Hi Rosieff
I know how you feel…it does the brain cells in a bit doesnt’ it, juggling with all the decisions… Really hope you nipple becomes less sensitive over time!
i have just found out yesterday i have cancer its a 2cm lump in right breast waiting for tests to find out if it has spread or not i am worried sick i am 54 and it certainly shocked me i just keep thinking i should have found it sooner has anybody else felt the same way they havent accually said what type it is but have offered for the lump surrounding tissue and lymph nodes removing or a total mastectomy i would be glad to have some advice from people who have been in my situation
Hi droopy
Please don’t beat yourself up about finding the lump earlier - I had a routine mammogram 6 months before I found my lump and the doctors didn’t detected it! What you are feeling is totally normal and we have all been through it. Take it one step and a time and when you know exactly what your treatment plan is you will feel much better.
I am 52 and discovered a 17mm lump nearly a year ago and had a lumpectomy, lymph nodes removed 3 of which were cancerous. I then had chemo and radiotherapy which finished in May. I have come out the other end of treatment and am feeling great. Your breast care consultant and oncologist will discuss all your options with you when they have completed tests.
Don’t feel alone there are amazing women on this site who will support you all the way and the roller coaster of emotions you are feeling is completely normal. Keep posting.
Love Anne x
We’ve all been there, Droopy - that horrid feeling that this shouldn’t be happening. Your life is weaving on it’s merry way, and suddenly whoooooomp! You fall into a bear trap.
2 cm is still quite small - they say you usually can’t find it when it’s smaller than that. I certainly couldn’t - mine was only 1.2cm, and even with the pen mark on it I couldn’t feel it. I caught it because one of my lymph nodes swelled right up.
They’ll be able to tell you more about the type and grade after they remove it. What you’ve been offered is a Wide Local Excision (WLE) which most of us have had first. About 80% of the time, this gets the bugger, with “clear margins” - ie there’s a minimum of 2mm unaffected tissue around the tumour. If you don’t get the clear at that point, they can try again (not as bad as it sounds) or go for the full MX. They’ll also take some or all of your lymph nodes at the same time to test for whether it’s spread, or they might do something called a Sentinel Node Biopsy (SNB) where they inject some kind of dye which tells them if it’s in the first lymph node.
You’ll soon get to know all this new language. The best thing (not easy) is to try to take it one step at a time, not read too far ahead. One thing I’ve learned is that this breast cancer malarkey is a lot more complicated than I ever realised. From the outside you tend to thing breast cancer is just breast cancer, but there’s loads of varieties, and a range of different treatment approaches (don’t worry too much if yours is different from other people’s.)
The main thing to hold onto is that treatment options have improved so much, and BC is now very survivable. I’m 59, with a Grade 3 (the most agressive) and my oncologist ran a computer programme which showed I have an 85% chance of living until I’m 70 - and of the remaining 15%, half is dying of something else (like being run over by a bus as I come dancing out of the clinic after the last of my Rads!) And I don’t think a week goes by without someone telling me they had it, their mum had it, their friend had it, and now twenty years later they’re still playing tennis (I’ve been assured that the tennis isn’t compulsory!)
And you can come on here and let off steam whenever you want. We all have bad days, when we need to rant and moan - especially at the beginning, with all the waiting to get all the details about our diagnosis, and then more waiting to get stuck into the treatment. Oddly enough, though chemo is unpleasant (for most of us, not “gruelling” as the lazy journos always label it) it actually feels better once you start it, because you feel like you’re fighting back.
So good luck, and welcome to the club you never wanted to join!