Thank you all for your support. I had a needle biopsy and then was sent for a mammogram and she found the nodes were swollen so I had 6 needle biopsies taken which was completely painless after the local. Back to doc who basically said it looks like cancer (in a much nicer way than that) and I now have to wait a week for results. I was actually amazingly calm as I was pretty sure of the diagnosis myself so it wasn’t a shock and I had gone into shock earlier when I went to the GP and she said it looked bad as it was hard and immovable. I had told my children yesterday and that was actually harder than anything else but their support helped me today.
The good news is that the other breast looks clear. The lump is 3.4cm and she took biopsis from 3 nodes-didn’t think to ask if only 3 were affected-duh! It’s just a case of fingers crossed now and keeping positive until next week.
The doctor did say they may do chemo first and then the surgery. I hate the thought of chemo as I hate being sick. I thought they would do a lumpectomy first and then chemo-does anyone know why they do it the other way round or have you had treatment like this? What is the norm.
As expected I now have lots of questions but will write them all down for next week and meanwhile just hope it hasn’t spread elsewhere. Everybody at the hospital were lovely which helped me keep positive.
I am glad there’s somewhere like this to talk to others who have been or are going through it as it really helps
I think the main reason for doing chemo first is to shrink a larger lump, which makes breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy or Wide Local Excision/WLE) easier.
The other advantage of course, is that you have a demonstration of the action of the chemo on the cancer, which must be reassuring. Although, I have to admit, when I was diagnosed I wanted to proceed with my surgery ASAP, and just get the damn thing out! Now I’m having a crisis of confidence that the treatment I’m on is actually doing anything!
Hi there I had chemo first and it was phychologically great for me to see that the chemo was kicking the stuffing out of my tumors. Mine shriuk by 2/3 and I had a lumpectomy.
Now you need to cosnider what type and grade of cancer. Not all will have the same reaction to chemo. mine was grade 3 triple neg. Shrinkage meant something significant to my tumors. Another person could have much less shrinkage but that not to say the chemo isnt working. There could be, for example a lot of scar tissue around that wouldn’t necessarily shink. The professionals are best placed to indicate whether its working or not.
Hope this helps. Chemo is a lonely dark tunnel, best if you keep support all around you and keep walking towards the light - you’ll get out the other side. My life is very happy and healthy now. I wish this for you too.
Clare
Morwenna be positive that is a great healer. You are doing everything you can to throw at this horrid disease. The power if the mind and trust in your doctors is important in your recovery and well being x
Ambercatz I have been down both roads. I had BC 14 years ago and surgery first then chemo which was fine bu I often wondered if chemo had one its stuff. I have just had BC again and did chemo first as tumour was 48mm. I was not sure how I would cope with knowing the tumour was sill there but it was ok. They scan you half way through chemo to check its working and I think at that point they would reconsider if no shrinkage and either change chemo or do surgery . When I had surgery after chemo I had had a complete response and no tumour left so that is now a great omfort to me As I am Tn and could not have any other treatments. I think they don’t see too many complete responses and were especially surprised given the size of the original tumour.
hope this helps a little but please be guided by the experts.
Wendy
Hi Ambercatz.
I was in your position last september, went straight to having chemo, then had mastectomy and lymph node clearence in March. I am now waiting to start radiotherapy in 2 weeks.
I had a large lump 8x5cm, and one lymph node biopsy showed cancer. I saw ONC before each chemo, where she measured the lump, it was shrinking and by the end of 6 chemo sessions had broken up - complete response to the chemo. Was great to see the tumour shrinking, made the chemo much more bearable to know it was working. They still advised full MX though.
As a lymph node is involved you should be offered an upper body CT scan, just to check no sign of spread. If they did surgery first then the cancer could be spreading around for a couple of months as you would need to recover from the surgery before chemo could start.
I was only sick once on chemo, the first night. You will be given various anti sickness pills, and a 24 hour helpline to call for advice. Waiting to start treatment is so scary. Once treatment starts you just kind of roll with it, chemo was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting.
Hugs to you x