I am 33 years old, and I’ve been diagnosed with grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma ER+(5 out 8), HER2- in early October. The MRI showed a 15mm tumor and no spread to the lymph node, but the mammogram also showed some calcifications which the doctor said that might be pre-cancerous alterations and needed to be removed.
In the meantime, I had a lumpectomy and one sentinel lymph node removed. The biopsy of the tumor showed that the calcifications were also invasive ductal carcinoma. It was also removed two smaller areas that showed the presence of cancer cell invading lymphatic channels in several places and the lymph node had 4mm cancer.
I am going to start chemotherapy followed by mastectomy and auxiliary lymph node clearance and finish with radiotherapy in the chest region.
I received the biopsy results 3 days ago and I am really worried. I feel these are the worst news that I could possibly have and now makes me wonder about how progressed the disease is…? how can they determine which stage this is? Obviously, my mind goes to the darkest places, and I am already thinking that I might have stage IV breast cancer. In which situations is a CT scan of PET scan done?
First of all, I’m so sorry you find yourself in this position - it’s difficult to accept that they keep changing the goalposts. I had 4 diagnoses in as many weeks, each the one bit more serious, so I can sympathise with how you’re feeling. What you really must try to do is trust your team. There is little point on dwelling on the details when you can do nothing about them. As you’re finding, it makes people very unhappy, if not panic-stricken, a waste of energy. The fact is, your MDT will devise a treatment plan specific to your cancer. It’s not triple negative, which is good and means there’s a wider range of treatments and your cancer will be slower to spread. The chemotherapy, mastectomy and axillary clearance (the underarm is the axilla) followed by radiotherapy will, in all likelihood, mean your breast cancer is cured and you aren’t bothered by it again. My condition was significantly worse (if you compare, which I don’t agree with but I think may help here) and I was left with a 75% chance of no recurrence. Think about that - 3 out of every 4 women in the same boat would never get breast cancer again. It’s good odds.
There is no point in telling you to stop worrying but, as I said, try to trust your team. If your cancer metastasises (which means Stage 4) you will be told but, with only a limited node involvement, it’s unlikely. Not that I can diagnose - I’m just going by my experience - and no-one can guarantee anything. Try to think of yourself in that larger group rather than the smaller one - it’s going to come back. If you stick there, you will find it harder to get through the treatment programme, harder to maintain good emotional health and generally have a shitty time. It’s tough enough without that. Ask your oncologist or breast care nurse if you want to know your data and what difference each treatment will make to contribute to the likelihood of non-recurrence but definitely don’t start using Google. There is no way a search engine can give you what you need and, as many of us can testify, it can cause real panic.
Meantime, the best thing you can do is to prepare yourself by maintaining good emotional health. Do whatever you can warm to - yoga, meditation, mindfulness, running baking, Qi gong, whatever - but practise so you know you can rely on it when you need it. I found some excellent meditation videos on YouTube and I still plug in daily to Progressive Hypnosis’s meditations.
I wish you all the best for your treatment - it’s tough but it’s manageable - and hope you feel able to ask your team what you want to know. Just tell them of your fears and I’m sure they will be honest with you and allay those fears. Btw, I know of someone who has had Stage 4 for 22 years. Times have changed!