Hello all,
I have been diagnoised with Breast Cancer in Sep 2022, a very big shock especially after I had just been made redundant and mum had a stroke. I have been fortunate to have picked it fairly early, Stage 2 and Grade3. I have had a lupectomy surgery in Oct and axillary node clearance surgery end of Nov. I am due to start my Chemo in Jan2023. Very anxious and nervous about the whole thing. One day I am worried about my treatment , on another day am worried about no job on hand. Thankfully I have a supportive family but I feel having lost work, health all one after the other its all a bit overwhelming. The underlying fear of the chemo journey… totally confused and anxious . Anyone here in similar timeline with treatment?
I was but you do get through it even if you have no idea how you will at the start of it. I was diagnosed with a 32mm hormone positive tumor in May 2022. I had a double mastectomy and it was confirmed it hadn’t hit my lymph nodes or seemed to invade the surrounding breast tissue but despite that, since my onco score came back in the intermediate range, chemo it was. Whenever you have a grade 3 that’s usually what it means and I had one, too. Anyway it stunk most assuredly because it always does but truly I handled it well and life didn’t change really at all besides me having to move much slower towards the later cycles. Nine weeks out I feel back to my precancerous self, have started endocrine therapy and am tolerating it well, and moving towards my DIEP reconstruction next month. Really want this all to be done but healing from breast cancer is not a quick process for any of us.
As far as your job I’m so sorry. Hopefully you will have something else come up quickly but at this time I will say your NHS is a huge blessing. I’m in the US and we count on private insurance that is normally linked to your job. There have been so many people who have had to file for bankruptcy due to medical bills. It’s a travesty but I don’t know as it will change here since when you do have medical insurance and access to the best hospitals treatment is stupendous. I’m just glad to know you won’t have to worry about that and your treatment can continue unaffected. Hang in there though and you might want to join your monthly chemo club (for lack of a better word). Every month a post is started here for those going into their first round of chemo. It’s nice support from people in your position and I highly recommend it.