My story was the exact opposite, in that if I hadn’t kept my fibroadenoma my cancer probably wouldn’t have been found for a long time yet and by then it would have been far more serious. My cancer was at the back of my breast, near the chest wall and the swelling made the fibroademoma at the front of my chest stick out a bit which is what sent me off to the doctors. Pretty sure I wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong if I’d had my fibroadenoma removed when I first found it a decade ago.
I’m not saying this to be contrary, just to say that fibroadenoma aren’t necessarily a bad thing - I’ll be eternally grateful for mine as I think it saved my life!
Evening all from the club chairman! No doubt about it, snivelling in the early hours of the morning will give you double points and treble if you have persuaded some poor furry creatures to come to your bed as hapless onlookers! If my poor old cat (Henry) was still with me, (oh snivel coming on) he would be soaking wet by now. Wonderful comment of the day, from a friend’God only gives difficult times to people who can cope with them (thank you so much God) followed by ’ you will come out of this as a stronger and better person. Oh Yes but with no boobs, no hair and skin like e prune. Lovely! Had a bit of a snivel today when OH forgot to put the bin out, which means we have a wheelie bin full of festering rubbish for another 2 weeks. Lovely. Not exactly the crime of the century but feels like it to me. I shall need to make him feel very guilty about it. And expect a large box of choccies, lol. Waiting for the oncology appt is like slow torture at the moment. Heh ho. Sending hugs to all you lovely ladies, even if you do have dodgy armpits! Xx
oh my goodness…so many new replies and no time to read them just yet! But after a skim read Im def joining the snivel club too please! Just a quick update really…
Went to the hospital this morning and met my consultant. He seemed really lovely, a real, ‘don’t worry we’ll sort you out’ guy. It was all pretty much as I expected. There are 3 tumours but only 2 biopsies were done. He said one option would be to biopsy the third and do mri’s and if that came back negative then they could consider breast conserving surgery. He asked what I thought and told him that for my own peace of mine Id rather just go for the full mastectomy which he agreed was a good decision. have to have a radioactive coloured dye in my boob the day before op so they can see where my sentinel lymph node is. He says they look ok but 20% of cancers in the nodes cant be seen on ultrasound so theres still a chance it has spread but he seemed quite positive. Im seeing a plastic surgeon next Thursday who will obviously have the final say as to what will be best for me in terms of reconstruction but today he said there didn’t seem to be any reason I couldn’t go for an immediate reconstruction. Providing a scan on my tummy is ok, they can in effect give me a tummy tuck and use the blood vessels and fat there to use for my new boob. They can also reduce the other one so I’ll have two teams working on me either side. Because its quite a long op and a lot involved I may have to have it done in Chelsea rather than in the marsden (which is 10 mins away) which would be a right royal pain but they have a better high dependency unit there. In hospital about a week, then at least 6 weeks to recover. Nurse showed me lots of pics too and they were really reassuring. So…still not out the woods but so far, looks like i’ll make a full recovery, get a new pair of boobs and a tummy tuck to boot! Feeling so much better today. Still a few what ifs, but I feel much clearer about whats going to happen and that long term I have a very good chance of a full recovery xx will be back later to cacth up on the last 4 pages !
Welcome to the snivel club! We’re growing very fast, not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Actually I think it’s good that we can admit to having down days without being chastised for not being so very cheerful all the time. Sounds like you are in very good hands and you have confidence in your surgeon, which is so important. I think. Reading some of the things that surgeons have said to some of the ladies makes me liviid, so tactless and seemingly without any understanding of how one might feel about losing a breast (or two even). Don’t wish to seem sexist but as they are mostly men, i wonder how they would feel if someone said we’re taking your little chap off?! I was born and brought up in Hammersmith by the way so you can’t be too far from there, if you’re going to the Chelsea. Great hospital, right place to go. I spent many years living in Chiswick also as a child before it became very trendy! It was £5000 to buy a house there in 1960,lol You are such a lucky person, boob job and tummy tuck at the same time, what mote could you want in life?! If I have to go that route, they won’t have any problems finding enough fat in my tum to use. i can tell you. Too many snivels = too many cakes! Clearly i’m a comfort eater and OH is a feeder! Today, I must tackle the VAT return for my business and since I have the concentration of a gnat at the minute, it will probably provoke at least one snivel. Will send OH out to get donuts in preparation. Xxx Francine
Hello all, just had to share this as I prepare for what is probably another sleep deprived night. Polish friend told me today that his mother’s cancer was cured by eating lots of pickled cabbage! He wasn’t joking. I’m off to Sainsbury’s tomorrow to buy out their stock but I’m a bit concerned about the possible gassy side effects! OH has doubts about the efficacy of this treatment. Can’t imagine why. Must mention it to the oncologist, if I ever get to see him, as I’m sure he’ll want to add it the arsenal of weapons. Hope you all have a good night. X Francine
Hi Rosie-ree
I think I may have drawn the short straw here with the cabbage! You do wonder if there’s actually some foundation to these things, perhaps they contain some sort of natural substance that either boosts your immune system or attacks cancer cells? After all, aspirin was originally derived from a tree! (I’m not advocating using alternative medicine to treat cancer by the way) but wouldn’t it be wonderful if chemo became a thing of the past one day. X
Definitely, it was my brother that pointed me in the asparagus direction so I skim read some info on it. Apparently the reason your urine smells after eating asparagus is because it removes toxins from.your body and that’s effectively what the smell is. So it’s a natural detox and can help your immune system? It is quite interesting and we all have to eat
There is a lot of research into green vegetables in general and there help with the immunity x
Lena,
There is a really good information booklet on this site with regards to options after mastectomy. It also has a chart which states general operation times, hospital stay and recovery times for each option.
I am 30, losing my left breast also, I have my consultation today to discuss options but based on the table/chart on here an implant is the way I would like to go. It has the shortest operation time, hospital stay and recovery period and I have a one year old little girl who needs me.back on my feet so for.me I think that’s the option il take.
Hugs x
I saw my consultant on Monday and he will remove my right breast, taking whatever they need from my tummy to reconstruct and reducing the other side too. I still have to see the plastic surgeon to make sure its all possible but he said Id have 2 teams working on me, it would take about 4 hours and that it could all be done at the same time. xx
Hi Karen. I’m sure that donuts are a potent anti cancer treatment and the ones with the cream in as well as the jam are doubly effective! I can also recommend cheesecake served with cream. However, I must counsel against doing your physio exercises immediately after eating either or both or after a rather large curry. Believe me I have personal experience! However, doing your exercises when slightly tipsy works very well?? and makes the wings one nearly bearable. Feeling fed up today as the oncology dept have lost my referral letter from my surgeon and that means more delays. Surgeon is fuming but can only send them another. Hate the waiting, where’s the cake and the wine! Bring on the donuts ???
Hi everyone, I also would like(?) to join you. I got initial diagnosis on 20th Feb following biopsy, saw oncologist today for full diagnosis. I’m not sure I took it all in, still feel like I’m in a bubble! I have grade 2 invasive lobular cancer in one breast, lymph nodes enlarged, CT scan shows no spread and MRI shows other breast is clear. It is ER+, HER2 results were borderline so sent for further testing. Surgery not appropriate at this time but will need mastectomy at some point but priority is to stop growth and shrink tumour. I’m not yet post menopausal which was a surprise to me so today I had Zoladex injection to induce menopause and started on letrozole, I will have repeat biopsy in 3weeks to see how tumour responds to this treatment.
I really don’t know what to think as was expecting surgery and chemo, just seems to add to feeling of unreality!
Initial thoughts were all around will I survive this, now don’t feel able to ask/take in any info re likely prognosis.
It’s just so overwhelming to start to think too much about it!
