Hi all
Ive unfortunately had confirmed today that ive joined the triple negative club! I have already had lumpectomy and sentinel nodes checked and thankfully it hasnt spread beyond the 31mm mass. I now have to wait to see the oncologist to find out what is happening with the chemo and radiotherapy although i do know i will be having both. That wait will at least allow me to celebrate my 40th birthday before i have to start chemo
Sarah
Very similar case TNBC 35mm tumour, just about to start Chemo in 30/8. Accelerated plan of EC (4 cycles) then Paclitaxel (4 cycles)
I hope you are recovering well from your surgery. I also hope you can enjoy this āpauseā and enjoy your 40th birthday.
I am sure things will start to move quite quickly once you get a follow up ā¦so enjoy this time as much as you can now. Sending healing vibes
a good book that helped me is surviving triple negative breast cancer by Patricia prijatel a 2x TNBC survivor itās not for unit it helped me do wanted to share Shi xx
Sorry typo itās not for everyone but it helped me Shi xx
Ive added it to my wishlist as i am a big reader anyway and i like as much of information as possible about anything. Thank you
My surgery went smoothly and im recovering well thank you.
Have you had surgery or are you having chemo 1st?
Good luck for your treatment
Sarah
Hi Sarah
I had surgery first 25/7. They said it was small initially (around 1cm) but then grew from MRI to surgery.
I will be 5 weeks post surgery when I start my treatment next week. I think I was fortunate to get an oncology appointment this week and explained how keen (anxious) I was to start my treatment asap as although my margins were clear, it was as clear as it could be in places being less than 0.01mm clear as the tumor has grown to the edge of the breast tissue available. So I am so pleased to be getting started next week and knowing we are giving this the best chance to future proof me. Keep me posted on your progress. Sending my best wishes your way
I am also triple negative- so sorry youāve joined the club! Bookwise, I would definitely recommend āA survivors guide to triple negative breast cancerā by Michele Solak Edwardās and āReconstructionā by Rosamund Dean. Both have been published in the last couple of years and I found them so helpful!
Iāve had my chemo and surgery and waiting for the results of that before starting radiotherapy. The chemo was OK, not as bad as I was expecting. Good luck x
Hi I had tripple negative I have 8 round off chemo surgery then radiotherapy. I have yearly mammograms wish u all the luck. X
Hello! I have IDC TN no nodes negative genetic so options are limited. I have this fear of growth before surgery. Can you tell me how much time passed btw your MRI and surgery and how much the tumor grew? I have all different measurements. ultrasound and MRI said 1.5cm and 1.6 cm biopsy said 1.15cm. The MRI was on 8/13 and I have surgery on 9/30. I could have opted for chemo first but it was AC-T and I have cardio hx I didnāt want the A. So surgery and then TC.
Thank you!
I can tell you my data ā¦but please understand everyone is different.
My āinvaderā was quite active. I noticed and it was just a grain of rice size mid May. Appt 10/6. By then in was noticable and visible and described as 1cm. 17/6 diagnosis and knew chemotherapy was on cards because of grade 3 and likely TN. At that point they classed it as a small tumour. Although as my breast tissue is dense they needed to know and MRI was taken on 29/6. That came back minimal enhancement but was now 16mm x 9mm.
Surgery was 25/7. They took 4 nodes. All of that went well but the surgeon noticed when removing, it was bigger than expected ā¦so she went back for more but due to the position, towards the top by by armpit, there wasnāt much breast tissue to take, so the margins were clear but on 3 areas they were .3mm not the usual 1mm they prefer.
So I waited 4 weeks from MRI and then 5 to starting chemo yesterday.
I read somewhere that once you have diagnosis it should be within 31 days ideally, but I was just out of that and opted to wait a few days because my specialist was back off her holiday (the alternative was a newly qualified surgeon) so all things considered waiting for her may have seen my tumour grow slightly but she knew what she was doing and did everything right by me. She went back in when she knew it was bigger and took away all the possible tissue in the areas that were tight.
Perhaps a call to your BCN may help put your mind at ease. Perhaps offer yourself up to a cancellation if one becomes available. Explain your anxiety as there is no getting away from this āindaderā until we have some treatment. But then accept you have done all your canā¦some things are out of our control and too much stress and anxiety is counter productive.
In a side note, have a look on YouTube for some meditation exercises. I find boho beautiful really therapeuticā¦even if 10 mins to switch off from this dreadful chapter we are going through. Or just any other stressful situations, being able to breathe through it take control it to some degree (even if only a temporary distractionā¦it has helped me no end)
Any questions, shout up, happy to help if I can ā¦much love Xx