Hi I have recently been diagnosed with TNBC. Had surgery on April 12th. Saw the surgeon on Friday who said the tumour was 11mm so in his words very small. I had 10 lymph nodes removed 2 of which were positive and a 3rd which had micro traces. He said the tumour and any cancer they know about has been removed although the tumour itself was very close to the chest wall. I have already seen the oncologist and start my chemo on Tuesday 3rd May. My CT and Bone Scan were clear. Have read the positive threads about TNBC with lymph node involvement and get a real lift from them so thank you to those who have posted them x
Hi twinkleberry,
welcome to this site, you’ll find lots of friends advice and help over the coming months. If you have questions just ask away - there is always someone who has been there, done it or doing it.
Good luck for tuesday, I have my 2nd chemo on Wednesday and just hope I have no side effects like the first one
Jo x
Hi I’m also tn happy to chat if u want to ask anything I had fec tax mx rads and now have just been dx with sec to lungs gd luck for tomorrow laura
Hello ladies, it’s a while since I have been on the forums. I was diagnosed in April 2006. With a 5cm lump, which was triple negative, no lymph nodes involved. I had lumpectomy, 6xEC, which wasn’t too bad for side effects, 15 radiotherapy, and have now just had my final mammogram of my 5 year check up. All is well, so I have been discharged from follow up.
Have faith ladies, and fight the good fight as they say. Wishing you all well for the future
Hi Marge,
thanks so much for your positive comments. Like you I’m getting 6 x EC (not many seem to get exactly this) so I am very glad to hear that you’re doing well. I’ve had chemo no. 2 and at the mo the side effects are nearly non-existent, don’t like to say too much as I don’t want to tempt fate. My periods seems to have stopped, do you know if this is the chemo or the anti sickness or steroids, does anybody else know?
Jox
MARGE… thankyou from the bottom of my heart, thats just what us TN girls need to hear
big hug
thankyou again
Donna
xx
Post deleted
Hi Jo, sorry cant help with your query as I was 62 when I was diagnosed, so much for TN mostly affecting younger people 
I had a little blip after my 3rd chemo,but only one day when I felt exhausted, then you think half way now, wont be long !
Are you by any chance from Darlington ? I am on Teesside
Take care
donna I hope my post gave you all a boost, it’s a vey frightening time when you are first diagnosed, and you read so many bad reports about TN
Best wishes
xx
Hi Marge,
yes, I’m from Darlington and I’m having all my treatment etc at James Cook , can’t say enough good things about them really, everyone is brilliant. If you get the time go to the holistic centre they are excellent in there and can help in many ways.
Jo x
Sorry Marge, you must think I’m a plonker you’ll know all about the holistic centre. It’s the chemo affecting my brain cells I’m sure!
Jo x
Dont worry Jo, I know about the centre, but never went there as I had all my treatment at North Tees. I did have my rads at James Cook, they were very good it was just tiring going back and fro every day
Hope things go well for you over tne next few months treatment wise
Take care
Jo chemo can stop your periods… sometimes temporary and sometimes permanently…
this is something they should have told you before as for some women it can then make them infertile and should offer infertility counselling prior to starting chemo… i hope im not springing something on you that you werent aware of… however the younger you are the more likely your periods are to come back, but there are no definites.
marge glad your doing well now.
much love Lulu xxx
Hi Lulu,
they did mention the periods briefly but didn’t go into much detail. I’m nearly 42 so don’t want any more kids (just had one at Xmas)
Jo x
Hi everyone
Marge - that’s great news and so very encouraging so thanks for the post!!
Lulu - I am worried to see your post regarding people being offered things like Avastin as having a poorer prognosis, which has sent my head in a whirl.
I have been diagnosed as having grade 3 TNBC. It was 3cm until my first round of FEC, and now I can hardly feel the blighter - woo hoo. Anyhow the surgeon had given me the choice of whether to have chemo first or surgery first, and likened it to playing the Ace of Spades or the Ace of Clubs first. I chose to have chemo to shrink the tumour as I could start chemo quicker than I could get to have surgery, and it was the bit I was dreading most. So at this stage on the ultrasound my nodes look clear, although clearly microscopically it could be a different picture. But if we assume that I am having chemo, then a lumpectomy and rads, my prognosis is not poor?
I was however offered the Avastin trial, but I had to turn it down as due to the extra checks they wanted to do it would have delayed the start of chemo which I didnt want to do.
Perhaps you can put my mind at rest!! It doesnt take much to get my head in a spin
Michaela
hi michaela sorry didnt mean to worry you
the treatment they give is to improve prognosis… so people who get chemo have a poorer prognosis than those who dont… but really we should be saying people who dont need chemo have a better prognosis than those who do need it… we all have a much better prognosis than a lot of people think.
for hormone positive cancers prognosis is around 90-95% to 10 years and for those with TNBC the prognosis is 75-80% so its around 15% lower than hormone positive which is where it gets its reputation as giving a poorer prognosis but overall the prognosis is usually still pretty good.
the majority of drug trials start by being given to people who have a poor prognosis eg those who are actually dying to see if they are effective in prolonging life… they then given to people with secondaries to see if they can slow down disease progression, before being trialled in folk who only have primaries… currently avastin is being trailed for people with stage 2 or 3 ie those with tumours over 2cm or who have positive nodes… obviously those with stage 1 have a better prognosis than those with stage 2 or 3… this doesnt mean you have a bad prognosis but just that it is a poorer prognosis than some others… its all on a spectrum and things will be poorer or better than others… but the treatment helps to level the playing field so that we all hopefully have a pretty good prognosis.
Lxx
Hi Lulu
Thanks for that - it all makes sense so thanks again for the extra explanation. It’s quite easy to get in a spin about anything these days and I still sometimes can’t believe this is all happening. But I am so grateful for this site and all the lovely support.
Enjoy the sunshine today
Michaela x
Post deleted
Dear All
I think we need to be careful about prognosis as some of us do not want to know stats and I certainly did not and still don’t want any timescales as I think if you believe you have a poorer prognosis it may affect you. I have mets in numerous sites but am still optimistic that treatments can delay progression as much as is possible. I am on 2nd line chemo. I do not really agree about Avastin as I was offered but have had a clot so can’t have. Actually in the US they have withdrawn its license for breast cancer my Oncologist told me. I think we all have to have faith that the Oncologist we are under is doing the best for us as in TNBC tumours seem to still behave in very different ways. We are generally chemo sensitive but in secondary seems keeping it gone is the problem.
I am trying to do all I can to supplement chemo with diet and supplements but find all the info overwhelming sometimes as to what I should be taking
Best wishes to all fighting this and we have to hope that all the research is going to come up with some sort of maintenance very soon
Joanna
Post deleted