Hello,
I have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, December, 2009. Been in for wide local incision with spread to four lymph nodes. I am due to have my first chemo on 12th January, three cycles of FEC then three Docetaxel. Following drug therapy I am going for surgery for mastectomy then radiotherapy. Feeling very apprehensive about chemo, so any advice would be valued.
I would also like to hear from anyone who are BRCA2 mutation carriers to chat about preventative surgery due to risk of re-accurance.
When I was diagnosed I crumbled completely, I work as a registered mental health nurse and my GP said the strangest thing to me, thing is, it was not my usual GP. He said ‘does your profession not enable you to utilise coping mechanisms to deal with the situaltion’. My feelings were, very, very insensitive individual.
Any experiences of drug therapy, side effects and management would be useful.
linnw
Hi from a fellow mutant!
I’ve had bc and had a wle, I didn’t find out about BRCA2 status until after all treatment and then didn’t want to consider further surgery so I can’t help with preventative surgery. Do you know what your particular mutation of BRCA2 is? If not then I strongly advise you find out as there are many different types of mutations and they all carry different risks. For example my mutation falls into the ovarian cluster which meant I was considered high risk for ovarian cancer. On the strength of this I had my ovaries removed. If this isn’t right for you - and you need to weigh up the pro’s and con’s - you can request ovarian screening. A couple of good sites to visit to share expereinces with others are BRCA umbrella and facingyourrisk.org
The latter is an american site but there is a very active forum and the women there have a wealth of knowledge and advice. If I can help you further then do please ask or pm if you want.
Best wishes x
I am a BRCA2 carrier-and to date, we have had quite a few family members also diagnosed with the gene misprint-including our 25 year old daughter. I’m not sure what you want to know-so plase ask. But I should forewarn you that even preventative surgery isn’t foolproof. It does help reduce the risk-I had the second, healthy breast removed, and a hysterectomy some years ago-but still went on to have recurrences to pleura, liver and bone, and am consequently now stage 1V.Good luck with any decision you may want to make-and ask if I can help in any way.