Hi @rose14 I was diagnosed in June 2022 and because the NHS was still recovering from focusing on Covid, I had various elements of treatment across six hospitals in two different health authorities. I had a lumpectomy in September and radiotherapy in November 2022. Yes I took a tablet called Letrozole for three and a half years although I was supposed to take them for five. I stopped with the agreement of my oncologist. It’s important to understand that responses to treatment are very individual and more women get through it without too many problems. If you read a lot of the threads on this forum, you will see the experience of women who had trouble with side effects so it’s easy to believe that this is how it will be for everybody but those who don’t have side effects don’t come on to the forum looking for support they don’t need.
So, in answer to your question, surgery was fine except I had liquid morphine squirted down my throat in the recovery room which made me vomit for 24 hours. I was sent home with a load of pain killers but didn’t need to take a single one - had no pain at all. Because the tumour was in the upper outer quadrant of my right breast, the surgeon was able to get the lump and lymph nodes out of the same incision, which helped. I stayed with my brother and SIL for the first five days as the general anaesthetic takes a while to get out of the system. Big tip - your Mum will be given exercises to do to help retain mobility in her shoulders and it is very important that she does these religiously. So surgery wasn’t a particularly big deal and recovery was quite quick after the first week. I went back for my results appointment about two and a half weeks later to be told that they had got clear margins and I had no lymph involvement so moved straight on to oncology where I was prescribed radiotherapy and 5 years of anti-oestrogen drugs.
I had 5 days of radiotherapy, which is quite an easy thing to do, each session takes about 5-10 minutes to line you up and the actual treatment takes less than a minute. It mops up any stray cancer cells that breaks off during surgery and may be lying around. The worst bit of radiotherapy was hanging around the hospital when the machines break down but, I have to say, all of the staff involved were absolutely lovely and very patient. It is quite common to get fatigue (which is generally described as tiredness which isn’t resolved by sleeping) and I was very fatigued for about ten weeks after radiotherapy finished. But it passed and some of the women I was treated with didn’t get it at all. As I say, it’s all very individual.
I did not have to have chemotherapy, in fact 65% of women with BC do not have to have it. The way it is usually determined is a sample of the tumour is sent to the USA for an Oncotype test and the result is a percentage chance of chemotherapy being effective. The medical team will decide whether it is appropriate to do an Oncotype test once they have seen the size and grade of the lump on excision and whether there are cancer cells in the lymph nodes. Chemo can be challenging but there is a lot of testimony on the forum from those who have had it, who say it wasn’t as bad as they’d feared. I’m afraid it may be some time before you know whether your Mum will have to have it or not so try not to fixate on chemo.
As for the drug, I took Letrozole, one of the aromatase inhibitors which are given to post-menopausal women with tumours which are fed by oestrogen. The side effects for these are often joint and muscle pain but I didn’t have any of that, I found that it affected my cognitive ability with brain fog and low mood so I asked to stop it after three and a half years. As I say, not everyone gets debilitating side effects so it’s best to try the drugs for six months at least to see. There are lots of different brands of drug and some people find that one particularly brand suits them best and can ask the GP to name that brand on the repeat prescription.
I can assure you that everyone who has any form of cancer fears that it is spreading before surgery but cancer usually takes years to grow big enough to be seen on scans and even longer for the lump to be palpable so it is unlikely for a few weeks or even months to make much difference in this regard. The active treatment that your Mum will have will be specifically designed to prevent a recurrence. It’s undeniable that some women do have recurrence, both local and distant but the majority don’t. There is no point in piling stress and pressure on yourself and your Mum by worrying about what might never happen. Just one thing at a time, one foot in front of the other, and you’ll get through it. It might be worth speaking to your GP and explaining the circumstances and how it is impacting you as there might be local support groups for relatives/carers (not that you’ll be a carer) or even a short course of something to get you over the hump until you know what you’re facing.
So sorry that this has been such a long post but I want you to understand that everything your Mum will go through is normal in the circumstances. 56,000 women get diagnosed with breast cancer every year and the survival rate is at an all time high. It’s not really considered “The big C” any more. Keep your chin up.
