Hello everyone, I hope your Mondays are going as well as they can, wherever you are on this BC rollercoaster.
As the title says, I am new here - diagnosed in March with IDC Er+ HER-2 grade 3. Lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy in April and as all clear was told it was ‘unlikely’ that I would need chemo. I think I was hoping to just skip off into the sunset after a bit of radiotherapy and do my best to forget all about it… AKA being in denial!! Oncotype said otherwise and suddenly things are looking very different. Hoping that in joining this forum I will come to terms with it a bit more and meet others going through similar for mutual support.
Love to you all, K
Hi K
You sound as though you’ve a very grounded approach to all this, which can be a huge advantage. Unfortunately, diagnosis isn’t an exact process. As more results come through, plans have to change. When I had primary breast cancer, I had 5 diagnoses in 4 weeks, going from “I don’t think you have anything to worry about” to needing the full works after what a mastectomy revealed. Breast cancers behave in different ways and aren’t always predictable.
I just wanted to say two things. First, chemotherapy is nowhere near as bad as the ancient tropes would have us believe. They have preventative measures down to a fine art and nausea/sickness is better controlled now. Touch wood, I’ve never been sick and I used the anti-nausea meds as a preventative measure till I felt I could just take them ad hoc. You can cold cap if you don’t want to lose your hair - but losing your hair is only short-term and no big issue unless you fret.
Second, you weren’t “in denial”. You used a coping mechanism so you wouldn’t be overly anxious or worried when things were stressful enough and that is good. Sometimes we are very dismissive of ourselves when what we need is to boost morale and be kind to ourselves. There is a lot in cancer treatment that can be regarded as amusing (loss of pubic hair caused me great amusement) but always be grateful that you are able to shut off what you don’t need to worry about. I’ve got Stage 4 bc now and I never think beyond the next treatment cycle. Why be fearful of the future till you have to be! It’s all stored in a little box somewhere in my mind and not thought about.
Keep it up. You’ll meet some wonderful people on here and find it’s not all gloom and doom xx
Hi @kereru We seem to be on a similar path. Had my lumpectomy in April and also thought I’d just be having radiotherapy but unfortunately with 3 positive lymph nodes, I’ll also be starting chemo in 2 weeks. What a strange year - feel like someone’s messing with my timeline! Love the posts on this thread so far……really helpful. X
together you get each other through 
