Hi,
I’m new here! I was diagnosed with Grade 2 lobular cancer in September 2020. I’ve been lucky and sailed through surgery and radiotherapy, I’m now on tamoxifen. What I am struggling to come to terms with is the fact that this is my second primary cancer. In 2017 I had rectal cancer. I had surgery and chemo for this. Has anyone else experienced different primary cancers, if so how do you come to terms with it and coping with not knowing if/when the next cancer will come?
Hi Plant,
So sorry you’ve found yourself here, but you’re very not alone. In fact, I’m a little bit more than twice… !!
How I cope… well, the lifetime risk of cancer is 1 in 2, so it doesn’t feel *that* out of the ordinary to - hah hah - hit that lottery twice. Yes, you’re more aware of it, and yes, possibly a higher risk (I have a stats degree, so I take sentences like that with a bit more open-eyes than they can sound), but truth is every single person is playing dice with hitting a cancer diagnosis. We’re just more aware, which can be a good thing in one way. In fact, the monitoring tends to be more thorough, so the chances are the subsequent ones will be caught that much quicker and be dealt with easier.
I also tend to make a lot of jokes - well, you laugh or you cry, sometimes! - about how many of my friends are so lucky that I’m the one ‘taking it for the team’ so they don’t have to.
It doesn’t always calm the anxiety, I know, but this forum is a *fantastic* place to chat when that hits. In the meantime, we have survived once, we have survived twice (I kept going for a bit, but hey - I’m an overachiever ;)), and we could do it again if we *had* to! In the meantime life is life is life and there’s a lot to be said for making the most of it regardless of cancer, or random buses, or any one of the things that we don’t even think about. Perhaps there’s a gift in knowing that life is too short for the nonsense, and gives us permission to be kinder and freer. Certainly, I’ve grown in confidence and ‘not giving a <cough>’ in a lot of things, and there’s strength in that along with the meh.
I waffle, apologies, but stay strong and be nice to yourself xx
Hi Plant,
I too was diagnosed in September last year with Invasive Ductal BC 15mm, Er+ PR+ HER2-. I had 2 operations WLE plus sentinal nodes (the second one on 5 January to get clear margins). I then proceeded to radiotherapy from 1 to 5 March and am now on Letrozole for 5 years.
After this I thought I would get some slight persistent bleeding sorted out. Yesterday I was diagnosed with very low Rectal cancer, no spread to nodes or anywhere else. My surgeon told me that the treatment for this is surgery and, because the lesion is vitually on the anal margin, this means he will take out my rectum and anus (and close the anus) and leave me with a permanent stoma!
So I too am having to come to terms with 2 different (apparently unconnected) primary cancers diagnosed within 8 months of each other!
How are you managing? Would love to hear from you.
Jane xx