Hi ladies. Hope you’re doing well. Found out today that my breast cancer has spread to my liver. I had a CT scan of my lungs a few weeks ago as was having breathing problems, and radiographer spotted something suspicious at the bottom of the scan. Had another CT scan of my tummy area, and told today there are two lesions in the liver. Unsure of what happens next until the MDT meeting happens to go over my records and scans. Have been really upbeat and positive until now, and now feel completely deflated.
Oh Stelwah, poor you, another hurdle to master.I do hope you’re getting all the support you need.
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Stay positive x
Stelwah, I’m sorry to hear your news. Hope you get a plan in place very soon and you get plenty support. Thinking of you and sending you love and hugs. X
Hope everyone is doing okay - we’re nearly through the chemo which must be good news.
Stelwah you’ve been on my mind so much over the last few days - frightening news that you’ve lesions despite being on chemo. Fingers crossed (and everything else) for postives to come out of the MDT meeting. I hope they’re prioritising you xxx
I’ve had some good news today in that I saw my surgeon for the first time since starting chemo. She’s thrilled with how much my tumour has shrunk and says it is now totally operable (and it wasn’t before apparently). It’s disappeared from my lymph nodes and the tumour is a third (approx) of its original size so she’ll be able to do a safe mastectomy.
I can’t decide between the straight mastectomy get all the cancer out - or the mastectomy followed by the reconstruction in the same operation which is on offer. Part of me just wants to have the mastectomy then get on with my life. The bonus of the reconstruction is that the scaring is less than the straight mastectomy. But I’m really scared about the 8 hours of anaesthesia I’ll need if I have the plastics and mastectomy in the same operation. ANyone any words of wisdom/ experience to offier?
Thanks for your kind words ladies. I saw my consultant yesterday, and feeling a lot better for having a good talk over the options. Got 2 more rounds of chemo, then breast surgery, then will be given injections to shut down my ovaries and hormone tablets to suppress oestrogen and - hopefully - keep the liver lesions from growing and spreading. My lung CT scan has come back clear and am booked in for a bone scan in a fortnight. A huge amount to take in and a definite shift of goalposts, but am sure my doc knows his stuff and had a number of weapons in his arsenal to start throwing at this hideous cancer.
Lollymum - thrilled to hear how much your tumour has shrunk, that’s wonderful news! My surgeon hadn’t discussed a straight mastectomy with me, he has only really talked about having mastectomy with an immediate implant to be able to preserve the flap of skin, so that is what I’m due to be having in mid Sept. Agree sounds like the scarring would be better, but also agree that 8 hours is a serious operation - although I suppose there are also risks of having two separate operations to do the mastectomy and the reconstruction. Are you meeting your surgeon again to discuss?
Hi ladies.
Hope you’re all ok as it’s been a bit quiet on here recently.
Stelwah - sorry to hear your news and hope they get a plan sorted for you ASAP.
Are you all coming to an end of chemo? It’s wonderful, but I’ve got surgery after this and am now allowing myself to think about it and I’m terrified. As I’m a control freak, I find the thought of an 8 hour op and waking up in pain with drains very unsettling, but it’s not like I’ve got a choice. I’ve got the appointment with my consultant booked in for 17th July so will have his recommendations then.
Had a day at work yesterday as they were planning for next year and am totally shattered today. Up early as have lots to do before chemo tomorrow, but seriously tired. Will try and have a nap this afternoon as tomorrow is my last chemo and PICC line removal 
can’t wait.
Hope all is well mad hope to hear from you soon.
Hi ladies
Stelwah - you’re so positive - inspirational. So relieved for you that the lung scan was clear. Good luck with the other scans. I think I’m going to ask about the injections to shut the ovaries down too - sounds sensible.
Mel - I’m exactly like you - starting to really really dread the surgery. 8 hours!! I’ve already seen my breast surgeon, and she’s happy to do either op my choice, so I’ve a provisional straight mastectomy on 11th August. Then I see the plastics surgeon tomorrow morning to discuss that option. I’ve not been offered the implant option.
It’s true that radiotherapy runs the risk of distorting the shape of the reconstruction. But they do do lots of these none the less. I am not sure why. I’ll ask that question I think. I hadn’t thought about the preservation of enough skin to do the reconstruction - that’s a really good point.
Meanwhile my final chemo is a week away. I have to say my legs are driving me batty - does anyone else’s legs feel achey (as if they’ve climbed up 40 flights of stairs) all the time? I’ve put on some surgical stockings I had left from the hospital to see if it helps my poor numb feet - seems to be working.
Must go and pick up my daughter xxs
Hi ladies. Good to read about the different surgery options everyone is considering. Would be great if you can post what you all definitely end up having. Got 2 more chemo rounds left - 8 in total - then surgery time for me. Have you been told you’re having radiotherapy after the surgery? Think they are deciding this after my op. Plastic surgeon has warned me that this can make the implant go hard, so would be likely to then need the implant replacing - if yes, said he would do any cosmetic corrections to the ‘good boob’ at the same time to level everything up.
Mel 51 - jealous of your PICC line coming out! Bet you can’t wait. They need to design some nicer material sleeves to cover them up, may email one of the online bandana sites to suggest it.
MysticalMoo - Have a look at this link - my oncologist ran this clinical trial that compared taking tamoxifen for 10 years rather than 5…
cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/cancer-news/press-release/study-confirms-long-term-benefits-of-tamoxifen
Good evening ladies.
How are you all doing? I’m now day 5 after my final FEC and have hit the steroid dip and the acid reflux! Really feeling it today. On the good side it is the last chemo and my PICC line is out!! Not done anything today but cook dinner and feel really down about that, but just got to rest today mad tomorrow or Friday I tend to bounce back.
Looking forward to a week of “normality” after this before the surgical appointments start! Might even go for a little haircut in a couple of weeks as I appear to have a mullet growing at the minute with a bald patch at the top!! Good job I’m tall!
Hi ladies,
Hope you’re all recovering well after chemo. Where are you all at re. treatment plan. I had a final MRI on Friday and am meeting with my surgeon on Thursday to discuss surgery. Think it’ll be a mastectomy and recon as I have small boobs what should I expect after surgery? Will I be able to move? How bad is the pain? I’d rather know the truth, as people keep,telling me it’ll be fine!
Hi Ladies
Hope all is going well for you all.
I seem to be living in some kind of nightmare since “finishing” chemo on 3rd July. From the very beginning my team at my hospital said I would have to have a mastectomy and reconstruction following chemo. I’ve had a good response to chemo to shrink the tumour (Tax). However the plastics team at the hospital did not book me a slot within the 4 - 6 weeks after chemo finishes. So now the earliest they can fit me in is 21st August - which is 7 weeks post chemo. My oncologist has fumed and raged as have I but nothing doing other than 24th July which my mastectomy surgeon says is too close to chemotherapy and I’ll get rubbish healing.
Because of this total incompetence on behalf of the one hospital department failing to book me in I now face awful choices. Straight mastectomy with no reconstruction on 11th August, or stick to 21st August and risk the tumour growing or - and this is today’s development - have a SEVENTH chemo (and I’m on the highest dosage possible) to ensure my tumour doesn’t come back before surgery.
I’m also hoping mad because we were due to take a much needed family break from Saturday - one week by the sea in Dorset to try to heal our family after such a stressful year and now because someone couldn’t be arsed to book me in properly we have to cancel and I have to go through yet another round of chemo. I just don’t know what to do. My family are tired and miserable; I’m so tired and my legs are so painful I can’t walk far - so what another chemo will do to me is anyone’s guess. I just feel like I can’t go on anymore.
Has anyone else with grade 3 been given a longer gap than 6 weeks for surgery. WOuld love some advice ladies. LM
Hi lolly mum, I had to jump in from April thread after reading your crap news, I am also p…d off after seeing onc today too. I had been referred back to my breast surgeon 3 weeks ago as after having my 3rd Tax my lymph node under arm has swollen, well my letter of referral was lost, so onc furious today as now cost me 3 weeks and as I sat in his office he rang surgeon himself and got me in next Thursday , problem being because of delay I now have to have 2 further a Tax ( my last one should have been tomorrow!) for same reason as you, that it doesn’t start growing again! We were planning a very much needed holiday too, but now can’t go due to uncertainty of surgery and extra chemo, really deflated and worried now. So I sympathise massively with you, I think it’s appalling you have had to cancel your holiday due to some one else’s incompetence, we have so much stress and worry to put up with this kind of error just makes everything so much worse. Wendy x
Hi ladies. So sorry to hear of your surgery scheduling problems. Have you been told they have to do surgery within a certain timeframe after your last chemo? Interested as my last chemo is end of July and not got a surgery date yet, know they are aiming for mid September. Is it ideally 6 weeks and no more?
Had 7 lots of chemo now, just the 1 to go - yippee. Been endless hospital trips at the minute. Since being told I have lesions on my liver, the radiologists have said the appearance of the lesions on the scan isn’t 100% consistent with what cancer spread looks like, so I’m being booked in for a liver biopsy at the end of August when I’ll have recovered enough from my 8th chemo. Keeping everything crossed for good news, in limbo at the moment. I had a bone scan on Friday, waiting on the results. Also seeing a genetic counsellor in August, in case there’s something genetic that has led me to have two different types of cancer by the age of 37.
Hi Ladies
Wendy - good to see you popping in here too - but rubbish reason that you too have to have extra chemo.
I am sorry not to have been on for a while. The anxiety of everything led to me ending up in a really black place, very anxious. Anyway we went away for a few days to the sea and had a really lovely break - and great weather. I even managed a few swims in the sea because we found a beach where we could park nearby and I could get into the sea easily (my legs are still quite bad as a result of the chemo). We cut short our week away and came back for my extra chemo which I had a week ago now. My neutropenic count was 8.3 before the chemo - the best I’ve ever had (usually 2.8 - 4.1) so I’m really glad we went away.
I did ask about surgery at another hospital but lists are all full - so had the extra chemo and am now hoping to recover well before surgery in three weeks time (21st). I’m having a DIEP - anyone else having that?
Can I ask you ladies does anyone else feel giddy/dizzy as a result of chemo? I found a 2013 thread on here about this so I’m hoping that this is a side effect rather than anything more sinister.
I’m not having luck on the hair front - still no signs of anything coming back which is great for the summer legs but not so great otherwise!!! I’m also now wearing these condom type things on several fingers as my nails have started to come off (right at the base). My chemo has been really strong so I’m not surprised but it’s yet another thing. On the positive side since the extra chemo I can’t feel any tumour at all.
Stelwah - I’m so glad the liver lesions may be something else entirely - I really have everything crossed for that biopsy for you. xx
Wendy - hope you see this and can let us know how your extra chemo went.
Hi lollymum, glad you managed to get away for a few days!! I went for an ultrasound scan on lymph node and it turned out to be fluid- am very relieved, surgeon said my lump had shrunk well and referred me back to oncologist who is to decide on extra chemo, have rang numerous times and have been told I have an appt on Wednesday, but to take steroids and have blood tests just in case I have to have chemo number 7- not very happy I may be taking these unnecessarily! Surgery has been booked provisionally for 29th august, a week after yours!! The uncertainty is not helping the general stress!! Also I get giddy and dizzy and ladies on April thread have mentioned this too. Take care, Wendy.
Not much action on this thread anymore - which is understandable I guess. But I still wonder how everyone is doing.
I had my mastectomy and immediate DIEP recon on 21st August and am doing well. The new boob takes a bit of getting used to and of course my other one is about five feet lower down my body!!! Hilarious. But who cares because the tumour is gone (d.v.). My breast surgeon said she got good margins on the tumour and in fact there wasn’t much left, so considering the huge original tumour size I’m pleased. I had 31 lymph nodes removed and 3 were positive, which I guess I expected. I will hear more when I see my oncologist at the end of the month.
I’ll still have radiotherapy to go. Anyone else still waiting for further treatment like radiotherapy?
Chemo effects are gradually wearing off. I still have numb feet and fingers but the leg pain is no more which is great. I’ve no eyelashes but the leg hair is back (bummer). I never did that shaving of the head thing, and had a few strands left before surgery. Weirdly as my new hair has started to grow these have come away and I’ve lost eyebrow hair now which I hadn’t before. Odd this long after last chemo but nothing I can do about it.
Would love to hear how everyone is doiing
Hi Lollymum. Good to hear from you. I had my mastectomy and reconstruction with an implant on Tuesday, first day back home today. Am doing well, plastic surgeon was great so looks good even though still bruised and bandaged. Had a sentinel node biopsy so they’ve only taken one lymph node out for now. Waiting on biopsy results for everything before knowing what comes next. Had a liver biopsy last week, so waiting on that too. Have also seen a genetic clinician, is chance I may have a very rare genetic mutation (called PTEN) so deciding whether to be tested for this. All still up in the air, so just focusing on one thing at a time - which at the minute is resting up after the surgery. Think it’s likely I’ll be having radiotherapy too.
Hi lollymum, I had surgery on 29 th august and relieved to say I had clear margins, but have to have radiotherapy to start soon. In the end I didn’t have to have the extra chemo as I wouldn’t have recovered in time before surgery, I feel quite good now, although this week I feel about 90 ! Aching in legs and arms and general tiredness. Glad to hear you are doing well. I have some head hair growth , not much though! Am working part time which I have managed to do all the way through, which I found helped with trying to be normal !
Hi Lollymum. I had surgery on 5th August and am pleased to say that I had clear margins. Surgeon did a great job on the boob. Was a WLE and he managed to use some of the tissue under to breast to plug the gap. Now waiting for the radiotherapy to start, but got to let the recon settle for a few more weeks yet. My hair is coming back with a vengeance and it’s everywhere!! Not quite as glossy as it used to be or as well behaved but it’ll get there eventually. Have started on Tamoxifen and all is well except for the hot flushes, but I’m learning to cope with them. Biggest issue is not being able to sleep properly, it not sure if this is the tablets or not. Trying to do more exercise and have even bought a bike! Needless to say, after two hours on it yesterday I can hardly move today!! No pain, no gain, eh?!!