Hey folks I am new on here , just need a little advice/ help with everyday living after treatment etc stops. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011 and finished chemo then radio last June, was on Tamoxifen but am now post menopausal (am 43) so have been on Exemestane for about 3 months now. I know that it is over a year since stopping the major treatment but I still feel low and struggle with self confidence …just need to hear from others if this is normal please x
Hi K9
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Yes it is perfectly normal. I felt dreadful after the treatment regime had ended. I could not understand why I felt so strange, so depressed and anxious. I had sailed through the Chemo and embraced an immediate reconstruction but could not cope at all when it all came to an end. I felt such a failure because everyone said I looked well, but I truly felt dreadful. I had suffered from post natal depression when my daughter was born so realised that I felt the same. The Chemo had sent me into an early Menopause and as our Hormones are such powerful chemicals I went to the GP to get some anti depressants. We must not suffer in silence. We need and deserve help. Please do not struggle anymore but take charge and get the help you deserve, I know there is a stigma about taking tablets but if you had high blood pressure or soaring cholesterol then you would take medication to survive. I still take the anti depressants now as I have reduced them to the lowest dose possible but when I tried to stop altogether I felt strange again. I will take then whilst ever I have to take Tamoxifen. They are keeping me sane and for that I am very grateful. Be Mindful of everything uyou do and keep busy.
Sending you love, hugs and positive vibes. Tracy xxx
Hi K
You are not alone. I know that probably doesn’t help much with how you are feeling. But when I read your postI just wanted to reach out and hold your hand. I was dx July 2012 at age 43. I had primary chemo and have had 6 ops since Feb this year, including full clearance, mx and diep recon. I am now on Tamoxifen and really struggling with the side effects. I know I should feel ‘happy’ that I am still here. My hubbie and friends and family keep saying that it’s all good. I am finished treatment and I can move on with my life.I am finding it very difficult. Its hard to accept life is changed. My body is scarred and beat up and still healing. I still feel tired and some days very down. Other days are fine. I worry about the slightest things and that every ache, pain, lump or bump, is the cancer coming back. I feel a bit “lost”. And sometimes I feel angry that I had to go through all this and put my family through this. I think a lot of this is “normal” after all we.have had to go through.But that doesn’t really help much. I have found the help and advice on this forum, as well as good friends I have met on this ‘journey’ have really helped support me as they know what its really like to go through this and they totally ‘get’ it. I also am now starting to make plans for the future. Eg booking up things in advance (trips away etc) which i wouldn’t do before because i was too scared to. It takes a long time and Idon’t expect to ever feel “normal” again. Give yourselftime to heal. One day at a time. The whole BC business is total rubbish -trying to keep my sense of humour helps. (as does the odd glass of wine!)
Thank you, I think the worst time is when chemo/ radio stops and you are left alone and it is such a struggle to shake that. I stopped working during treatment but generally kept on as normal, for those around me and myself. I think I have maybe tried to keep ‘normal’ too much and not actually faced what I went through? When I went to my follow up yearly appointment with my radio therapist in the oncology centre where all my chemo took place I felt awful! I should be happy that I am here and making most of life but for some reason that doesn’t happen! Need a swift kick up the rear end iI think 
it is hard too dealing with this and all the other stuff going on in life, when people that care about you really want you back but you are going through so many changes that you don’t even know the real you anymore.xx
Thank you everybody for your stories and help, hugs to you too my doc has offered anti depressants, I did decline saying that I would prefer to talk, unfortunately she said that because of poor funding unless you were desperate for help then you would not get any counselling for months!! Hey ho, I am glad that I came on here, definitely should have done it along time ago!