Treatment ended but still struggling

[julesd63]

Brilliant sum up! Thankyou xx

[Seagulls]

Dear Eniy91 I just read your June messages about your miserable experience of surgery and your sadness at having to lose your breast. I feel for you as I had a mastectomy on 8 September 2022 and still feel gutted that I had to do it to save my life.

Now I am back doing lots of exercise in my garden and going on walks with our dog and I have put it further back in my mind. It’s ok to mourn your losses and to revisit them from time to time. We are brave and battled and battered so pat yourself on the back and put yourself first. You are better off expressing how you feel than bottling it up.

Seagulls

[windog1]

@1980

I think the hardest part of cancer treatment is at the end–when everyone assumes you’re “cured” and you no longer need their help. You’re in your weakest, most devastated state, plus you no longer have the mission you had when you began this journey: to kill the cancer. The cancer is toast, but so are you, and now, like a soldier at the end of war, you need help putting yourself back together, only everyone has gone home since they assume the war has been won.

Hi I can really relate to what you are saying 1980. I have just completed a series of radiotherapy sessions and started Letrosol, so the treatment journey ended Christmas and New Year celebrations over and I feel flat and detached. We had lovely meals and spent time with family but I don’t feel like celebrating. My treatment programme as gone well, I have never felt I would die but still can’t shake the weight of the experience off.
I have private therapy lined up so hoping that I can work through my journey.

[naughty_boob]

@windog1 Welcome to the forum. Yes many of us feel left, lonely, lost to name just a few feelings after our active treatment finishes. Counselling came help but also meeting others that have experienced similar experiences of breast cancer is helpful.

I had just finished chemo last Christmas with radio to follow and Herceptin injections for another 9 months, so I was also very flat last year. I finished Herceptin in Sept 2024 and needed to build up my immunity and still had some ongoing issues. This Christmas in comparison was much better but I lost a friend/colleague on Boxing Day to lung cancer which had spread. She was so supportive of me and such a special lady who will be missed. Suffice to say I feel a bit more subdued with my mind going overtime with every ache and pain being something suspicious.

BCN do a Moving Forward course to help with the what next and you will meet either online or face to face a group of people who have get what is going on.

• Moving Forward: Finishing treatment can be hard, and it can be difficult to move forward with your life. You can access our support online or face-to-face. Our online information hub and Moving Forward journal provide extra ideas and information. Courses run over 2 weeks, with 2 3.5hr sessions. Or trained facilitators and volunteers are there to help. Find a course near you.

I met a lovely group of ladies and we keep in contact via Whats App and arranging a meet up in the New Year.

[Tili]

Dear Windog1,

Welcome to the forum, we are all here to support you, it’s always nice to be able to get advice from someone who has been through what you’re going through.

At the moment it’s very early days, be kind to yourself, take one day at a time, I can remember it all to well, I had lost my comfort blanket, my friends were all on a high for me, but quite honestly I just couldn’t cope, also I found my family thought I was completely back to normal, I pretended I was, but as most of us understand it’s not that easy, however on a happier note it will get better I promise.

Please keep posting to let us know how you’re getting on.

With the biggest hugs my brave lady

Tili

[windog1]

Thank you so much for your replies.
I guess it’s about not wonting to burden my family - I have always been the strong dependable one so it hard to move away from that role.
When I told my sister I had breast cancer she was inconsolable and ask questions that quite frankly was more about her than me. My husband hasn’t really told me how he feels but been there for me and my grown up son, I know found it difficult.
So I move forward and work through not only the cancer diagnosis and treatment but retiring from the NHS after 40 years, both in many ways a loss.
I understanding the impact on mental wellbeing, I support people with mental health challenges but sometimes it’s hard to put things into practice. I have lost motivation and the energy I had - but 2025 has arrived and I intend to live whilst accepting the trauma I like many have experienced.
I did mention to my key worker the need for the unit to have peer run groups - it’s about listening not giving advice but validating feelings

Happy New year to you all

[gillid]

Thats why this group is so wondwrful. We HEAR you and stand beside you x