Soory I meant scotishlass - chemo brain still not gone!!!
Hi et, please call me Val. I hope you all have a long life. New drugs and treatments keep being discovered. I never thought I would see my daughters grow up…now waiting for grandchildren…but the girls are not co-operating! I will just have to try to hang arounbd a wee bit longer. Love to all, Val
I was 38 in the days before tamoxifen and almost routine chemo or radio therapy. There was no immediate family history. Had 2 girls aged 7 and 2 and a brilliantly supportive husband who saw my breast as no longer attractive but something that was killing me. This made the whole process of my mastectomy so much easier to cope with. My surgeon didn’t believe in reconstruction (this was 1983) so have lived with prosthesis ever since. Things have improved in leaps and bounds since those days especially the bras and swimsuits. There was never any suitable nightwear but I solved that last year by designing some mastectomy nightdresses.
I have met a lot of people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the last year but all have been over 45 although my daughter has a friend who was diagnosed in her early twenties. She is fine now and has been quite an inspiration in the local community.
hi all 43 when diagnosed lumpec chemo rads tomox.
32 with no family history. grade 3. 2cm big. had the works
XXX
Hi, diagnosed 3 months after my 30th birthday, no family history of BC although aunt died of cervial cancer.
2.5cm lump, triple negative.
Had WLE, 2 more chemo’s to go, then radiotherapy x
It is interesting how many of you had no family history - i was the other extreme horrendous family history… my maternal grandmother died of breast cancer at 45 and all 3 of her sisters also got it in their 40’s (all eventually dying) one of my aunts got bc at 48 had an mx and 10 years later it came back and she died with spread to her throat… her daughter also developed throat cancer in her 50’s and died… my other aunt died suddenly of a heart attack at 56 but when they did the autopsy found she had also had widespread stomach cancer and her daughter died at 50 of meningitus but again when they did the autopsy found she also had stomach cancer… and when i was growing up my mum was forever hearing that her cousins back in ireland had been diagnosed (my mum’s family moved here when she was only about 4 years old)
I’ve been tested for brca 1 and 2 but it was negative although the genetics people think that something is wrong but might even just be a gene fault in our family…
oh and i first went along to the breast clinic when i was 38 with a concern that turned out to be fine and said then i would happily have a double mastectomy but was poo-hooed… never even got referred to the genetics people… finally suddenly developed IBC (inflammatory breast cancer) at 43 and have since had double mx.
theresa i was going to say your family history does sound like you might have a brca 2 mutation… when did you have your mutation check and did they do the whole gene? in the past it was common just to look for the more common changes so only around 60% of the gene was tested.
i guess there are so few people with family history as genetics only account for around 5% of BCs
Lx
Lulu - it was only last summer at the centre for life in Newcastle… they couldn’t get a blood sample as my veins didn’t want to play that day… so i had to give a spit sample… she did say it sounded like brca 2 and also said they will be testing me again in the future when the other brcas are identified… unfortunatly we can’t do any comparison tests with other cancer patients in the family as they all died and we’ve long since lost contact with Mum’s family in Northern Ireland as all the ones she knew died (plus it was really her older sisters that had kept in contact more…) plus there is that old problem that women change their name on marriage so don’t even know what surnames to look for.
One of the first things I said when I was hit with my diagnosis was that nobody in my family had ever had cancer. The surgeon told me that genetic links only account for a very small number of cancer cases.
I was dx aged 45 in May this year. My mum was dx aged 47 and is still going strong 33 years later.
I’ve always checked fairly regularly because of my mum. My breasts have been lumpy since having children so have found it hard sometimes to be sure about what is/isn’t there. Felt a bit lumpier than normal in April and fp agreed so referred to hospital. They were pretty sure it was nothing more than a cyst, so much so that when I went for the core biopsy the radiologist refused to do it and only did so after I insisted (I was lying semi-naked at the time).
Anyway, vacuum biopsy showed a small cancer which was removed with WLE and reexcision.
The same radiologist inserted the wire for the WLE. She looked suitably remorseful and embarrassed I am happy to say.
Hi moomintroll,
I had my last baby when I was 32 and breastfed for over a year and found the lump myself which was the size of a tiny pea. I went immediately to have it checked via my GP. I kept going back for years as I was certain that it wasn’t a normal lump ( I had lumpy breats too).
When I was 38/39 I attended my GP about something else and she decided to send me back to the hospital just to check it out again. It never showed up on my mammogram but an ultrasound scan did. When I was told that it was BC I was totally shocked because I thought the lump had disappeared, when in fact it had grown so much I could no longer feel it. It was 5.5cm by then! I owe my life to that GP and recently I met her again and told her (she wasn’t my regular GP).
I knew from the first day I felt that lump that it was cancer. That was 21 years ago and things were different then. It was very rare for a young woman to have BC. Val
I was 24. I had WLE, mastectomy, and radiotherapy. My GP was great and referred me to the hospital immediately. I went to the doctors fully expecting to be told there was nothing to worry about, and was very shocked when they took it so seriously.
I was diagnosed age 31 and now at 36 have multiple secondaries !!
Max x
I was 29 on finding the lump, a self check in the bath tub.
GP was on the ball and referred me straight away to the hospital. Got an appt a week later, to be dismissed by the consultant as too young. Went back the following week, so they could finish off doing the checks, ultrasound, mammogram etc. Different consultant did the ultrasound, found 3 lumps, all looking friendly, offered me a non-urgent removal…so agreed…feeling very happy that it was all ok. Had the lumpectomy dec 1st…got the phonecall 3 days later…back up to the hospital within 10mins of the phonecall…to be told Stage 3, hormone positive etc…poke and a prod…sign the forms…mastectomy 5 days after that…consultant got the results back…my body had lied to them, showing all signs of being ‘friendly’ but lying through their lumpy cells! He’s not said…you’re too young to anyone after that, so was nice to know I was a wake up call for him…however, makes me wonder what wouldve happened if id just left them after the initial telling of ‘they are benign’…doesnt bear thinking about at times
I was 37. My main symptom was mild pain in my shoulder/underarm area which had been dismissed as muscular by a GP a year earlier. I’m now almost 46 and was diagnosed with bone secondaries last year. I think there’s definitely a case for better education for younger women (and GPs!); I certainly didn’t know enough about it.
Hi Tournesol, I have bone mets too. I was diagnosed with bone mets eleven years ago. I hope you are doing well. If you want to chat at any point PM me. Love Val
i found lump on my 35th birthday -wierd as said family history but no-one that i knew long time ago, since found brca 1 - wish they had found it earlier so i could get tested but now family have. lots of us so young xx
I was 44. No family history of breast cancer, although both parents had died of other cancers.
I saw the most brilliant young locum doctor who got me into the clinic for tests the day after I saw him. I will be forever grateful to him
I was 36, misdiagnosed for a couple of years.