Hi. Sorry to hear you are struggling a bit. I didn’t know whether to answer your question or not about recurrence as I wouldn’t want to worry you. I was diagnosed with primary breast cancer age 26. The tumour was over 4cm and grade 3. All my lymph nodes were clear. I had a mastectomy, chemo, radiotherapy and then hormone therapy for 2 years. Then last year I was diagnosed with secondary BC with spread to my lungs and bones, age 42. That was after around a year of extreme pain. So my BC came back around 14 years after my original diagnosis even with no nodes involved. Hope that answers your question but doesn’t make you feel overly anxious xx
Hi Mandy, I’m so sorry that you also had a recurrence, it feels so unfair when we feel we have done the ‘right’ thing. After I had a lumpectomy and sentinel biopsy results showed the cancer hadn’t spread to my lymph nodes and I had five weeks of radiotherapy and Tamoxifen. I really battled with it too with bad leg and feet cramps (tonic water helped), sweats and aches. Unfortunately my husband was almost killed in an accident seven weeks after my radiotherapy finished and spent a long time in hospital and Rehab. When I had recurrence 16 months after radiotherapy finished I was devastated. I’d found three lumps under my arm on the same side. Auxiliary node clearance revealed cancer. I then had chemo followed by radiotherapy and am on Aromisin. I truly feel that the stress, fatigue and sadness I experienced with my husband’s accident and ongoing disabilities triggered my recurrence rather than the Tamoxifen failing. I wish you all the very best of care xx