I had the results today told it is "slightly advanced " cancer . I haven’t been given a grading but he did say it is hormone responsive and it will be treatable . Issues I have is he said the surgery - mastectomy and lymph gland clearance would not be till 3rd of December , I was so taken aback I didn’t ask why so long for surgery when I was there, I have since contacted my breast care nurse to ask and she said she would get back to me tomorrow and I may need to see another surgeon if the one I saw has too many cases to do me sooner .
I will have chemo after the surgery and possibly radio therapy as well . ANY help advice would be gratefully received at this point , I will be ringing the help line tomorrow , seems I have lots to find out ! I have a support network of good friends . I had to tell my son and daughter tonight it was hard but they were positive about me getting through it as I was positive with them
Like I said , any help and advice gratefully received
Hi Rowan44,
I am so sorry to hear your news. I was diagnosed on 24th Oct and it came as a massive shock as my GP had turned me away twice saying I had a cyst. It was when I went back a third time that she referred me.
I have been on “official” internet sites every single day (I was advised not to go on the internet at all but how could I?). If I tell you what I know so far, perhaps you might have an idea. If you look on sites like cancerresearchuk, Macmillan and nhs…but avoid all the others. And this forum has given me so much information, anything that has been unclear has been given to me on here by some lovely ladies who have been through what we are going through now.
Do you know what type if cancer…Ductal invasive carcinoma is the most common.
Did they tell you which grade you are? Grade 1 and 2 are slow growing whereas 3 is faster growing. I have a feeling your slightly advanced is grade 2 but check with your nurse.
Have they told you the size of the tumour?
Also have they written your hormone on your paperwork (ER/PR/HER2). You might have a number next to the ER/PR or it may say positive or negative. And have a look to see if the HER2 is + or - This is to do with whether you will be receptive to hormone treatment after chemo.
Xxxx
Ok I’m no expert but I have been checking out more and more info everyday. As far as I know, Tamoxifen is the gold star treatment as long as you have ER positive, which you must have. So this is good news. I had to ask my grade and I was told grade 2. I have a treatment plan in place already even though I am having tests all this week…my treatment plan is chemo (I have a 3cm tumour which they want to shrink in order to do a lumpectomy) then radiotherapy then Tamoxifen. I asked them to just remove my breast and get it out but I was told even if they did that, they wanted to use chemo to ensure they get rid of all cancer that might not be picked up on the scans. There is a tool online, can’t remember what site now, that doctors use as a rough guide to see how neoadjuvent treatment would help statistically (neoadjuvent is chemo, rads then hormone as far as I can see). My oncologist said that some women say they won’t go through chemo if there is only 4% better success but when you think that’s 400 women out of 1000 that it benefits, it sounds beneficial. I hope I am helping? I have been driving myself mad on the internet for over a week xx
Sorry bad maths 40/1000 xx
Any questions you have, just write them all down on here or ask your breast care nurse. I am asking everything, I feel like I need to know answers all the time and all this waiting us so hard. I am here if you need me xxxx
I am so sorry to hear that you’re also going through a divorce xx I hope your breast care nurse helped. The first few days I found out, I couldn’t stop breaking down. I seemed to walk round in a daze and felt myself being really low. I’ve been to hospital Sun, Mon, Tue, today and Fri this week for scans and tests which I have put myself into robot mode for. Last week, everytime I went to the hospital I broke down and everyone has told me this is normal. I really hope you are coping, if your friends and family want to help, please let them. I am usually so independent but I have had to except help with babysitters while I am at the hospital. Please feel free to talk anytime xxxx
I haven’t checked our benefits or anything yet. My husband has taken 2 weeks off to support me at the hospital and I work part time and have a sick note for 2 weeks while I recover from my sentinal node biopsy op. But I need to sort money out too, I have no idea what, if any, we are entitled to xx