Hello again Ladies,
Well I was diagnosed in Feb 06 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. ER+ PR- HER +.
3cm Tumor. 6 lymph nodes involved. Left Mastectomy - Full ancillary clearance.
Reconstruction straight away. - Went wrong back to theatre, infected.
Chemo - epi/cmf. Radio.
Herceptin - problems all the way through, unfortunately had severs allergic reaction had to take steroids and anti histermines Inhalers throughout.
Had 13 Herceptins and then had to come of because of heart reading fell to 43%.
Oncologist says no more treatments. He says well at least you have managed to do thirteen.
Feel as if I have lost my comfort blanket , fell totally frightened and lost.
I take daily Aromasin.
When I get the slightest pain I start automatically to think its the cancer back.
Do any of you Ladies feel the same.
I have a Son 19 and a daughter 13.
Have told my husband how I feel. He has been brilliant. Well we have been married for 25 yrs. Its a good job we have really. I can understand how a diagnosis of breast cancer can split a couple up. But I have one of the good ones.
I feel as if I have lost my comfort blanket , being on the Herceptin I mean.
I am looking forward to xmas. but its always in my head.
Perhaps you can give me some advice
With Love
Tracey
xxx
Tracey,
not been where you are, but so glad you’ve got support at home. All I can do is recommend you call the help line - they have nurses there that must’ve come across this before.
hugs
x
Hi Tracey
I am sorry to read that you are feeling this way and wanted to reassure you that it is a perfectly normal reaction to finishing treatments and lots of people tell us this is how they feel.
In addition, I am posting this to give you a few ideas of our other support services which you may find helpful at the moment. Have you thought about our ‘Peer support’ service whereby you can be put in touch with someone, by telephone, who is of a similar age and diagnosis to you for support and a ‘listening ear’ from someone who has ‘been there’? We also run live chat every Thursday evening 9-10pm which gives users the chance to ‘chat’ in real time, also, don’t forget our helpline on 0808 800 6000 which opens Mon-Fri 9am-5pm and Sat 9am-2pm as quisie has kindly suggested.
You can read more about all of our support services via the ‘Support for you’ tab at the top of this page.
Best wishes
Lucy
Moderator
Breast Cancer Care
Hi Tracey
Can only echo what quisie says above. Only been part way dwn your journey - dx 1st Nov, 2.9 cm lump ER neg PR neg HER+. Had right mastectomy and full node clearance - 5 of 11 involved. No reconstruction though. Now on 4 x FEC (just had 1st one on 28th), followed by 16 rads, followed by 4 x TAX, followed by, hopefully, a year of Herceptin.
I’m am so sorry for the difficulty you have experienced with the Herceptin. As quisie has said I am sure there will be someone on the hepline who has come across these difficulties and can talk them through with you.
Your husnabd sounds like he has been a gem and I am sure will continue to be - please let us know how you get on
best wishes and take care
Margaret x
Tracey,
I’m sorry you’re feeling so lost, but if it is any comfort to you it is quite normal to feel bad when your treatment comes to an end. I have just started herceptin after mast/chemo/rads and although it is a pain to be having treatment for another year, in a way it is good because as you say it is a comfort blanket and I don’t need to worry about the loss of it just yet.
You might find the following article helpful:
it’s rather a long link, but it takes you to an article about how hard it can be after treatment has finished, which may help you.
The article refererenced above is excellent, I have it printed out and is is such good reading, it is helpful for nearest and dearest to read too! I
Thanks RoadRunner - I have saved a copy of that article for later !!
Margaret x