Breast Cancer Now Forum

Hi everyone, I'm on 9/18 of my radiotherapy sessions and just had a funny turn at the check out in Morrisons. My legs gave way beneath me and my vision went dark. The poor lady at the till got a right fright when I ended up on the floor! Has anyone else suffered from fainting/dizziness during rads? Aside from this I'm feeling tired and have a mild rash, but this funny turn came completely out of the blue. Caroline x ... View more

Hi ladies,   I've only just realised that there's a forum specifically for younger women - oops - I've largely been posting on a different forum! I'm 31 and was diagnosed back in July with grade 2 IDC. I had surgery in August, underwent fertility treatment and had embryos frozen at the start of September, and I'm due to start radiotherapy any day now followed by Zoladex, Aromasin, and Zometa infusions.    This is just a post to say that I made a decision to be completely open about my diagnosis and have written a few blog posts about my experience so far, including how it has affected my work, and my ability to do sport: https://meltingplanet.org/blog/   Lots of love,   Caroline xx ... View more

Hi ladies,   I received a copy of a letter from my oncologist to my surgeon yesterday, and it says that an area suspicious for lymphovascular invasion has been seen. I assume this can't be too much of a worry given that it's the first time I've heard about it!   Just wondered if any of you have had the same on your pathology report, and whether it was explained to you? From a quick scan of research articles online it seems that some people think it might not impact prognosis but other studies think it can have the same impact as having one or two lymph nodes involved...   Anyhoo, hope you're all doing ok! Sorry to have been AWOL recently, I've been in a bit of a daze between work and stressing out, haha   Caroline xx     ... View more

Hi everyone,   I went in today for what should have been my radiotherapy planning CT, but they wouldn't do it as I'm apparently a belly-breather rather than a chest-breather. The information I was given didn't include any instructions on how to practise this, and although it says that DIBH is optional the radiographer said I really have to try to make it work as I'm too young to risk the radiation affecting my heart. I'm 31, fit, and otherwise healthy, and don't suffer from any breathing problems.    I was already getting a bit stressed by the fact I seemed to be useless at breathing, then to make things worse, the female staff told me they were going to talk to a colleague in the other room to get advice, but they came back again with a man, without giving me any warning. I felt so exposed and shocked lying there topless while a man had his face close to my chest to inspect my breathing. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd asked me or at least prepared me first!   After that I was struggling not to cry, so when they told me I'd have to go back in another few days and try again I got really upset. I have no confidence that I'll be able to do it under the pressure of treatment, but now I'm also worried about my heart if I don't do it using DIBH...    I thought this was meant to be the "easy" bit??    Caroline xx     ... View more