Breast Cancer Now Forum

Hi amdanc Ten days is very soon after surgery to expect complete healing even without irradiated skin. I had to have a mastectomy after rads 7 years previously and though most of the scar healed well, if slowly, there a short section (approximately where my original WLE scar had been)which was very stubborn and kept breaking down for weeks. I found the thing which helped most was Vitamin E oil, though some people swear by Bio Oil. I was told not to worry about keeping it dry, but to shower gently and use very mild products like Simple soap or shower gel. I then rubbed some oil gently into the scar once or twice a day and waited patiently for it to heal. It took somewhere between 2 and 3 months for the last bit to heal completely. Now, nearly 18 months later, i have a beautifully smooth, pale, flat scar, eith only one very small slightly rough section where healing took longest. Don't despair - it WILL get better. Kathy xxx ... View more

Hi Grandma Your scar sounds much like mine except that mine slopes slightly upwards from breastbone to armpit, because of the position of my tumour. I would imagine most people are left with something similar after surgery. As far as I can see the lumpy bit allows for free movement of my remaining breast when I stretch and twist my body. If the scar was too tight at this point I think it would pull uncomfortably on my breast. Given how hollow my chest now is on the mastectomy side I can't ever imagine wearing anything low enough for this little bump to show. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who aren't hollow-chested and can therefore be more adventurous. By all means speak to your surgeon, but I think it might be more helpful not to go in blaming him, but rather just saying that you don't want it to show and can he do something to help you. Good luck Kathy xxx ... View more

Not me Here I have to say I'm quite the opposite, Ruth, I've had a lot of ill-health in my life and have good reason to be grateful for the treatment I've had over the years. I had pneumonia 3 times before I was 6 and without rapid medical intervention each time I might well have died. My attitude is that if there really is something wrong with me, I won't make it go away by ignoring it. Obviously I don't run to the doctor with every cough and snuffle, but if a symptom is persistant I don't ignore it, but get it checked out. When I found my first lump on a Sunday (never having had lumpy breasts), I was at the GP's first thing on Monday and at the breast care clinic a week later. When I found my second lump and the registrar thought it was scar tissue, I persisted. I was right and he was wrong. I find uncertainty and fearful imagining much harder to deal with than cold facts, which hopefully I can do something about. Kathy ... View more

Hi Ruth When I was on tamoxifen 7 years ago, I used to get 3 months supply at a time. Now I'm on Arimidex I can only get one month at a time, unless I'm going to be away ewhen the pack runs out, in which case I get 2 months. I asked my GP whether it was because Arimidex is so much more expensive than tamoxifen, but he said no. Apparently it is now NHS best practice only to prescribe one month's supply at a time to prevent waste. If for any reason you have to come off the drug and still have a lot unused, they can't take it back and give it to someone else. I realise that where tamoxifen is concerned, some GPs are being more flexible than this, but not usually with Arimidex. If you need regular prescriptions for other things as well as tamoxifen, might it not be cheaper for you to get get a prepayment form? You can get the details at your GP's surgery. Kathy ... View more

Hi Maddy So sorry you've got a new lump to worry you. To the best of my knowledge, radiotherapy is normally only given after a lumpectomy, which is what happened with me 8 years ago. 18 months ago, when I had a recurrence under the scar from my original lymph node clearance, I was offered the possibility of another lumpectomy plus radiotherapy, as this area hadn't had rads the first time. However I chose to have a mastectomy which meant that I wouldn't need rads. After chemo, the only preventative drugs are hormonal treatments and Herceptin, and these can only be given when the tunour is hormone receptive or HER2+. The fact that you weren't put on one of these suggests to me that your tumour was hormone receptor negative. Do you know for sure that your tumour was ER- and PR-? If you don't know, why not ask your oncologist or breast care nurse, or get them to give you a copy of your original pathology report. If it helps to know this, I had a friend who had a very similar experience to yours. She had a mastectomy with chemo and no rads and when she had a recurrence on the mastectomy scar 2 years later was given rads. That was nearly 10 years ago and she is doing fine. Good luck with your treatment Kathy xx ... View more

No free prescriptions for asthma Hi Lizzie, On a point of information, asthma is not considered life-threatening enough to qualify for free prescriptions. As a life-long asthmatic I must have spent a fortune on prescription charges for my 3 different inhalers. Add to them Arimidex and 2 prescriptions to counter its side-effects, plus ointment for chronic eczema and you can see why I was glad to turn 60 last year! Kathy ... View more

Potential new anti-cancer drug I've just read a very interesting item in today's New Scientist. If it turns out this drug can be used like this, it could be really big news. Details at: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10971 Kathy ... View more

Why not try it and see? Hi Sarah, Our cases aren’t exactly similar as I’m post-menopausal and my tumour was small and on the benign end of the Grade 1 spectrum. I had a WLE and rads, didn’t need chemo and started to take tamoxifen, but came off it after two years because of vision disturbances (a very rare side effect) I was considered so low risk that I wasn’t offered an alternative such as Arimidex. Five years after stopping tamoxifen I had a recurrence (outside the rads area) under the original lymph node scar. Obviously there’s no way of knowing for certain whether I would have avoided this if I had taken the full five years of tamoxifen, but my guess is that I would. As the others have said, to reject a known safety net for fear of side-effects which may well not happen (I had hot flushes but nothing else, until the vision problem started) is probably not a good idea, especially with a very aggressive cancer like IBC. Surely it would be better to take it and see what happens. If the side-effects are intolerable, you can do what I did and stop, but at least you will have tried. Good wishes, whatever you decide. Kathy ... View more

Hi Dawn First, can I say how sorry I am to hear about your brother. It must be so dreadfully hard to lose him at such a young age. My deepest sympathy. I\'m really sorry you\'ve now got something else to worry you, so soon after your last lot of treatment. Of course there is always a chance that it might be a tiny recurrence - we can never rule that out, but it may very well just be a small lump of extra scar tissue or some benign skin problem. Obviously it has to be your decision as to whether to wait until after Christmas and I can quite understand why you don\'t want any more tests just now. Could you ring your breast care nurse for advice and decide when you\'ve heard what she has to say? When I had some worrying symptoms near my mastectomy scar in the spring, my bcn was very helpful indeed. If it was me, my instinct would be to try to find out what it is, as I find uncertainty much harder to live with. But you must do what feels right for you. Do keep us posted. Love Kathy xxx ... View more

Hi Steph Sorry to hear about your mother-in-law\'s new lump. I\'m afraid that the short answer is yes, it is possible for breast cancer to return after 16 or more years. In my case it came back in the same breast after 7, but Jan, as you heard, had hers recur after 20. Obviously we all hope that your mother-in-law\'s lump will turn out to be harmless. Even if it is cancer, please remember that treatments have come a very long way since she had her first lump and there are far more options than there were 16 years ago. All the best Kathy xxx ... View more

Hi Cally Sorry you\'re worried. It could be a lump, but it could also be microcalcifications or a cyst or other things I don\'t know about. Not much longer to wait now and I do hope it all turns out OK. Kathy xxx ... View more

Hi Daphne I\'m sure you\'re right about environmental factors playig a part in cancer. but I do query the 81% rise in INCIDENCE (sorry about the capitals, but it\'s the only way this system lets us emphasise words). I would rather say an 81% rise in DIAGNOSIS, since the advent of the mammogram screening programme (and other modern diagnostic tools such as ultrasound) has meant many much smaller and earlier cancers are now found, often long before they would have been found any other way. Indeed some at least of the cancers being found now might never have been diagnosed in earlier days, as people would have died of other things before their bc caused any symptoms. That doesn\'t mean that imcidence isn\'t rising - I\'m sure it is. We\'re taller, heavier, drink much more and eat more junk food than we used to do 40 years ago - all of these being risk factors for bc. It\'s just that i think we have to be carefully to use words accurately and the fact is that we can\'t know how much of this rise is true increase in cases and how much is due to better diagnostic tools. Kathy xxx ... View more

No it isn\'t fair... ....it\'s bl**dy terrible! No wonder you\'re so upset, Karen.This disease is so cruel and unpredictable and I\'m so very sorry about your friend\'s devastating news. I\'ve heard recently about so many people who\'d been doing well and have now been diagnosed with secondaries and it\'s very frightening and sad. Come back here and rant as much as you like. You know we understand and care. Love Kathy xxx ... View more

Lobular cancer I\'ve just seen a reference to an interesting item on the BBC website yesterday on lobular cancer research. Here\'s the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/6199422.stm Kathy ... View more

I agree too Apologies for being another prophet of doom, Glo, but my own experience leads me to disagree with your consultant\'s approach. 8 years ago I was diagnosed with a stage 1, grade 1, invasive ductal cancer, very much on the benign end of the spectrum. It was so benign that after my WLE I was offered the choice between rads and tamoxifen (no chemo) but chose to have both, as my tumour was strongly ER+. After 2 years I came off the tamoxifen because it was affecting my vison and wasn\'t offered anything else, as I was considered so low risk. In autumn 2005 i found a new lump under the scar from the previous axillary clearance - another cancer, this time Grade 2 with some lymphatic and perineural invasion. My surgeon on this occasion told me that she wishes she could be like her colleagues with other cancer specialities and tell her patients that after 5 years with no recurrence they are clear. She can\'t, because bc isn\'t like other cancers and can come back 10, 20 or even more years later. Like Karelyn I too am concerned that you aren\'t on any hormonal treatment if your tumour was hormone receptive (especially with a Grade 3 cancer) though I suppose that might depend on how strongly or weakly receptive it was. My recurrence scored 8/8 for ER and 5/8 for PR and to stop any stray cancer cells from making more mischief I will go on taking Arimidex for as long as they are willing to give it to me. None of this means that we go round living with a black cloud hanging over our heads, but just with the knowledge that things aren\'t always quite as clear-cut as your consultant makes out. Kathy xxx ... View more

Hi Molly So sorry you\'ve got yet another recurrence and completely understand why you feel as you do. I know of people who have had double mastectomies, but I\'m not one of them. I had a recurrence last year after 7 years and chose to have a mastectomy for the same reason as you. I could have had a lumpectomy and more rads, but I simply wanted rid of that breast and have never regretted my decision. Yes, I miss my breast, but would do the same thing again tomorrow without a second thought. I hope someone whose situation is closer to yours will be along to give you their thoughts. Keep posting - you\'ll get a lot of support here. Kathy xxx ... View more

I can see both sides Nearly 8 years ago, when I was first diagnosed, it was with a small Grade 1, Stage 1 tumour (node-negative). My bcn said that if I had to have bc, this was the kind to have and I was given a really excellent prognosis. I had to come off tamoxifen after 2 years because of a vision problem, but was considered such a low risk that I wasn\'t put on anything else. I rarely if ever thought about bc and if I did, it was very much as something I had had in the past. So it was a big shock to be diagnosed last year with a recurrence under the ANC scar (this time Grade 2 with intralymphatic and perineural invasion). I certainly no longer feel that I have been cured and am aware that recurrence increases the possibility of someday developing mets. Jane is right in saying that bc can recur at any time, though the chances of recurrence do go down over time. Statistically, those with hormone-negative tumours are more likely to recur in the first five years, whereas hormone-positive tumours (usually being slower-growing) are more likely to recur more than five years after first diagnosis. The plain fact is that bc is a sneaky disease and my breast surgeon told me that because of this she can never tell her patients that they are completely cured. Kathy ... View more

Thanks so much, Roberta I too miss JPoet and have just spent a rewarding half-hour reading some of the material on this new site. I will definitely bookmark it and return to her poems again and again. Kathy xxx ... View more