Breast Cancer Now Forum

Hello everyone. Well I am now on day 12 after my second FEC cycle. But I am seriously thinking about not having anymore chemo. I honestly feel like it is doing me more harm than good. This cycle has been better though, as in I haven't been sick at all, and the nausea has been minimal. The thing I am really struggling with though is the constant worry about catching an infection. I am petrified! I was in hospital for 9 days during my first cycle, due to having an on going chest infection, and I am so worried about being ill again. At the moment all 3 of my Daughters are poorly with coughs, colds, and sore throats, and I am constantly telling them to not cough into their hands, etc, for fear of them spreading their germs. I feel like a broken record telling them to wash their hands and use anti bacterial hand wash all the time. They are all being affected by my treatment, they are worried, upset and stressed, and I cant deal with that, I feel like its destroying my family 😞 My Husband is absolutely amazing, so supportive, but I know he is feeling the strain too. You might think why I am so scared about infection, well its because I live an hour away from the hospital I am being treated at, so getting help quickly is difficult. My local hospital could help me if needed, but the A&E department is closed over night! I chose to have chemo, even though my Oncologist said it only offered a 1% benefit. The reason I went ahead is cancer was found in my sentinal node, so I was worried about any cells that could be lurking elsewhere. My lump, which was a 12mm Grade 1, ER+ was removed with a very good clear margin, and no more cancer was found in the remaining 25 nodes that were removed. My Oncotype result was 20, so in the low intermediate area, meaning that it isnt clear if chemo would be beneficial. Another thing that chemo has left me with is my body is constantly shaking, like a vibration, and when I walk it feels like i'm on a trampoline or bouncy castle. I've read that this can be due to nervous system damage. I also have tenderness in my chest bones, which was originally thought to have been caused by my chest infection, but now thats cleared up the tenderness is still there. I am obviously worried about this, and I really want to have an MRI scan to check my whole body, i'm even prepared to pay for it, if the hospital say I cant have one. I want to know if there is any chance the cancer could be somewhere else. I want to stop chemo and go straight onto radiotherapy and hormone therapy, which my Husband wants me to do too, as he feels I cant mentally cope with anymore chemo, knowing that potentially I am damaging a cancer free body, and I agree with him. I really dont know what to do, I just want to feel normal again 😞 Sorry for the long post! ... View more

Hello everyone. Well today I went back for my results. Thankfully they got clear margins of 7mm, after my lumpectomy, but unfortunatly the one lymph node they removed came back positive 😞 I am quite shocked by this, as my lump was small, only 12mm upon removal. Anyway, I will now need full node clearance, which i'm having next Tuesday (6th Dec). In the meantime they are doing an Oncotype test, to see if chemo is recommended, or not. I was also told that my cancer is a rare one, apparently only 4% of BC's are this, its called a Cribriform, which is an invasive type, but mine is grade 1, where previously they thought it was grade 2. Apparently the good news is the outcome for my type of cancer is generally better than many other types of invasive BC. I was wondering if anyone on here also has Cribriform cancer? I have searched the word on the forum, and nothing comes up!    Many thanks, Lisa 🙂 ... View more