Breast Cancer Now Forum

I've been taking Letrozole for nearly 5 months, following a double mastectomy (oestrogen-receptive cancer both sides) in August, and I've just had the results of the dexa scan which, I believe, they put all breast cancer patients on Letrozole through, given how common osteoporosis is as a side-effect.   Essentially, I'm just in the osteoporosis range (-2.8 T score on the lumbar spine: what a learning curve this has all been !) and accordingly, so long as I'm taking Letrozole, they'd want me to take biophosphanates (against osteoporosis). If I wasn't taking Letrozole, they wouldn't.   According to my consultant, I have a 2% greater chance of being alive in 5 years (aren't statistics wonderful!) if I take the Letrozole compared with if I don't. 2%, obviously, isn't that much, though someone did point out that perhaps there'd be a 10% chance of being still alive but diseased! ...   I've been reading up about biophosphanates and they don't sound particularly pleasant, and in any case I really don't want to get on that merry-go-round where you're taking one drug to balance off the side-effects of another, etc etc. As it is, I've upped my nutritional regime considerably since I was diagnosed, and will be doing another course at the Penny Brohn Centre next month.   I know it's only me who can make this decision - and my inclination at the moment is to stop taking the Letrozole - but if anyone has any comments/further information, I'd really appreciate the input.     ... View more

I'm trying to work out what would be the best way of carrying things around, post a double mastectomy, to minimise the risk of lymphedema.   Obviously a shopping trolley could be useful ... I'm also intending to get a good daypack with a hipbelt - although a doctor pointed out that I would still need to be careful vis-a-vis the restriction of blood supply round the shoulder straps ...   But what about handbag-style carrying? Rucksack style, cross-body ... or just a regular one but lighter weight than the ones I have already?   Sorry for raising such seemingly trivial points, but if anyone who's trod this way before could share their experience, I'd be really grateful! ... View more

Two weeks ago I had a double mastectomy/sentinel node biopsy, and I am still feeling fortunate beyond belief that the lymph nodes turned out to be clear.   However, I'm now trying to get my head round what it means to live ongoing with the risk of lymphedema, particularly as I live on my own.   Does anyone have any advice, beyond the standard 'Don't carry heavy shopping bags/avoid cuts etc'? If I go away, for example, can I really not lift a smallish suitcase into the car? Are there recommended cases on wheels/shopping trolleys which would help me to cope?   I do understand that, in the first place, the risk is not so great as if I'd had to have more than the 3 lymph nodes removed on each side, and it's obviously going to be a bit of a case of 'suck it and see', but it would be great to have some advice on how to steer a middle course between carting round large heavy bags and being too neurotic to lift a finger!   Has anyone written a book about this perhaps? ... View more

I was recently diagnosed with cancer and am going to be having a double mastectomy next month. I was just wondering whether anyone had an information about some research that was publicised this April, which seems to indicate a link between having surgery and getting metastases - see, for example, http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2018/04/11/breast-cancer-surgery-spread. To quote:   “The post-surgical wound-healing response somehow releases already disseminated cells, cells that have already spread to distant sites in the body, releasing them from the constraints that have previously prevented them from growing actively,” says professor Robert Weinberg, the new study’s senior author.   If anyone has any thoughts about/update on this, I'd be very interested to know. ... View more