Breast Cancer Now Forum

I had my WLE back in January. I went to the nuclear medicine dept the day before the op to have the radioactive 'dye' injected. I was warned that it might sting a bit but compared to the herceptin injections I'm having to have (that really sting!) it wasn't too bad. Then they did a quick scan using the machine they use to do a bone scan to check that the dye was beginning to trace it's way to the nodes and I was sent on my way. The next day I went to have the guide wire inserted using ultrasound. If you have had a core biopsy then it will be a familiar procedure, ie a local anaesthetic injection to numb the area and then the wire is pushed through. Be warned there will be a long length of wire poking out but they tape it down under a dressing. I got into my gown at this point and then headed off to the ward. The blue dye was injected during surgery and like others have said I had toilet dunk blue wee for couple of days! I still have a feint blue stain on my breast 5 months on. Hope that helps ... View more

I was given the choice of chemo first or not. If I'd gone for surgery first it would have been a mastectomy due to the size of the tumour. The argument the team gave me for chemo first was that they could see if the tumour was shrinking and if by chance any cancer cells had escaped my breast then they would be zapped too. It was a grade 3 her2+ tumour and responded so well to the chemo that It pretty much shrank away to nothing and I ended up with a WLE instead. I had to have ultrasounds every 2 cycles of chemo to check what was going on and had to have a tiny marker put in under local anaesthetic (a bit like having a core biopsy again) which was later taken out during surgery. The op itself was about 5 - 6 weeks after my last dose of chemo and I was physically fine (well fine in the scheme of things!) by then. I have no regrets about the choice I made. I hope you are able to reach the right decision for you ... View more

Thought I would poke my head in and say hi although I don't feel I've quite graduated to the recovery stage. I'm saving all my celebrations until November when I have my last herceptin. Can't believe I've had over 5 weeks off work. I've a drs note covering me to the end of the month so I've got a few days longer before getting my head around going back. Whilst I'm looking forward to seeing colleagues again I quite like having time to myself. Oh well all good things have to come to an end! ... View more

Yeah! Can't believe it's all done. 20 visits to the hospital seem to have flown by. Although we've just been out to the pub as a family for a 'celebratory' dinner I don't feel I can go too mad. I've still got 9 herceptin to go (next one this weds) in the chemo ward so can't quite escape the whole cancer scene just yet. But I will raise a virtual glass to you lovely ladies to mark the end of this stage 🙂 How exciting to be going away for the weekend AG, hope you have a lovely time Sue, hope you're burn is starting to heal now Sunflower, my boosters were a slightly lower dose than the main ones in a band across where the tumour bed was. So my boob is now pink, slightly darker pink topped off with the remains of the blue dye from earlier in the year. Very fetching! Will look out for you all on the other side ... View more

Ouch Sue, that sounds nasty. What's causing the bruising, is it all around your scars? Sorry if I've missed anything that would explain what's going on. Hope you manage to speak to your BCN and get some reassurance I had my first booster today. They had to recheck all my measurements and take X-ray pictures again just like they did first time so I was very glad to take my arms out the stirrups when it was all done! The boosters are following a narrow strip over the tumour site but unfortunately they go right across my nipple too so the radiographer was quite keen to impress on me that if it got very sore they had nurses who I could see for help. Hopefully I won't need to but I have everything crossed just in case Hope everyone else is getting back into routine after the long weekend ... View more

Yeah! Sunflower. How do you feel (apart from tired obviously!!)? Does it feel very strange that it's all come to an end? Do you have a follow up appointment now? Sorry, it wasn't meant to be the Spanish Inquisition! Suebeehoney and Eileen, I think we might all be finishing at the same time-ish? I've had my 15 main treatments, just have 5 boosters to go. But of course with the bank holiday, they can only squeeze in 4 sessions next week, so will be in on the 11th for my last one. Whilst I'll be glad to see an end to the daily trips to hospital, I'm a little wobbly about coming to the end of active treatment. Suebeehoney, how are you dealing with coming to the end? I can't believe you're having to have 28 sessions, that seems ages! While I remember, I'm sure I saw someone on here mentioning a carol concert later this year? It sounds lovely but it's my birthday that day so I'm hoping I'll be out celebrating, particularly as last year I was mid chemo and not up to much! Enjoy the long weekend everyone, hope the weather isn't too bad ... View more

Just wanted to say that although I live within Greater London, in order to access this service it would take me 1.5hrs involving a walk, a bus ride, two trains and a tube journey! So although on paper it looks like something I could go to by virtue of it being in London, the reality is it is no more accessible to me than if I lived somewhere else. My heart sinks whenever I see that the nearest courses to me (any courses not just BC ones) are run in London as it's a nightmare to get to. I'm not out of active treatment yet so something like this would not yet be beneficial to me but just wanted to show another take on the situation ... View more

Gosh Francine, you are really are going through it all! Glad you are home now, let's hope once you're back in your own bed you'll recover a lot quicker Sunflower, after today only 2 more to go! How does it feel? How is your skin bearing up? Mine is pink and you can definitely see the outline of what's being treated and it's a little more sensitive but otherwise it seems to be holding up ok. I'm absolutely shattered though and today a little depressed with everything. It's not helped by one of our oldest friends being sent home from hospital last week with only a few weeks left to live all thanks to cancer. He's only just turned 50 and will leave behind a wife and 2 children. But I've only got 7 rads left to go and then the bulk of my treatment will finally be over (still have 9 herceptin to go between now and November). It's been such a long slog to get here as it's just over 10 months since I found a lump. Some days it feels like forever ... View more

Gosh Judi, can't believe you've only 1 left! Hopefully everything carries on holding up ok. I had herceptin this week too on Wednesday. That was a day, local hospital in the morning for the injection and then the Marsden for rads later in the afternoon. I've just had my 9th herceptin so half way through the course. I tend to ache most of the time anyway so not sure if things get worse just after the injection. I do get headaches and a head rush like I've had too much caffeine on the day and then a dodgy tummy for a few days but other than that seem to be ok Eileen and sparkle, nearly 1 week down - yeah! It's amazing how quickly it all passes. I had to laugh at the thought of a young man grappling with boobs and poppers or was it poppers and boobs! Sunflower, like you I've just had no 10. They took me in early yesterday and today which was great. The scar tissue under my skin (so not the scar itself) is starting to get quite hard and was giving me a few painful stings yesterday. I'm about as pink as they would expect me to be but they couldn't predict how I would end up. The lady did say my bra looked as though it was a little too tight based on the mark it had left on my skin which might cause problems. So I think I might try going bra-less a bit to see if that helps Enjoy the weekend off, hope we get some sunshine to enjoy ... View more

Great news AG. At least you can keep moving forwards with the treatment ... View more

M-J. I'm sorry to say that I don't have that problem although my nails do seem to break easily these days. I put that down to after effects of chemo (I finished back in November last year), I didn't realise it could be a side effect of Herceptin. I've just had my 9th injection this week, so half way through :-). I will keep an eye out though and report back if my nails seem to get worse ... View more

Lorraine, I second holding your head high as you've been through a lot to get where you are. But, I do agree with getting used to the looks. I found when I went to the cancer unit in my local hospital I was acutely aware of people looking at me where I was oblivious elsewhere. I put it down to being a very real reminder that it was a cancer unit and was perhaps making things all to real for those people waiting to have tests. Now I'm having rads at the Marsden, everyone there has cancer so no one bats an eyelid! Hawkeye, I agree about getting into the routine. The only thing to look forward to is which members of staff I'm having as it seems to be different every day! Sunflower, yea to being halfway through 🙂 and even better a day working at home. I'll be halfway on Friday - where is the time going, it seems to be flying by AG sounds like you have quite bad swelling if your measurements have changed? My breast has definitely swollen but more along the lines of post op swelling. It's pink now and the scar tissue was quite sore today and getting harder. But on the whole all good. Hope the team can sort things out for you ... View more

Yep! Only left sided cancers - and at my hospital only those in the lower half - need you to hold your breath. According to my paperwork 'voluntary breath holding' is to reduce the risk of 'radiation induced heart disease'. Oh my! ... View more

No modesty gowns here! Once they've marked me up they do cover up my good side with the gown. What I find weird is lying down and having someone getting a ruler out and measuring marks from my tattoos before drawing on me. And then breathing in and out to get into the right breath hold position whilst two people are staring closely at my chest! ... View more

Welcome Judith :-). I find my team lovely but not necessarily the best conversationalists. They just seem to want to get the job done and move into the next one! As I mentioned before, after working through chemo and two surgeries, I'm now taking it easy for the next few weeks. I am checking emails and keeping in touch with the office but am not planning on going back until the end of May at the earliest. I'm amazed at those of you still working as I just couldn't do it - way too tired now - but then again someone might have said that to me when I headed into the office one week after a chemo infusion! I'm now 7 down, 13 to go and bored of it all already.... Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out and a big breath now. 1,2,3,4....... I'll be saying it in my sleep soon! My skin has definitely turned pink now and you can see a the outline of the area being scanned. Wonder how much worse it's going to get? Hope everyone else is good and those that are able are enjoying this beautiful weather ... View more

LOL. I was told I could wash mine off! I've had 5 sessions now and no one has told me off yet 🙂 ... View more

Ah that's makes sense to me. Now if only they could invent pens that didn't need soap or rubbing to get off......! ... View more

When I had my rads planning I asked about creams and was told that the radiography guidelines are just being changed. Rather than recommending ladies use certain types of lotion apparently the recommendation is to just use what you've always used as you know that you are not going to be allergic to it. Using something new could throw up its own set of problems. Now that I've started rads I've been given a letter that says "you can use a light moisturiser on the skin in the treatment area. Avoid using thick creams and those with a high content of paraffin or petroleum jelly" ( unfortunately it doesn't say why!) These are the guidelines from the Marsden dated February 2015 ... View more

And to those of you facing 18 months waits for follow ups, that seems incredibly long. My hospital do annual mammos for five years and for me have taken the anniversary of when I was first diagnosed (by the idiot if you've read my last post!) So here I am only a qtr of the way through rads which finish in May, a follow up appt with the radiotherapy consultant in June and my first annual mammo in July. I won't feel as if I've time to draw breath before being put on the monitoring regime! ... View more

The idiot hospital locum I saw when I went in for my first lot of tests (I'd picked up the lump myself) said that the lump 'was a bit of a stonker' He didn't know how to do a core biopsy so the nurse dragged in another surgeon who was heading off to theatre and got him to do it. The idiot had already told me I had cancer 'I'm afraid it's bad news but I think you already knew that'???!? Even though they hadn't got the biopsy results back to be 100 % sure. I tried to keep positive and joked that I was going away at the weekend and for the first time in ages I didn't have to be mum, worker, cleaner, just me. And how it now had a whole new meaning. Idiot pipes up 'and you didn't think you'd be going with a hole in your tit'....... I still haven't decided whether I should complain about him. I've never seen him again - I would have refused if I'd had to- but once I got into treatment I just wanted to put my head down and get on with it ... View more