Recently diagnosed
Hi my name is Yvonne and I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I am 42 years old. A couple of months back I was experiencing a very strange kind of inflammatory pain around my right breast, leading up to period time. I decided it needed to be investigated and so I went off to my GP and she examined both breasts and lymph nodes, then sent me off for a mammogram and ultrasound and off to a breast cancer specialist.
A biopsy was taken in the specialist rooms and the following Monday I had the follow up appt to receive my results and I heard the words that no one ever wishes to hear.
I had bone scans and CT scans leading up to my surgery and they were clear elsewhere in my body, nothing had spread elsewhere.
My surgery was at Sunshine Hospital on the 29 September and I had a right breast mastectomy and axilla clearance. While I am here may I shout out a huge thankyou to all the wonderful nurses and doctors at Sunshine Hospital, I was only in overnight, but they took really good care of me. I had district nurses for four days afterwards, as I had a draining tube, under my arm.
I am about to embark on my first cycle of chemo this coming Thursday- my lump was 5 and a half cm long and a Grade 3, so I require chemo- 4 cycles of it,(that brings me to the very end of the year) followed by 5 weeks of radiotherapy.
Still a bit swollen under the arm, but movement is good now.
At this moment I am not considering reconstruction, I will go for a breast form fitting in a few weeks time, when the swelling has completely gone down.
Yvonne
Comments
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Hi Yvonne,
hope you're recovering well. Just something to share: I bought a prosthesis fairly soon after my surgery, when I'd only just begun chemo. But I lost a bit of weight thru chemo and now my v expensive prosthesis is way bigger than my remaining breast! So just be aware that lots of ppl gain or lose weight through chemo, but your prosthesis won't. I guess as long as you don't lose weight you should be able to make it work, but if you're already a bit thin, just be careful--maybe keep using a cheap soft-form until yr weight settles...
Go well,
Heather0 -
Hi Yvonne,
I too was diagnosed at 42, in March of this year. My lump was 3.5 cm, Grade 3, and had not spread thank goodness. I have just finished all my treatment - 6 chemos and 6 weeks of radiation. I feel like I have been on a huge roller coaster ride this year, but I have tried to find positive things in what I have been through. I got to meet Glenn McGrath and Raelene Boyle, along with so many other wonderful BC survivors!! You will come out the other side so go with the flow, have plenty of rest and let people look after you!!
Mel
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Hi Yvonne,
I too was diagnosed at 42, in March of this year. My lump was 3.5 cm, Grade 3, and had not spread thank goodness. I have just finished all my treatment - 6 chemos and 6 weeks of radiation. I feel like I have been on a huge roller coaster ride this year, but I have tried to find positive things in what I have been through. I got to meet Glenn McGrath and Raelene Boyle, along with so many other wonderful BC survivors!! You will come out the other side so go with the flow, have plenty of rest and let people look after you!!
Mel
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Hi Yvonne,
I hope that Chemo treats u well. Enjoy the days that u feel good, make lunch plans etc, getting out of the house was something I looked forward to on my good days.
I was Diagnosed Dec 2010, (30) two grade 3 tumors on my left breast (2nd had been undetected).23 lymph nodes, 3+. I had a mastectomy and 6 rounds of chemo. I'm close to 6 months since I finished chemo and I'm feeling good.
Be kind to yourself, and your body will let u know wen enough is enough etc. Have u seem a physio? I found that they were great help to get my arm movement goin.
Take care
Xx0 -
Very sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I was diagnosed last month (just turned 36) and had an axillary clearance and left masectomy - 19 nodes removed (9+). Had my first round of chemo a week ago today (it will be 8 chemo, 6 weeks radiation and 13 months of herceptin - (via portacath thank goodness!!).
I'm also not thinking about a reconstruction, I'd rather just get to the other side of this journey. As well as BCNA, there are many wonderful support networks available, I'm hoping to get to a Choices event soon.
Wish you all the best on your first chemo round (I ate mostly fruit - couldn't taste too much) and drank lots of icy water.
My hair will probably go in the next week, so when the time comes I have decided to get together with a few of my girlfriends and have a girly day (complete with wine and cheese platters) and just shave my head. One of my friends is a hairdresser who works from home (beaut little set up by the pool) so the other girls can get their hair or nails done at the same time. We'll all do a donation thing as well and maybe even a little raffle.
I've already met some amazing and supportive 'pink sisters', Yvonne, so keep blogging!!!
Take Care,
Maxene xx
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Hi everyone,
Thankyou for all of your comments. I have had my first round of chemo. To tell the honest truth, I was ok with it, I had my anti nausea tablets, plus some that had already been prescribed for me at the hospital. I suffered nausea from them taking off my chest wall drainage tube in the hospital and I told the pharmacist when she returned about getting nausea and she prescribed Pramin for me, which I carry around with me, but have only needed to use one, because when the district nurse came to take off my other drainage tube, I got it again.
So I suffered more nausea from the removal of my drainage tubes than I did from this first round of chemo.
I tell you what symptoms I did suffer and they were annoying ones more than anything else. Jelly like legs (which I often get when it is period time), some hot flushes, indigestion and not being regular. While I say I was quite ok with it all this time round, it did take a full week to return to my best again.
I will speak to my oncologist about the indigestion, I have heard from others who have had BC have had similar indigestion problems. I ate lots more fruit and vegies, plus more yogurt, but still suffered from it. It was embarassing and annoying.
My next lot is on the 18th, blood check on 17th, have not lost any hair as yet. I get told different things, my hair is quite thick and I was told by one oncologist nurse that the treatment I am on will thin my hair out just a bit.
So for me it is one down and three to go, which takes me to the end of December. And then the radiation treatment.
Did anyone see Sally from Today Tonight being interviewed last night, a beautiful baby girl, then the diagnosis of breast cancer, she is also in one of this weeks mags?
Yvonne
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I ran into one of my lovely nurses at Sunshine Hospital the other week, just before I was about to start chemo at the shops. Nurse Wendy and I told her I was about to start treatment and how long for etc. She was the nicest nurse I have ever met and she is one of the biggest reasons nurses should get paid more- especially out here in the West.
I was only in overnight, they monitored me and saw I could get about ok and all my vitals were ok, plus I was having four days of district nurses coming to me afterwards.
The four nurses who attended to me from the Altona District nurses were lovely too, they monitored my drainage tubes each day, until the final day when it was removed and I got a bit of nausea after its removal, so I popped into me one of my Pramin tablets and I was ok within an hour or so.
Yvonne
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Hi, its been over a week now and I feel a lot better from my 2nd round of chemo. Bit more tired than the last one, more reflux happening, (which is so damn annoying and uncomfortable)but I got tablets for that, still took over a week to settle that. Now I have got my appetite back properly.
I have started to lose my hair from the crown down the back, wearing a bandanna right now, which I don't like much.
My third chemo is on the 9th, but I have been invited to a Christmas lunch with where I volunteer on the 11th Dec and I really want to go, but I find the first few days I cannot stand to be around red meat cooking or people eating it. I know it will be a set menu. I really need them to have something like fish or chicken and salad on the menu. Coupled with the fact I will still be on anti nauseas that day and the reflux tablets. If it were a week later I would have no problems in going.
The best thing is I have plenty of time to recover for going to my cousins for Christmas tea. She only cooks light things like chicken, ham, salads.
None of us are into seafood, I cannot stand it at all, apart from fish. No prawns, scallops or anything like that for us.
How is everyone else going? Well as can be expected I hope.
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