Hi all!

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bundychick
bundychick Member Posts: 2 ✭
edited July 2014 in General discussion
Hellooo to everyone,

I'm a total newbie with all of this...just found out on Friday morning, still letting it sink in, but feeling really positive and surprisingly not scared, especially as it seems to be detected early and they said my other breast and lymph nodes are clear.

All good signs so I've been told. I've already taken so much strength from my family and friends supportive words of encouragement so I found myself here on this site and to this group, so I'm a total newbie here too lol.

Can't wait to chat more with u all and share support and laughs and whatever else comes along the way!

Xx
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Comments

  • Robyn W
    Robyn W Member Posts: 1,932 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    You are right,they are certainly good signs that your lymph nodes and other breast are clear.You sound very positive at the moment,and that is great.Do you know what treatment you will be having at all?On this network,as you have probably seen,there are ladies that have had many different types of treatment.When you get your plan,there will be someone on here to guide you through if you need support and advice.This blog was my best friend as I went through chemo! Like you,I had a very supportive family,and friends,but this was the icing on the cake!!!:) All the best for the next couple of weeks,and just remember,the most important thing that you can do at the moment is to take things 'One day at a time' . Come on here any time if you need to talk.:) Cheers xoxRobyn
  • Robyn W
    Robyn W Member Posts: 1,932 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    You are right,they are certainly good signs that your lymph nodes and other breast are clear.You sound very positive at the moment,and that is great.Do you know what treatment you will be having at all?On this network,as you have probably seen,there are ladies that have had many different types of treatment.When you get your plan,there will be someone on here to guide you through if you need support and advice.This blog was my best friend as I went through chemo! Like you,I had a very supportive family,and friends,but this was the icing on the cake!!!:) All the best for the next couple of weeks,and just remember,the most important thing that you can do at the moment is to take things 'One day at a time' . Come on here any time if you need to talk.:) Cheers xoxRobyn
  • Liztay82
    Liztay82 Member Posts: 213 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    Welcome to the group I found this group amazing I start my very first chemo next Tuesday.
  • bundychick
    bundychick Member Posts: 2 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    Thanks for your replies ladies :) 

    I haven't been advised anything at all yet about treatment, my GP gave me the results on Friday and said he has sent everything to RPH and they will contact me this week and go from there.  Would I be right in thinking that because of it being at early stage and appears to have not spread anywhere into lymph or other breast areas that I may not need chemo, only radiation?

    Liz, good luck for your upcoming treatment next week :)

  • Liztay82
    Liztay82 Member Posts: 213 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    I was given a ct scan and bone scan my lump was removed first bs told me it was cancer they need to check lympth nodes had another op to remove lympth nodes 6 had small amount seen oncologist for treatment plan my left breast is clear of everything nothing found
  • Liztay82
    Liztay82 Member Posts: 213 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    I also was told the same thing as Mia about chemo they are doing mine as a precaution just to make sure. I also will have radiation and hormone tablets. When do u see the specialist next.
  • Liztay82
    Liztay82 Member Posts: 213 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    I also was told the same thing as Mia about chemo they are doing mine as a precaution just to make sure. I also will have radiation and hormone tablets. When do u see the specialist next.
  • Liztay82
    Liztay82 Member Posts: 213 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    I also was told the same thing as Mia about chemo they are doing mine as a precaution just to make sure. I also will have radiation and hormone tablets. When do u see the specialist next.
  • Robyn W
    Robyn W Member Posts: 1,932 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    It depends on your own unique results.Mine was early too but I needed chemo.Just be guided totally by your doctor.xox Robyn
  • Trish.Mac
    Trish.Mac Member Posts: 20
    edited March 2015
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    Hi.  I was diagnosed in February with a small lump, 10mm. At the time I was reassured that I would probably not need chemo as the lump was small and detected early.

    Just over 3 weeks ago, I had the lump removed, along with 2 sentinal nodes from my armpit. The biopsy on the nodes came up clear of cancer cells and the surgeon got a good clearance around the tumour. The cancer has been graded as a grade 2, invasive carcinoma.

    3 weeks after surgery, apart from a little discomfort under the arm and tender spot where the lump was removed, I am nearly back to my normal self. I rested up for 2 weeks after the surgery, at which time I had a couple of concerns, which sorted themselves out,  then got back to work. That was tiring for the first week, but this week, I am finding that I am not as tired.

    I am still being reasured that I will not need chemo. I have radiotherapy ahead and hormone therapy which have yet be organised, I am waiting for appointments with the Radiologist and Oncologist still.

    Keep up your positive attitude, it helps. There are a lot of stories of people who have endured so much and I found it daunting to think that I may follow the same path. As Shirt Says, Everyone is Different and I have been very lucky, as I said, I am nearly back to my normal self, in a much shorter time than I expected. Admittedly, I still have the radio to go through, so that will be a challenge, but from what I have read, I am keeping positive about that too.

    Take good care of yourself, I recommend some time out away from "cancer talk" for a while before your op. I had a lovely weekend over Rotto and tried (succeeded mostly) to not think about it for a while and just enjoy myself. It did me the world of good and gave me the strength to cope with the unknown ahead.

    Good Luck, Keep Positive.

    Trish

  • Christine Marie
    Christine Marie Member Posts: 180 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    I just want to wish you the best of luck for your journey, you sound very positive which is great... I had lumpectomy to remove 2 tumours in my right breast & couple of lymph nodes as well got clear margins followed by 7 weeks of radiation & waiting to go on tamoxifen.. Everyone's treatment is different & the BC journey certainly makes you stronger...if you can take Trish's advice & go away it does give you the strength for what's ahead, I have just had a week away down South in Walpole with my hubby....take care
    Christine :)x
  • Christine Marie
    Christine Marie Member Posts: 180 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    I just want to wish you the best of luck for your journey, you sound very positive which is great... I had lumpectomy to remove 2 tumours in my right breast & couple of lymph nodes as well got clear margins followed by 7 weeks of radiation & waiting to go on tamoxifen.. Everyone's treatment is different & the BC journey certainly makes you stronger...if you can take Trish's advice & go away it does give you the strength for what's ahead, I have just had a week away down South in Walpole with my hubby....take care
    Christine :)x
  • JessicaV
    JessicaV Member Posts: 297 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    Hi Bundychick, I may be wrong, but I gather from your post that you have not yet had surgery, and that the results you have so far are from your GP as result of  an ultrasound and mammogram, or possibly a biopsy either FNA or core biopsy. The process of learning exactly what you are dealing with when you have breast cancer is often a gradual one, and the decisions about what treatment/s is/are best for you cannot be made until most of the information is available.

    For me the process was very confusing, and I wondered if it would help if I told you what I learnt about how the process works?

    I found a lump and saw my GP who refered me to radiology. You may have gone for a breastscreen to get to this same point.

    The first step, Radiology supplies a radiographer's interpretation of signs of malignancy in the ultrasound and/or the mammogram. For me the very experienced radiologist saw on the Mammogram the tell-tale specific kind of calcification that went with Ductal In Situ Carcinoma, plus on the ultrasound  the white spiky  "hedgehog" shape of an Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, both in my left breast, and no signs in my right breast. She said there was no radiographical symptoms of lymph node involvement but warned me that this would only be certain a week after surgery from  the pathology report on the removed lymph node/s.

    She took a fine-needle aspiration, which found malignant cells proving it was cancer,  but gave no further information about the cancer.

    I saw my GP at this stage, and,like yours, she said that I would need surgery, and that they might then give me a pill called Tamaxofen for five years. However, at that time, there was not enough information to really have any idea what treatment would be recommended.She referred me to Peter Willsher at the Mount in Perth, an excellent surgeon who then took over guiding me through the process.

    The next step can be a core biopsy, which can supply a bit more about the cancer, eg if it is estrogen receptor positive(ER+), progesterore receptor positive(PR+), HER2 Receptor positive, and what grade the cancer is (how aggressive/fast growing/keen to spread) it is. This is often not done if you are going straight to surgery, but is done if you are going to have chemo before surgery, known as neo-adjuvant chemotherapy which can be done to shrink a tumour before surgery.

    If you only have a Ductal Carcinoma In Situ,  they may or may not do surgery, and may or may not offer other treatment, I am not sure of current practice

    I had to wait for my post-surgery pathology results to learn any of this information about my cancer.. Surgeons remove the tumor in a mastectomy or lumpectomy, and also usually remove the lymph node that first receives the lymph flowing from the tumor area( (the sentinel node), and check that out at the start of surgery. If it is apparently clear, they leave the rest of your lymph nodes in. They do detailed microscopic  checks later on the sentinel node, and if there is microscopic cancer in it, they generally give you radiotherapy on the underarm lymph node area some weeks after surgery.

    I had a bone scan and a scan of my trunk to ensure there were no obvious metastases, and by choice I had them before surgery.

    About a week after surgery, you get your pathology report. It tells of which sorts of receptors are positive or negative, what the sentinel node showed,  what grade and stage the cancer is, if they got clear margins around the tumor/s they removed, plus a number of other things. If you had a lumpectomy you will almost certainly then have radiation to the breast area over the following weeks. If your sentinel node was not clear, you will probably have radiotherapy to the underarm area or another operation to remove the lymph nodes.

    Then you are referred to a Medical Oncologist to help decide the best treatment if they suggest Chemotherapy for you. If you have HER2Positive tumor, you will probably have treatment with Herceptin, an amazing new targetted drug, or one of its family of drugs, generally with chemo. if you are ERpositive, you may be given Tamaxofen for 5yrs, or some other hormone treatment. If you are negative for all receptors, they will probably go for chemotherapy of some sort.

    It is a confusing process, but this may give you some idea of the roadmap you may be looking at, so you don't get as confused as I did.  Hope this helps.

     

     

  • the Foxs lady
    the Foxs lady Member Posts: 119 ✭
    edited March 2015
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    Your roadmap was similar (but different) to mine, but I would have appreciated some of that information before I went along for this journey.

    I didn't have a carer so it was all about me taking everything on board on my own....completely overwhelming and nearly impossible.

     

  • ingridkoala
    ingridkoala Member Posts: 5
    edited March 2015
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    Hallo dear ladies. I also would have appreciated your Roadmap JessicaV. My Mastectomy on 4 July in Qld will be followed up by Chemo. The Plan will be known to me later today. I have now moved to Perth, in the care of my daughter. I am very grateful for that support. How are you getting on, the Foxs lady?
    I am Triple Negative, which frightens me due to lack of information. I spend a lot of time having bouts of weepiness - set of by foolish silly words or thoughts.

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