Newly diagnosed/bilateral mastectomy

Hi Bernadette

Welcome and sorry! I am a 34yr old that was diagnosed in June this year. You are right it is so very scary and daunting in the beginning, I struggled to digest all the information as well so you are not alone there. Although I do not have children of my own, so can only imagine how it must feel for you right now, I do have my 7 yr old niece every weekend. We were also very open and honest with her and she did pretty well with it mostly. When I went through chemo the ice capping didn't work for me and she got a little upset at seeing me with no hair which was a bit too confronting for her. My advice is to gear up with a few head scarves or something just in case! 

I had all the same side effects as NB plus a few more unfortunately but it is very different for everyone and it really depends on which chemo drugs they give you. Week 1/2 on each cycle is usually not so fun so ensure you have plenty of pain killers on hand and take them early so you can keep feeling as good as possible!

Stay in touch with the ladies on here, they can offer you huge amounts of support as you progress through each stage of treatment as different things come up along the way.

May I suggest that you might want to have some ideas on things your kids might be able to do to help you during your treatment, simple things like helping you hang washing etc, as from my experience the worst thing for others is the 'feeling helpless' and unable to do anything for you to make you better! Giving them little jobs to do can make them feel like they have done something and hence eases their anxiety and yours.

Good luck with it, stay strong and you will get there! Hugs xxxx