Introduce yourself

Hi Al

I was diagnosed in April last year (stage 2a early breast cancer) - I had a mastectomy a week later followed by chemotherapy, herceptin and also radiation therapy.  I'm also on Tamoxifen for another 4ish years as a preventative measure.  At this point 18 months after diagnosis it's considered by my specialists to be all cured/in remission.

You may not need all of the treatments I went through as it will depend on your particular circumstances - in my case, when I had the mastectomy, the surgeon performed a sentinel node biopsy and initially the results during the surgery looked clear, so they left my axillary nodes intact (which I'm glad for as it increases risk of lymphodema etc).  In the post-surgery lab tests they found some microscopic traces of cancer cells in the closest lymph node, so on discussion with my surgeon later we decided it was a good safety precaution to do the chemo/herceptin/tamoxifen approach.  The radiation was likewise a safeguard to make extra sure.

One thing I liked to remind myself of in those early days when the diagnosis was fairly new and I was looking at things like the 5 year statistic rates etc - a lot of the figures are averaged out across the whole spectrum of severity and genders etc so it's good to not get too focussed on those averages - they don't have to apply directly to your particular circumstances.  With the treatment I received factored in, the guesstimate 5 years rate my surgeon calculated (based on a US cancer clinic website tool) was around 96% which is a lot higher than the average figures. 

The few weeks after the surgery (when you're healing up and have the drainage bags in etc) are when some of this might sink in a bit more (it was the case for me because it was so rapid from diagnosis to surgery), so it's good to keep yourself aimed at the positives as much as possible.  I can also attest that I felt SO MUCH better immediately that the final drainage tube was removed a couple of weeks after surgery - that alone puts a new lease of life into you after having a tube and bag as your constant companion for a couple of weeks.  I still have a little bit of fluid that accumulates in a small pocket at the surgery site but it doesn't cause discomfort (I can go to gym/jog etc and not notice). 

Are there any particular questions or aspects of my experience that you were curious about?  I can describe my general experience around the mastectomy recovery and other treatments but if there's something in particular just ask.

cheers

Chris