Introduce yourself!

My name is Caroline I am 54 years old, I've been married 33 years, have 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren plus my lovely dogs. For the last 18 years I've worked as a Teacher Aide in a primary school a job I love and enjoy.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 grade 3 breast cancer in Oct: 2015. 

I first noticed my right nipple was inverted late Aug: but thought it was one of those changes to do with my age and menopause !! Plus I had an overseas trip booked with my daughter, we were going to Spain, UK and Ireland just the 2 of us. So off we went while on holiday I noticed my nipple was even more inverted so I felt my breast and found a large lump but still thought no its too big I mustn't be feeling it properly !! When I returned to Aus I showed  my husband his reaction was errr your breast doesn't normally look like that it's a lot bigger than the left one and looks red. So off I went to my GP who within 2 hours had me booked in for a mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy and fine needle aspiration. It was a long day. The following afternoon my GP confirmed breast cancer and the journey began.

It was really hard telling my family especially my eldest daughter whose son at age 5 years was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma. His treatment was successful and is now a very active 10 year old. But it was a very emotional year. 

Since diagnoses and chemo time has flown by. But now waiting for surgery which is only 2 weeks away I feel so emotional, sad and keep crying especially when I'm on my own.

Love your work, Paula! You can definetely reward yourself with a little dark chocolate.

Baking and gardening are talents! You should see me in the kitchen and garden... disastrous. Thanks for coming back and contributing, Karen :-)

Hi Catherine1633, lovely to meet you only wish it was in better circumstances. Not a whinger at all just a woman coming to the realisation that this awful thing that has come into your life is for a time going to stop you from doing the things you love and need to do. As women we are such nurturing creatures but sometime we need a bit of nurturing too. Hope it goes as well as it can for you.

Maria

It s lovely to have support from others who are suffering, it helps to understand the different ways we all have to cope. So thank you for your reply.

Hi Cosette,

I'm Catherine. I've already done a post and had some lovely people respond that I have found really helpful.

I'm 45 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in my Right breast 6 weeks ago. Initially I was going to have chemo to reduce the size of the tumour so I could have a lumpectomy but I had a fine needle biopsy under my nipple and it showed cancer cells so I had a full mastectomy.

My results were good-clear margins and no lymph node involvement that was detected but i'm in the grey area with the size and grade of the tumour. In my post I was saying that I have been given the option of chemo which is just plain awful. I'm finding this an agonising decision. All the hormone treatment is a given but to chemo or not to chemo is hard.

I'm married with two children-7 and 11, one of which has cystic fibrosis so I am torn about what to do and want to be around for my kids. But i'm also aware that chemo is serious business.

I'm a nurse when i'm working and i'm annoyed at not being able to work because I love to work and I love my job. I'm also annoyed at not being able to get a HCC because my husband earns just over the threshold amount to get one.

When i'm not working I love pottering around my garden, walking, eating, reading, having coffee with friends and taking the kids to the park.

Oh my goodness, I've just read this back and I sound like such a whinger-just trying to get used to the big lifestyle change!

Thanks for your kind words Narelle

Hi, i'm new to this website as well. I'm 44 and was diagnosed with breast cancer 6 weeks ago. Since then i have had 3 operations, 1st a lumpectomy  and removal of all lymph nodes. Then a masectomy as the surgical margins were not clear and then last week.another op as the skin around the masectomy was dying so they did wound debreivement. Thanks goodness they did the masectomy as the pathology report showed it was all through the breast and also in the skin of the breast. Hoping to start chemo on thursday, that 4 ac rounds 1 every 2 weeks and then Taxol 12 times weekly. Then radiation and tamoxifen. Have been married to a wonderful supportive man for 10 years and have a 5 year old son. Thankfully the ct scan and bone scan clear.

Hi Narelle,

Thank you for your reply it does help to know there is support out there..  I am very lucky that I have two wonderful daughters, one lives not too far away, but the other is 6 hours away. I hope all goes well for you on the 28th, I will keep you in my thoughts for the very best outcome.

Hi, I am an oldie and don't venture on here very often these days. I was diagnosed at age 52 and am doing well 5.5 years later. I had 2.1cm grade 3 tumour that didn't show up on a mammogram. A 6th sense sent me to the doctor 3 months later and an ultrasound picked it up. Even with the benefit of hindsight, the tumour still didn't show up on a mammogram at diagnosis. I have had a double mastectomy, 4 rounds of chemo and reconstruction with implants. I was ER+PR+HER-2 neg. I have been on Femara for nearly 5 years. I have been married to a very supportive man for 35 years, and have 4 grown children all living out of home and 2 delightful grandsons (only 2nd son is married at this stage). I also have my faithful pooch Polo, a rescue kelpie/German shepherd who is 10 and a very special dog. I am a nurse, but am currently not working. I live in Sydney, but spent 2 years in Perth a couple of years ago, where I met some other really lovely ladies who have also been on the 'cancer journey'. 

Chris