My First Blog!

HI erin

I won't bore you with my story but never, ever feel you are paranoid.  You are a young woman who has her life in front of her.  You drive the bus.  If you want a scan yearly - it is your right to ask for one.

I don't want to scare you but my story does is real and I think serves as a reason for vigilence post cancer treatment - particularly for young women with Her2 or triple degative disease. I do have secondaries - have had for nearly 2 years now - my only symptom was a funny spot on the skin of my breast that even the drs ignored for a few months, and this was while I was on treatment for early breast cancer.  Further scans detected numerous lung tumors (so many they didn't bother counting) - I had no symptoms of them at all - even now when some of them have grown to a significant size I have only developed a slightly annoying, infrequent dry cough which if I didn't know I had lung tumors I would blame on the weather.  They don't scan because there is a belief that it doesn't alter the outcome (i.e. the disease is incurable once you have secondaries) - however, I believe if the disease is more contained then surely the impact on quality of life and the ability to manage the disease must be significant. My disease has been contained in y lungs and the occasional lymph node so far.  I often wonder if we had let it go much longer assuming all was ok if it would have spread to my liver, brains and bones before anyone noticed. I am grateful for drs that saw the need to investigate further despite lack of symptoms.

Yes, it is important to relax but there is still a hell of a lot to be said for vigilance and learning to know your body and being assertive in your treatment and management.

I wish you well.

A x