Chemo before surgery OR surgery before chemo???

You were very lucky to have such a supportive workplace @lrb_03, and Hi! @Sunshine0206

@RR  hi

Hi @RR. When I had chemo first, starting nearly 3 years ago, I could find very little about it, and there seemed to be very few having it. It's become much more common in the intervening years, and there seems to be a lot more support for it. I looked at with the view that at least I would know what response I had, how well it had worked. I have no regrets about going down that path, and given the choice, with the knowledge I now have , would do it again. Chemo is hard, even if you're relativly lucky, as I was. I managed to work 3 days per week throughout. I did have some sick leave, but worked more than I was off, so that was a bonus. I was also, luckily, blessed with an extremely supportive workplace. Not everyone is  :(. 
Whichever way you go, you will find lots of support here
Take care

Thank you for your support - it is a difficult road to travel xx

Thanks @Sister - so much amazing support here :smile: 

@RR what I've learnt since being diagnosed with breast cancer is that there are so many types of breast cancer.  Everyones is different and treatment varies for each.  I've also learnt our surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists are all specialists in their field are pretty good at getting it right.  So much research has gone into breast cancer .  I too had a complete panic about having chemo (as I did about my surgery) . The chemo panic was severe enough to make me jump onto this forum (rather than just lurk) to ask advice ...... and to call my breast nurse in a complete tizz.  She quickly made an appointment to see me and reassured me.  I advise you to give your breast nurse a call.  She also is a specialist in her field ..... easier to talk to has an overall understanding of what you're going through rather than just treat you, and will explain the reasons your team prefer you to have chemo before surgery in an easier to understand terminology. 
ps: I'm half way through chemo , for me it is doable.  Take all the help you're offered. Get everything done during your good week if you can.  Chemo is cyclical and hopefully like me you get a good week before they hit you with it again.  It's amazing what you can achieve in that good week.  I don't have young children which I realise makes it considerably easier for me . Today I went on a pre-chemo lunch date and polished off 3/4 bottle of sparkling and had a gorgeous tasty meal.  I can't even look at wine in the first two weeks, or tea or coffee. My food tastes like cardboard .... it makes this third week even more special and I get everything done in my good week, cooking and freezing . 
All the best and take care xxxxx

I was given the choice by my oncologist. My cancer was early breast cancer ER+ PR- and Her2+ Grade 2/3 so even though mine was found early it was aggressive. It had also gotten into my nodes 11 nodes taken and 5 with microscopic traces so I opted for surgery 1st then chemo. I also opted for double mastectomy. My logic was that I was better going into surgery when I was fit and “healthy” rather than after 6mths of chemo because I didn’t know how my body was going to react to chemo so better to have surgery when I was still fit and well. I was 37 with a 4 1/2 yr old and 1 1/2 yr old. I was lucky and got through chemo with very few side effects so turns out surgery would have been fine in either order. The recover from surgery was really fast and easy for me too but I didn’t have immediate recon because I wanted to get through chemo so that would change things. Good luck. Ask lots of questions when you see you’re oncologist and remember that if they will recommend the order of treatment that they believe is best for you so I would take their advice. If they give you the option sit down like I did and write a list of pros and cons for both options. Good luck and remember it may be a rough few months but it’s only a moment in time and you will get through it xxx

So there you go RR... clear as mud!

As with most things in life, we're all different. Vive la différence I say, it'd be boring if we were the same!

One foot in front of the other, the fog will clear soon  :)

I'm fairly small breasted and a 45mm tumour is massive for me but I never noticed anything - it was picked up in a screening scan.  ILC is a bitch.  @eastmum Chemo is crap but you'll get through it.

Hi @RR 
I was diagnosed in January with invasive lobular carcinoma like @Sister but in both breasts. I was recommended bilateral mastectomy first then treatment depending on my pathology. I’m 52 and have four kids. The older three are adults and the youngest is 12. 
I asked to have my surgery delayed until April because waiting until the school holidays would have less impact for me in terms of family and work. Of course I told my surgeon that if it was a matter of life and death, I’d jump up onto the slab immediately but if I did have the choice, it would work out better for me to wait. So I had a range of staging scans and after it was determined that there was no evidence of metastasis, he was happy to wait. 
We did discuss neoadjuvant (pre-surgery) therapy but he said he wasn’t in favour of it as we didn’t have any node information and only had the biopsy path results which are never as comprehensive as the path from surgery. 
I had my double (nipple sacrificing, skin sparing) mastectomy with air expanders inserted, exactly four weeks today! I was back at work and driving, two weeks ago. 
I had sentinel nodes removed on both sides - there was no cancer found in the right sentinel nodes but 2/4 sentinel nodes on the left were positive so I had a full node clearance on the left and the final path showed cancer in 2/9 axillary nodes. 
The craziest thing about my final results is that while everyone expected there to be a large section of cancer on my left side (that side had quite a bit of distortion and an inverted nipple), and there was - 105mm - my right breast, which looked normal, had NO malignancy detected at MRI and showed no node involvement, had 165mm of cancer cells in it! Frigging enormous!
Both sides came back ER+ PR+ and HER2- and grade 2, stage 3 in the left, stage 2 in the right. 
Lobular carcinoma is just too unpredictable and these final results will now determine the treatment they recommend for me. 
Like @sister also, I’ve found the mastectomy relatively easy to cope with (my distorted breast looked so weird I was actually happy to see it go!) but chemo absolutely terrifies me! 
I know I’ll have to go down that path though and that will be followed by radiation and hormone therapy - and I know I will get through it! 
My first appointment with the oncologist is on Tuesday. 
Wishing you all the very best with your journey. Please keep us updated xxx :smile: