I was diagnosed on the 20th Dec 2016 , bone scans and Ct scans the following day all clear thankfully. On the 22nd my diagnosis was confirmed as a very aggressive Stage 3 grade 3 triple positive BC. I was also told that it was inoperable due to the size and fact that there may be skin involved. My treatment was to be Chemo first. We had plans for a family Xmas at my Mums new home in Coffs Harbour and were scheduled to fly up on the 23rd Dec, we went ahead with our plans as a few extra days wasn't going to change things. I met my amazing oncologist on the 2nd Jan 2017, had a port inserted in my arm that afternoon under a general A, saw a dentist the next day as I had a broken tooth, had that pulled. Started AC chemo on the 4th Jan.15 months of treatment followed , I am now almost at the 2 year mark since my initial diagnosis and am happy to say really healthy and enjoying my life. It is a surreal feeling looking back as it honestly feels like it happened to someone else. My cancer was extremely aggressive as was my treatment even so, we were always given time to think and breathe. After finishing 6 months of Chemo we snuck a week away in Kingscliff, then I started 5 weeks of Rads,
followed by a mastectomy and full aux node clearance in Mid September. We treated ourselves to 3 days over Xmas last year at Crown Metropol as I was finally cancer free after a massive year. Herceptin treatment finished in March and I was switched from tamoxifen to Arimidex in June, taking that for 10 years. It is difficult starting your treatment on or around major holiday periods as there is always a skeleton staff on, you do however get through and know that next Xmas will look a whole lot different.
