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leesy71's avatar
leesy71
Member
12 years ago

hello - newby here :)

Hi all.  Im a 42 year old mum with 2 teenage sons, married for 20 years. I had a routine mammogram which showed a mass in my right breast.  I had no symptoms or felt no lump, I did the scan just because I could, and thank goodness I did.  I It may have saved my life.  I was diagnosed just over 3 weeks ago and in that time Ive had a lumpectomy with lymph node biopsy.  Results for surgery were good, nothing in my lumph nodes and clear margin around the tumor.  Bad news, its grade 3 Invasive cancer now Im staring down the barrel of chemo and radiotherapy.  I have my oncologist appointment on Tuesday and will start chemo soon after.  I have to say I am completely terrified of having chemo.  That has to be the worst part of all of this.  I just got a new job and really want to start it, but now this is all on hold.  I just want to get the first session of chemo over and done with so I know how I will cope and whether I can go back to work.  I just want to be normal again and I havent even started.  Im very positive about it all and everyone who knows me tells me how strong I am, but I feel quite vulnerable right now because for once in my life, I dont have control, and I hate that. 

chemotherapy
mammogram
  • TracyS's avatar
    TracyS
    Member
    12 years ago

    I'm similar to you as we'll. I'm 42 with 2 teenage children. I was diagnosed at 40 Though and have finished treatment. The thought if chemo is so scary. But it's doable. I didn't work during treatment. I did have node involvement and needed TAC chemo. I felt bad for the first week and completely normal the 2 weeks after that. With more treatment I had the bad week got longer and after the 6th round it took all 3 weeks to start feeling better. The hair went after day 18 and I cried more about losing hair than I did my breast. I wore scarfs and enjoyed styling them in many different ways. I got a whole lot of ideas from You Tube and I got comments all the time. Good luck with your treatment. I hope you have minimal side effects. 1 tip, eat and sleep whenever you can.