Newly diagnosed - how to cope?
Hi everyone, there are
so many inspiring stories on here and lots of support. I know that many on here
have it way worse than me but I just wanted to reach out and say hi and get
some advice on copin...
Forum Discussion
Hi @Sooz.
Welcome to the forum. You will always find lots of great advice and support on here. Nobody can quite no how you feel unless you've been there.
Yes, out health system is very good here and the breast cancer train is a very well oiled machine thankfully. I went public for the whole lot and couldn't fault it.
I was 45 at time of diagnosis and the same as you found it totally by accident. I found mine in the lymphnode so we already new it had spread and chemo was a given.
So end up story was stage2 grade2. ER & PR + lumpectomy, axilliary clearance with 5/24 nodes positive. 6 months chemo, 30 rads, 10 yrs Tamoxifen. Hmmmm
Chemo ,while no walk in the park, is generally not as horrible as out brains conjure up and there are plenty of good drugs these days to combat any side effects. Rads was easy for me with almost no problems.
Personally I found distraction was the best method to get through so I stayed super busy the whole way and tried not to allow a lot of time for thinking.
Being thrown into menopause when your body wasn't even thinking about it does suck, I won't lie and for me has been the hardest part. The chemo will do that initially and then the HT keeps you there........if you want.
The decision for the hormone therapy is yours and yours alone. They should be able to give you a % of extra coverage with or without the HT then it will be up to you.
If you search Tamoxifen, letrozole or any of the other drug names on here you will find a lot of discussions on the subject.
Stay in touch lovely. All the best
xoxoxox
Welcome to the forum. You will always find lots of great advice and support on here. Nobody can quite no how you feel unless you've been there.
Yes, out health system is very good here and the breast cancer train is a very well oiled machine thankfully. I went public for the whole lot and couldn't fault it.
I was 45 at time of diagnosis and the same as you found it totally by accident. I found mine in the lymphnode so we already new it had spread and chemo was a given.
So end up story was stage2 grade2. ER & PR + lumpectomy, axilliary clearance with 5/24 nodes positive. 6 months chemo, 30 rads, 10 yrs Tamoxifen. Hmmmm
Chemo ,while no walk in the park, is generally not as horrible as out brains conjure up and there are plenty of good drugs these days to combat any side effects. Rads was easy for me with almost no problems.
Personally I found distraction was the best method to get through so I stayed super busy the whole way and tried not to allow a lot of time for thinking.
Being thrown into menopause when your body wasn't even thinking about it does suck, I won't lie and for me has been the hardest part. The chemo will do that initially and then the HT keeps you there........if you want.
The decision for the hormone therapy is yours and yours alone. They should be able to give you a % of extra coverage with or without the HT then it will be up to you.
If you search Tamoxifen, letrozole or any of the other drug names on here you will find a lot of discussions on the subject.
Stay in touch lovely. All the best
xoxoxox