Things you wish you had know!

Hahahaha I love the shopping bag boob! I can picture the half panicked search of the car looking for a fake foobie lol. I'm 35 years old and have grade 3 invasive ductal cancer with her2 positive and lymph node involvement.

My tips would be: To hunker down with your support people in the early days where you can and cry/scream/rock/pretend/laugh whatever it is your emotional self needs let it have but be assured that although the days and weeks after initial diagnosis are more like a nightmare than a journey your mind and spirit will work through the shock and trauma and you will find your rhythm and I guess your acceptance. I found that there is a lot of medical information available but the real issue is your emotions in the early days. Nothing will make that part of a cancer diagnosis easy so you need to give yourself whatever you need

Write a post on BCNA, the women in here will come to your rescue with knowing acceptance. the response from my first blog on here Helped me immensely 

don't  think round 2 of chemo side effects will be the same as round 1. I'm sure this goes for all rounds but it's best to go day by day and not assume that you can plan based on what happened last time. 

ASAP link with a breast care nurse. They are invaluable for advice and information on everything breast cancer. I found when I was overwhelmed by pathology results and diagnosis etc that my nurse was able to translate the info into real language and to ease my anxiety and fears. 

Ms lymph node clearance cases nerve pain in your arm, breast, back and side. This is normal and can last 6 weeks. Numbness can be ongoing for much longer but again it's normal. 

Often surgeons and other medical professionals will not tell you much unless you ask. Things such as the nerve pain, what to do with your dressings, how long you will be in hospital etc. you won't always think of these things ahead of time so be ok with seeking out the answers after the fact. Use your breast care nurse. I had surgery last week to have a port put in to my chest for future treatments and woke with incisions in my chest and arm. Only yesterday did I find out that they changed their mind and put it in my arm instead! And that's only because I asked my breast care nurse what the arm incision was for!

Don't trust your bowels. Constipation can change to  diarrhea quicker than you think. Keep some prune or pear juice in the fridge just in case but one lire if prune juice in an hour to too much too quick. I don't think you need the story for that lol