Bilateral breast cancer anybody???

Hi thankyou for the info girls!!  Rob, i too was told that it does not spread from one breast to the other, so they are treating mr as two different tumours. The hormone treatment i start on 1st day after radiation is finished is Armidex. Thanks joyous so pleased to hear/read someone else out there diagnosed with bilateral.  (That was not meant to sound awful). I am regional so although privately insured i am with clinic attached to public hospital, have lovely oncologist. When you say it has been a year and still continuing treatment do you mean hormone tablets or something else? Thankyou again.

Hi guys I have several tumours in both breasts And had a double mastectomy, followed by chemo, herceptum, radiation and letrazole. It has been a year and still continuing treatment. Your are right through the private system I am considered rare but... I recently chose to get a second opinion at a Sydney public hospital and was told this is a common issue in women. She informed they treat 500 women a year for BC  not like the private oncologists so her advice and treatment was slightly different. Quite an eye opener for me as
It has been a difficult &  lonely journey through the private system for for me - you are not alone. 

Hi Ann Margaret, 
i am similar to you though my cancers were 6 years apart. I had breast cancer in my right breast in 2011, lumpectomy followed by radiation treatment , was not given tamoxifen at the time despite it being er/pro positive. I was told then I only had a less than 4% chance of it returning. I have a very strong family history on BC ( my mum at 39 & 2 of her 1st cousins) I had hereditary testing at the time which showed not brca. I was continually told it was small and unlikely it would come back. This year at my yearly checkup on the u/s a bother Timor in the opposite breast was found. Twice the size of last time and a large area of dcis. I had a double mastectomy 6 weeks ago, and they found pre cancerous cells in the original breast again. The one that had radiation treatment the first time around. My nodes were negative. 
I am not having chemo . I paid for a fairly new pathology test called prosigna to see having chemo would benefit my type of cancer it came back that I would benefit best from 10 years of tamoxifen. 
I have been told this cancer is a primary as cancer doesn't metastasis across to the other breast. I have no knowledge of women havin it in both breasts so would love to catch up if there is? Rob 

It's hard when the plan is different from what we expected. Your treating team will be making decisions in your best interest. If your leg feels hot or painful behind the knee ir doesn't go down...get to a Dr asap, just to exclude a blood clot. X

They took the sentinal plus one other, both came back positive. Thankyou, i feel better emotionally today it does help getting it out of my head.  My leg is swollen as well so that sort of making me miserable, otherwise i think i have been coping ok ? 

I know there are other ladies here who have had similar experience so hope they log in and see your blog. How many sentinals did they take on the right?. Were all positive?

Thanks guys. Yes have had the gene testing and came back negative but to get all the girls in family to check at 40 anyway. I am not taking any hormone meds atm, have script to take first day after radiation finishes.  Chemo.....well i treated myself like a baby and part 2 the worst. Thing i am worried about is the nodes taken from the right came back positive and they will not do an axcillary (had one on left)on both sides due to possible side affects.  Was wondering if anybody else in my situation? 

Treatment is the same pretty much as unilateral. I had a bilateral mastectomy by choice and they did a MRI looking for cancer in the other to determine if should do sentinal node. It was clear and so was the check after removal. My primary grew very quickly and might not have been found so small if it was in a diff location. My Aunt developed a second primary in her other breast...this was part of why I chose to have both removed. Are you having gene testing at some stage to determine if you need to do anything else? It doesn't change treatment now, just monitoring or preventative surgery later. 

How have you gone with treatment. Are you tolerating herceptin? I had to stop herceptin after 11 due to heart issues, of which I have fully recovered.

People say the stupidest things. Deep breathe and keep trying not to slap them.

Kath x