My breast specialist referred me to a fertility clinic straight away. She actually called the clinic and even though they said that they didn't have any appointments for me, my specialist was very stern with them over the phone and told them that it was for an oncology patient and they managed to fit me into a lunch time appointment with one of their doctors. One piece of advice that I could offer is to be persistent and do your research. Ask whatever questions you need to ask and always call them if they don't return your calls. I asked my doctor for recent research on fertility options and he sent it through within a couple days. Current studies show that egg/ embryo freezing is becoming very successful when trying to have kids after breast cancer. It was hard to do the self injections to prepare my eggs for harvesting because I never thought my life would ever get to this stage. It was just as hard to wait in the waiting room before going in the for the egg harvesting procedure because you're sitting with other couples who are excited about what they are about to go through. I always remind myself to keep focussed and know what you are doing and why. My breast specialist made a good point that it's best to have a plan A, plan B, plan C, etc so I also went for the Zolodex which shuts down your ovaries before chemo. I got that done through my Oncologist and he said that it needed 10 days to be effective before commencing chemo. If it helps, go on the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre research website because they've done some recent research into this area. I hope this helps. I'm lucky enough that I already have one baby. I always wanted more but I've accepted that if I can't have more children either because I'll be too old by the time I get off the hormone therapy or can't conceive through IVF then that's ok because I've got my life back because I will have survived the cancer. Take care and best of luck with your appointment.
there is a young mum in my group and I believe she is also part of a face book support site for your BC patients.
Donna
Hi Lorraine,
Sorry that you have to go through this so young! I believe there are young people's support groups around so maybe contact the cancer council who can advise about this. Also I think there is a young persons group on this site but sorry I don't know how to access it, but someone will.
All the best
Julia
Thank you for your kind words Robyn. It's hard for me to find that happy medium where I'm listening to what my body is telling me to do and when I should push myself to keep active. Going through my first treatment I've realised that my body has a rough trot for the first few days and then perks up again so I know that's my cue to get back into the swing of things. My head was in a very bad place a few days ago and the nausea feeling just wouldn't go away. I went to the hospital and they gave me another anti-nausea drug that fixed me straight away. It's good to know that I can open up like this and be able to provide and receive support during this time. I'm assuming that each round of chemo will be different though?? I just don't want to go through each round knowing that those bad thoughts are going to come back about me not getting better and that each minute that passes feels like an hour. I know that there are different complimentary programs that I can do so hopefully one of them will help me during my rough days. Thanks for being there to read what I've got to say. Take care xxx
