Scared of recurrence!!

Sorry for the late reply - I'm not on here often. I was diagnosed with TNBC in Canada in 2008, had a lumpectomy, then chemo, then had a unilateral mastectomy with reconstruction instead of radiation. My genetics test came back inconclusive. My motto throughout treatment was "no regrets" and I stuck by that - once I made the decision, I didn't think about "what if?". And once I was done treatment, I threw all the numbers out the window. I remember feeling like a ticking time bomb for the first couple of years post, but I thought about recurrence less and less each year and now I celebrate each year as another milestone of health. The comments above are right - there is so much you can do to stay healthy and fight cancer without medical intervention. An agency I got connected to early on in my cancer journey was www.inspirehealth.ca - I loved going there and feeling all the positive vibes from the doctors and other practitioners there!

Hi Mause58 and all the wonderful ladies on this site.  My diagnose was made on the 19th Nov 2012 which being 1 year ago was an emotional day for me and as Mause wrote, the start of a long journey.   I had my tissue expanders removed and  implants put in on 30th Oct  and my next appt is in 6 months time so hoping up and on from now.  Hoping everyone is as well as  can be and  Take care   Love Leanne  Xxx

Thanks Christie,

It's so great to hear about people that are years past treatment. I've found info on the UK web site that says they're now calling the first three years our highest risk period rather than the first five so you're nearly there!!

I'm 51 and I've already had a few close friends die of non-cancer related things, so I find the whole 'living under a cloud' concept much easier to deal with. Cancer is no more of a cloud to me than stroke or heart attack or any one of a number of other illnesses. I suppose it helps that I spend 20 years as a police officer and saw a lot of random, accidental and surprising death. I know I really could get hit by a bus! I dont' mean any of this to sound miserable, quite the opposite. At my age there are a lot of health risks to deal with and I don't like to give cancer more importance than it deserves. 

It's easy to say don't read into te stats, but when you throw inthe BRCA1 gene mutation that i DO have & that Peta MAY have, it does make you more aware of the numbers.

I'm extremly positive about where I'm sitting, but I'm real about it too. I have no doubt I'll hit the 5 year mark.

Sam xoxox

For years I have been explaining to people during my pharmacy assistant hours, that we are all really like cars.

For the first part of our life we are like a brand new sports car, we drive it around, thrash it, know we look good, and dont have too much go wrong.  Then in the later, we are like second hand cars, we need lots of maintenance, and cant be left out side or mishandled as much.  Well something like that.

Some poor bugga's have Diabetes from birth, some have arthritis early, really, I just was happy to have been healthy until I hit 46, and had my first speed hump turn up!

I am healthy still, no medication, and thats how I look at it.  Obviously my immune system said "I've had enough!"  and let me down, but other than than, I dont think about it now Ive had all the treatment. 

Mentally I treat as being all over!

Well written, I appreciated this information, it does put it into perspective.

I dont get too caught up in stats either, as a triple neg.  I was told my uncle who is way older than I am, had the same percentage of survival given to him, after all he went through - at his age!  I felt a bit ripped off (smiling).  But remind myself, no one has a crystal ball, and this is my individual situation and life, and there are no clones of me out their to compare stats with!

Just sayin "Great read"

Hi Peta et al

I'm only a third of the way into my first series of chemo (TAC) after a mastectomy for three triple neg level III aggressive lumps with 35 lymph glands out and invasion into a node and the blood system. Next year I'll have five weeks daily radio. My surgeon had originally suggested lumpectomy and recon with chemo following - until early results came through & it had to change. I wasn't surprised, indeed I was surprised he suggested the lumpectomy - and I felt it gave me unfair hope at a time when I had already psyched myself into the mastectomy. I was surprised too how many lymph nodes they cut out (didn't know there were so many there!).  I look forward to reading other comments from members, too, on the five years... at the moment for me it feels like a long way away, maybe too long. I don't think my family 'gets' any of this.

Your doctor gave you no hope at all! That's a terrible thing.

Of course there is hope. I'm in contact with a woman through facebook that has survived TNBC for several years. She now has mets in other parts of her body and she is still positive about her treatment. Life is so precious, and even though chemo is awful it is temporary.

Management of side effects is also improving all the time. Don't just put up with them. I've had three rounds of FEC and I'm about a third of  the way through my 12 weeks of weekly paclitaxel. I've had no nausea, one mouth ulcer that I healed quickly with kenalog and difflam lozenges, no loss of appetite and really only some fatigue to contend with. I'm eating really well and concentrating on getting plenty of omega 3 in my food through grass fed organic meat and hemp/flax seed. The night sweats are annoying but manageable and, on the whole, I'm feeling pretty good. 

I can't believe a doctor would give someone in your situation no hope. That's not only unkind but inaccurate. Plenty of women with a worse prognosis than you have gone on to beat this bitch. Good on you for staying positive and setting goals for your family. I hope you can walk back into that doctor's office one day and say to him, "Please don't ever, EVER, take away another person's hope!"

Meg

X