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CathyMac
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Joined 7 years ago
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Re: Hoping the surgeon is right
@Makday I'm sorry you've had to join us here, but it's a fantastic place to be for advice and support. I was diagnosed with high grade DCIS and invasive ductal carcinoma in November 2018.i had a right side Mastectomy at the John James hospital in Canberra and am having my treatment at the Canberra region cancer Centre at the Canberra Hospital. They have been fantastic! My treatment schedule is 16 doses of chemo. 4AC followed by 12 paciltaxel. Today I had my 3rd paciltaxel and all is going well. After my chemo treatments are finished I will have 5 weeks of radiation. Who was your surgeon? Let me know if you would like any further info re the Canberra Hospital. I'm more than happy to impart any knowledge that may help. Take care xxRe: Moving to Canberra-public or private?
Hi Michelle, I am in Canberra and have been here for about 15 years. I just love it! I am being treated for breast cancer in the public system and I can't fault it. I had surgery privately in December 2018 as the surgeon I wanted to see only does private work now. I am currently having my chemo at the Canberra Hospital which is a very new facility and I can't fault it. I will also be having radiation there when chemo is done. Do you know where you will be living yet? As we have 2 public hospitals. If you are into hiking and camping you will just love Canberra. The Bush capital it is! I haven't been to dragons abreast yet as I was meant to go and see them in action yesterday for a meet and greet but was feeling too poorly after chemo number 3 on Monday. Let me know if there is any other info I can help you with for anything Canberra. Cathy❤️Re: Bittersweet!
Thank you lovelies for your very sage words! I am climbing out of the hole I had fallen into today and I will so look forward to being through treatment so I can visit hIm. In the meantime I will busy myself getting his room ready for when he returns to visit. Which I hope won't be too far away.Bittersweet!
Hello warrior friends, I need to vent! Today my eldest left our nest in Canberra bound for Sydney and i just can't stop crying. Bloody f...ed up cancer😡 I so want to be with him today to help him unpack and set up his new home but instead I'm at home feeling like crap after chemo number 2 on Monday and only 14 to go☹️F...ed up cancer took away our beautiful 9 week holiday we were meant to have in Dec/Jan as a family before he embarked on uni and it just keeps taking. The house just feels so empty without him! All my friends have been amazing but they just don't get the really crappy added dimension of dealing with breast cancer on top of it Today I feel totally broken! Thanks for listening ❤️Re: About to start chemotherapy...
Hello all, I hope everyone is having a decent weekend. Tomorrow is round 2 for me on AC chemo. I felt like a ticking time bomb after arriving home from my first round and felt like I was just waiting for the side effects to impact. I was relatively lucky and the only side effects were the all over body pain from the neulasta injection which only lasted 2 days and some tiredness. I have continued to walk each day and have been working from home with a stint at the office on Thursday. I did the cold cap and as yet haven't noticed any difference in hair loss so will do the cold cap again tomorrow. I saw my oncologist on Friday and thought I would just raise the question that it seemed odd that I was only having 10 doses of the Paclitaxel when I had noted that for most people it was 12. Arghhhhhh! He said I'm terribly sorry if I said that I was mistaken it is 12. Means I'll finish all treatment by mid August instead of July. I have a question re the cold cap for @kezmusc how often did you wash your hair whilst using the cold cap? How many treatments did you have to use the cold cap for? Big hugs to everyone as I hear off to find my big girl pants again❤️Re: New at this
@Cruiser I am so sorry you have had to join us here on this forum. What a wonderful group of supportive and positive people they are though. This forum has helped me enormously as I'm sure it will you. I hear you and feel your pain!. I too am in Canberra and was diagnosed on the 8th November 2018. We were meant to be flying out for Europe on the 28th November 2018 to celebrate our eldests son graduation from school. We had been booking and planning for the best part of two years and we were going for 9 weeks. I had, had a reminder for a mammogram and booked to go as I was a little overdue but I'd been having them for years and had always been clear so I had no concern for it coming back positive. Our lives were instantly thrown into turmoil and I knew our holiday was cactus. Fortunately we had taken out travel insurance. So we embarked on the great unwind of all our bookings and instead I was making a booking for a surgeon. You seem to be organised on the hospital front and I can't think of anything else that you would require. I had packed so much and only required so little. The one thing that I have found enormously helpful for sleeping has been a full body wrap around pillow. It has been my absolute saviour since having to learn to sleep on my back. It took all the pressure off the bits that hurt post surgery. 8 weeks post surgery and I'm still using it as it allows me to sleep on my side in comfort whilst I'm still a bit tender where my nodes were removed. My diagnosis went from lumpectomy with radiation and meds to mastectomy after I had an MRI that showed the tumour to be larger. It was also thought there was no node involvement to having 3 nodes involved. So I'm having the whole gamut. 14 rounds of chemo and then 5 weeks radiation and then on meds for 7 years. I can't tell you how awful it was to be given such positive hope only to find after the MRI and surgery pathology that it meant I would have the works. I have my fingers firmly crossed for you, that a lumpectomy, rads and meds will be or that you require. If you would like any info re the Canberra I'm just shout out. Hang in there it's a bloody nightmare but you've got this! Thinking of you CathyRe: Just diagnosed with Invasive Mucinous Carcinoma
@6ftred I'm sorry you've had to join us here. This site has been my saviour since my diagnosis in November. It's such a tumultuous time and there is so much to get your head around. Hang in there and just take it one day at a time. My biopsies showed I had high grade DCIS and invasive mucinous carcinoma. I had an MRI pre surgery to determine the extent and size of the cancer so my surgeon could map surgery for a lumpectomy. I ended up having a mastectomy as it was a little larger than the other imaging showed and I wanted to know it was properly gone. We are all here to help you through this. Just shout out! Sending you cyber hugs❤️Re: About to start chemotherapy...
@kitkatb thanks! I'm doing ok. I've been getting out twice a day for a walk. Which has been a little hard in this relentless heat. My whole body seems to be sore today. Super sensitive to touch but I had a much better sleep last night. My hubby and eldest son are heading to Sydney this afternoon to start the search for a place for my son to live before he starts uni on the 18th Feb. I'm feeling so sad that I'm unable to help with this.
