I am young with a double mastectomy and worried...

Dominique

I am 33 and African American living with Lupus SLE and Breast Cancer. I started developing and menstruating at the age of 9. My periods have always been very short and painful. I gave birth at an early age ( 19 years old) . I am glad that I did because when my husband and I tried again at the age of 25 I was diagnosed with Lupus SLE and could not have children. My Lupus is pretty server October of 2009 I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductile Cancer in the left breast.By the time I went in to surgery the tumor doubled in size. I opted for a double mastectomy with no reconstruction. I have had 4 rounds of Adriamycin and Cytoxan one round once every 3 weeks. Now I am on my third treatment of Taxol once a week for 12 weeks. I have to take the Neupogen shots to build up my white blood cell count throughout my treatment. I am tolerating things ok,I guess. I am divorced and because I am young I was worried about dating or even talking to me with this issue. I wanted to reach out to anyone going through the same issue and hear how your treatment is going or how it went for support.

sweatyspice

Dominique -

I'm almost 20 years older than you, not African American, never married, no kids, and don't have invasive cancer (as far as I know, anyway) so I don't have to do chemo and I suppose my fear level isn't quite as high as yours - so I'm not sure how much support I can be. 

On the other hand, I'm single and have drastically smaller breasts now than I did several months ago, they're covered with scars, not at all lovely or sexy anymore.  And, at my age, dating is more difficult now - even without b/c.  I am currently in the middle of radiation treatment.

I haven't thought about dating and don't know when, or if, I'll have the courage to think about it again.  Which frightens me.

Mostly I wanted to reply to your post so you knew you weren't alone and unheard.  I've found this board to be extremely helpful in getting through the hell that is BC.  I hope you keep coming back and get all the support and friendship you need to see you through this.

Wishing you the best!