No family history

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MariannaLaFrance
MariannaLaFrance Member Posts: 777
edited June 2014 in DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ)

Ladies, I was the poster child of good health. Since childhood. I have never eaten or drank to excess. My parents were health nuts who fed us veggies, fruits, fish and meat. I danced on a semi-professional level until age 30, and still continue to take dance classes. I've had several 6-month periods where I didn't exercise, but that's about the extent of my "breaks" from my exercise routine. Started having babies at age 32, 5 pregnancies in all, 3 healthy children.

 All this to say, that I am still in shock that I could have followed a healthy lifestyle for so many years only to be dianosed with DCIS.

Sorry I've kept harping on this, but I truly am vascillating between being cautiously optimistic (for myself, but also for everyone around me) and then moments where I think WT? ME???? How can this be? Would somebody please wake me up now?

Anyway, just a vent. Thanks for all posts previously, and the warm welcome I've received on thsi board. I go on a business trip this next week, then I am going to schedule my lumpectomy.... probably around the 3rd week in Feb.

 Hope you're all having a good weekend.

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Comments

  • Jelson
    Jelson Member Posts: 1,535
    edited January 2010

    You would be the exception if you had a family history - only 10% do. I think you should be optimistic in the sense that through your healthy lifestyle you will be able to get through and bounce back from this. perhaps if you hadn't done all you did, it would be something with a worse prognosis. You, however, are not in control - oh perhaps of what you consume and your exercize, but not of everything in your environment or every molecular change going on in your body every second of everyday.  You did not fall asleep at the switch. There is nothing you did or didn't do. Sh*t happens, it is how we deal with it that counts.  You have done and will continue to do the best you can - for a very long time.

    Hugs~!

    Julie E

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  • mom3band1g
    mom3band1g Member Posts: 817
    edited January 2010

    I read your post and thought you were me!  My profession was ballet dancing until I started having kids.  I had my first at 28 with 7 pregnancies in all and 4 healthy kids.  Did all the 'right' things and here I am.  The first 2 weeks after diagnosis I was just in shock.  I am not generally one to cry but atleast once a day I would have a good cry.  Now I feel better about it all.  My husband has been amazing and we have moved from shock, fear, and tears to making totally inappropriate jokes about my cancer.  If we're not laughing we're crying.  My surgery is scheduled for Feb 10.  I am ready!  I know it is very hard to 'accept' this when you feel as though you've done all you could to avoid something like this.  Give yourself time.  Read, read, and read some more.  For me, talking about it to my friends helped a lot.  Talking about it helped me accept it.  The more I 'said' it the more real it became.  Hpe this helps.

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited January 2010

    Yes, some women are higher risk than others, but considering that 1 in every 8 women will be diagnosed with BC during her lifetime, you have to realize that just about anyone can be hit.  I found it interesting to read that the earliest recorded cases of breast cancer go back in ancient Egypt, proving that even in a world without the environmental hazards (food, air, radiation, whatever....) we have today, women still got breast cancer.  I understand your shock at the diagnosis, particularly given your background and lifestyle, but I hope you realize that with those odds, it's clear that breast cancer does not discriminate.  You didn't do anything wrong, there was nothing else you could have done. As Julie said, $#!+ happens!

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  • MariannaLaFrance
    MariannaLaFrance Member Posts: 777
    edited February 2010

    Thanks for reading and "listening", all of you. Working on how to deal with this effectively, and I find all your posts extremely helpful. Today is less of a "shock" day, instead more of a "deal with it" kind of attitude!

    Mom3band1g, good luck with your surgery. Please be sure to post to us about it all. I need to hear about it to prepare for mine. I got my MRI done on Friday (freaked out in the middle of it and pressed the panic button, so might have to re-do it), and should hear back from my surgeon this week. I think I am going to schedule something for the 3rd week in February.  p.s. to you: I thought your post was mine, too!   Looks like we're leading very similar lives!

    Thanks again for your kind thoughts and words, ladies.

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  • roseg
    roseg Member Posts: 3,133
    edited February 2010

    If you are keeping to all those good health habits you are STILL the picture of good health. Having DCIS does not mean your health is not good.

    In fact, being proactive about screening and going ahead and getting it removed is a healthy behavior. 

    I know DCIS is a shock to your notion of yourself, your lifestyle and your health - but don't let it shake your faith in your ability to maintain and care for your health. 

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  • LINDAGARSIDE
    LINDAGARSIDE Member Posts: 345
    edited February 2010

    Hi there.  I'm the opposite of you.  I eat junk food most of the time, am over weight and hardly exercise.  I'm frankly quite lazy.  (I have a big heart though Wink) In my youth (I'm 58 right now) I was quite an athlete.  Over the years and as a result of true wedded bliss, as I mentioned earlier, I have become quite lazy.

    When I was diagnosed with breast cancer I was as amazed as you were about your diagnosis.  I mean, the fact that I had been living an unhealthy life style for the past 12 years didn't cause me to feel any guilt. I was simply in total shock and denial that me of all people could get cancer!  I have a feeling the surgeon thought I was feeling guilty as she told me quickly that there was nothing I did or didn't do that caused the cancer to start or to become invasive.  (85% of my tumor is invasive and the other 15% is still in the DCIS stage).  

    I've had my surgery and now am facing radiation.  This is all something I can handle...except I'm still in a bit of shock at times that it even happened.  I am very lucky it was caught in time...and is only due to a cab driver taking me to the wrong building.  While I was "at the wrong place" I saw the mamogram sign and decided to book an appointment.  The rest is history.

    The point of my explanation is simply that it really doesn't seem to matter much about your lifestyle.  Breast cancer is indiscriminate and strikes 1 out of 8 women, regardless of how many salads or skinned chicken breasts we carefully eat or marathons we run. 

    Don't get me wrong...I think everyone SHOULD eat healthy and make healthy choices and exercise...and I've certainly been doing that since my diagnosis, it's just that I don't think it would have made any difference.  

    I do think what is making a difference is how we equip ourselves with information after the diagnosis.  Information seems to be key here...and I'm so thankful for this forum as there really is a wealth of information from the experts here.  The experts of course, us...we who have BC.

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  • Shrek4
    Shrek4 Member Posts: 1,822
    edited February 2010

    Personally I don't think that lifestyle has much to do with your chances of getting something or not. Well, except if you live in a heavy polluted area.

    But I started thinking that after I had two exceptional examples in my family and close to it.

    My maternal grandmother's eldest brother, started smoking since he was 12 - smoked all his life, was growing the tobacco in his yard (lived in the countryside) and rolled his cigarettes out of newspapers. He ate fat meat, drank every day, ate hot spicy food, etc. He lived to the age of 107.

    My ex's ex (yea I know it sounds weird) re-married to an active duty guy - the kind that is a health freak, measuring calories and whatnots, spending 2 hours a day in the gym, never smoked, you got the picture.  He died of a stroke in his sleep, at the age of 38.

    It's just pure luck (or rotten luck). 

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  • 3monstmama
    3monstmama Member Posts: 1,447
    edited February 2010

    I'm another DCIS person with no family history who doesn't own a microwave, eats almost all organic, has never been overweight [though this last year I added some pounds that are NOT making me happy], been active etc etc etc 

    To the extent that DCIS can be traced to anything, I'm thinking it has to be environment--all the pollution in the air and water around us. We think of places like LA as being really polluted but honestly at this point, its everywhere in the US and I think its starting to have an impact on our health.  My maternal grandmother lived to 94--she ate eggs fried in bacon fat for breakfast almost every morning.  Yet my mother with the same sort of diet has heart failure at 80.

    It really worries for my kids.

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  • mom3band1g
    mom3band1g Member Posts: 817
    edited February 2010

    I am going in for the genetic testing today.  I really don't think it will be the case for me but we are doing it for our daughter.  I really think it's just my rotten luck.  sigh.

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