Does anyone else feel this way...

Sweetheart, if it wasn't cancer, and serious, we wouldn't have our boobs chopped off because of it, would we?

You are right to believe it's real and to feel it very serious. *hugs*

I believe you are welcome to post anywhere you have something relevant to say.

Unless you are offering personal support to someone you are familiar with on the Stage IV board I would not post there because they are kind of touchy about that.

Mom, it felt like a real cancer to me and it turned my world upside down. I am grateful it wasn't any worse but still, my life is not like it used to be. Some things are better but being neurotic about every ache and pain is not great. What I try to do now is live everyday to the fullest but alway keeping in mind what I need to do to keep healthy. You are just new to this whole thing, you most likely haven't even finished treatments. Give yourself some time to get used to this whole thing. The best advice I got was- you can't work on getting over this until you are finished with it (tx's). Be gentle to yourself.

June wishing you all the best today with your mammo.

You have breast cancer. You are welcome to post anywhere on this board, except the Stage IV forum (which is reserved for Stage IV women).  However, I tend to agree with Rose and redsox.   As Rose suggested, I tend to stick to forums where I have "something relevant to say".  One reason I do that is because, as redsox pointed out, I too have seen factually incorrect advice offered here on the DCIS forum, and also in the reconstruction forum, that "show it is better to comment about issues we actually have experience with".  The other reason is very much in line with your concerns.  Even if I have knowledge about a specific topic, if the women discussing this topic have significantly more advanced BC, I don't want to risk upsetting anyone or appearing to be insensitive.  I realize that while I may know the facts about a certain topic, because I have early stage BC, my perspective might be different and what I say could come out wrong (or be interpreted wrong).  So I don't take the chance and I limit myself to forums where I have personal experience and/or where I'm offering factual data without a personal opinion.  That's my choice.

As for how you feel about having DCIS, just about everyone seems to share that feeling.  The "Please stop minimizing my diagnosis" thread that redsox referenced is a good discussion on exactly that.  

DCIS is real.  Anyone who receives this diagnosis surely feels they are dealing with something serious, confusing and anxiety provoking.  How could you feel otherwise?  It is very difficult when medical professionals are telling you in the same sentence "It is only stage 0 and not life threatening -- one of your treatment options is mastectomy"!!!  For me, what I have found so confusing is that we are told we can decide what our treatment plan should be.  How can we make an informed decision when the information we are given is very often contradictory.  Many times going for 2nd and even 3rd opinions provides us with opposing views.  How are we to deal with this?   

I get what you are saying. At first, I was really unsure if this way Cancer???  Feels like I don't really fit a specfic BC place.   Diagnosed with Paget's disease of nipple, central core lumpectomy, node biopsy 9/9 clear.  I agree with the lady who said, if they are taking off your breast - it is serious.  I also have mixed feelings about what is going on.  I went to a surgeon, who saw my nipple and did a biopsy right away.  Found paget's then surgery.  Very scarey to wait and wonder.  Things seem good after surgery.  Went to family Dr., who referred me to oncologist (radiologist) who wants me to have radiation.  Feels the cells may have migrated from the ducts of breast - Right one by the way.

So, no heart to worry about being irradiated.  I guess I feel lost in all this, wondering what is right???? Listening to one Doctor and another, wondering about insurance, money............It certainly is a lot to think about.    

Sounds very confusing!  Sorry to hear this.  I did get a on-line option with graphs, etc , very high tech. but, not many reasons.  I think you have helped me sort out what is Exactly the problem,

I don't understand what is doing on and why?  Options only ....thank you!

I hear you and understand how you feel.  Bless you and thanks for sharing

Mom-  Sending good wishes your way for tomorrow. I hope everything goes well, and that you're able to take a few days off to relax and recouperate.

M

Oh, boy - do I understand this thread!  I'm lucky - I've just got a little bit of a deadly disease?  4th generation to get BC, and no one yet has survived more than 5 years - I hope I break the cycle.  I researched a lot online, talked to several people who had BC about their experiences, and looked back on my mother's and grandmother's experiences.  I decided to do a bilateral MX - small breasts, no discernable tumor, grade 3 lobular comedo w/necrosis, family history, scattered microcalcifications.  Fortunately, no spread to other tissue or lymph nodes, but I'm so glad to have that done with.  I elected to be an Amazon warrior princess with no reconstruction - also a decision reached after much research, talking with partner and soul-searching.  So I do feel a bit of survivor guilt that I don't even have radiation or chemo to deal with, but I know I made the right decision for me (my mother had the same diagnosis as me - but only had unilateral MX)

Mom3band1g ~ I just joined so I could respond to you, I felt the same way but different.  I waited to tell my family and friends until after my 2nd surgery.  My DCIS was usual because it was within a Phyllodes Tumor and I had to deal with treatment decisions for two different conditions.  After my second surgery (to clear margins for the tumor) I began to tell some of my family and a few select friends in my matter-of-fact-way.  Most of them felt I was in denial which made me feel uncomfortable and second guess myself.  When I spoke with the social worker about this she hit the nail on the head . . . everything is relative to you!  So, yes I have breast cancer and no it is not life threatening at this time because thankfully I was able to catch it in the early stages.  I have just completed 7 weeks of radiation during which time my skin never broke down (other than redness) but it sucked (sorry) just the same.  I am half way through my life at 50, the best is yet to come, and I have a son and daughter, 13 and 11.  This week I started taking Tamoxifen which I will continue to take for the next 5 years and was the part of the diagnoses that bothered me the most. If I didn't have cancer why would I put up with that!!???  Because I did have breast cancer and I am doing EVERYTHING within my power to keep it from reoccurring, the same as someone diagnosed with a different form of cancer.  They are doing everything within their power to continue with life.  It's just worth it!  So, (as I jump off my soapbox), it's all relative to you and sometimes what is needed is not another opinion but just knowing someone is listening.  Good Luck and post freely!  

To mom3 

I know exactly how you feel, I have just had my third surgery in 6 weeks, finishing with a partial mastectomy and breast reconstruction, and have been pronounced cancer free and feel almost as though I have cheated somewhere along the line. I don't feel like a breast cancer survivor, I don't feel as though I have earned that, and yet I have been through my own hell. It may not be a big thing in the great scheme of cancer, but in the great scheme of my life, it's the worst thing I've had to face, and that's what is important. I have the pain and scars to prove my battle too! If it isn't 'real cancer' then why are we bothering with treatment at all? I think some of us are 'lucky' enough to have been given DCIS as a warning for whatever reason...

I must say that in South Africa, where I am, it is taken very seriously, and not once did my BS or PS refer to it as not a real cancer - that is only something I've discovered when doing internet research.

Hope you've finished with your surgery and are feeling better. Don't rush yourself - that's the big thing I am learning!

This really hits close to home, as I'm still waiting for my lumpectomy.  I veer back and forth from "everyone says the chance of it being more than DCIS is very small," to "nobody knows for sure until they do the final pathology."  When I have talked about my cancer with friends and family, I have been careful to let them know that the prognosis is good, because I don't want them jumping to the worst conclusions.  I feel like I have to do this because they haven't been to the doctors with me and they don't know that the doctors do agree I probably have nothing more than DCIS.  So my friends and family are not as worried as I (and my husband) are.  And I'm glad.  But it also makes me feel really isolated.  I do know I do not like it when people tell me how "lucky" I am.