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Tracy48744
Tracy48744 Member Posts: 11
edited June 2014 in Stage I Breast Cancer

I was recently diagnosed with stage0-1 breast cancer which is due to being genic. I do  not have to have treatments but went with BM (i think that is right) due to the fact that it is genetic and i caught it early.  now I faced with a problem that everyone tells me that i am not fighting breast cancer because i didn't receive any treatments. To me cancer is cancer your fighting once you get diagnosed with it. please give me your imput on this. The cancer could return. It is shown not to be in my lymphnodes.

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  • pee
    pee Member Posts: 456
    edited January 2011

    At the stage you are you have done all you need to do.

    Just remember to keep your check up appts. and you

    should be fine.  You were dxed. with cancer, you have it

    so ignore the others.

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited January 2011

    BM you mean BMX or bilateral mastectomy? And who says you are not fighting this? Granted I have just finished chemo and will be starting on hormone therapy I also had a BMX. Anyone who thinks you are not fighting this after a BMX or lumpectomy is clueless. Stop listening to them.

    Do these people think you should get chemo for the hell of it? 

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  • Tracy48744
    Tracy48744 Member Posts: 11
    edited January 2011

    thank you for those who replay  and also thanks for the clarification of the abbreviations.

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  • mikita5
    mikita5 Member Posts: 373
    edited January 2011

    Tracy: Yes, you had cancer. I didn't have to have chemo or radiation either but would have, had I not had a BMX.  My thinking was, you can only have radiation once, so if it comes back, then I'll do the radiation.  Don't listen to these people. They haven't been there and some are stupid when it comes to bc. They like to run their mouth when they don't even know what they're talking about.

    BTW, if your bc is genetic, have you had testing for BRCA? Hugs coming your way.... and wishing you a blessed future WITHOUT cancer!

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  • Letlet
    Letlet Member Posts: 1,053
    edited January 2011

    A bilateral mastectomy is surgery and surgery is considered treatment! Feel free to educate those ignorant people around you.

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  • Sassa
    Sassa Member Posts: 1,588
    edited January 2011

    You absolutely have had treatment.  You opted for the treatment that would stop your cancer from ever spreading, and most likely ever recurring:  you had your breasts removed.

    As your cancer had never left the cells that were cancerous, there is no need for anything else, except as stated above in another post, your follow up appointments.

    The only reason I said most likely not to reoccur is because no surgeon, no matter how good, can remove all the breast tissue during a mastectomy.  So make sure your self "breast" exams are done to check the scar lines and surrounding areas for any lumps.  You will need to get use to what the scars feel like so you don't drive yourself crazy from any sutures that may not dissolve and come to the surface (will look like a pimple if it happens).

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  • Tracy48744
    Tracy48744 Member Posts: 11
    edited January 2011

    my mom has the gene and i figured that since i am third generation and most of my aunts and uncles have had some type of cancer I must have the gene. My doctor said that i more in likely do, since I am third generation of BC. If it reoccurs then i am going to.

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  • lbadgett
    lbadgett Member Posts: 7
    edited February 2011

    I'm dealing with the same issue - I haven't actually been diagnosed with cancer however I'm at such a high risk that the cancer board has recommended a bilateral mastectomy which I'll have in early spring.  I feel I'll be a survivor but feel weird saying that since I haven't actually been diagnosed with any cancer.  What are your thoughts?  And YES you are a SURVIVOR!!!!

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  • lbadgett
    lbadgett Member Posts: 7
    edited February 2011

    love your response letlet

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  • Fearless_One
    Fearless_One Member Posts: 3,300
    edited February 2011

    You have chosen a BLMX, that is certainly treatment!  If anyone tells you otherwise, they are just ignorant and insensitive.

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  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 17,186
    edited February 2011

    lbadgett I went to a Komen race this fall about 3-4 weeks after my BMX. I hadn't started chemo yet. At the time I didn't really feel like a survivor since I had so much more treatment to go… and the BMX wasn't all that difficult for me. I never even took a tylenol.

    But now I look back at the spring/summer before my BMX. That was emotionally the worst hell of this entire journey. I just finished chemo and I still feel emotionally 300% better than I was back then. Surviving emotionally counts big time!  

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  • vmudrow
    vmudrow Member Posts: 846
    edited February 2011

    Ibadgett - I had masectomies for ALH and strong family history so I feel in some ways like I'm not fighter "cancer", but I am fighting to not get cancer!!  There aren't to many that have surgery when they don't have a cancer diagnosis.  Some of my family couldn't understand why I would have the surgery.  There is a new word out there "previvor".  Anyway good luck with your surgery - I was able to have nipple/skin sparing surgery since it wasn't cancer.  Hugs to everyone, Valerie

    Tracey - yes you are a SURVIVOR!!!  Good for you.

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  • CHARGE-ON
    CHARGE-ON Member Posts: 3
    edited February 2011

    My father died of cancer but I am not afraid with cancer anymore cause I found the best medicine for cancer it's CHARGE-ON Graviola tea. It is 10,000 times better than chemo and if you want to learn more about it or order one for you or your love once, now is the right time. Please believe me and give your self a chance to leave healthy and most of all, cancer free.: charge_on01@yahoo.com

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  • vmudrow
    vmudrow Member Posts: 846
    edited February 2011

    JBinOK - you are right about being able to get cancer after a mastectomy, just the risk is lowered.  Thanks for your comments!!

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  • DougMac
    DougMac Member Posts: 5
    edited March 2011

    Fighting cancer happens the moment you get your dx. It starts mental and emotional, dealing with it, and can continue with treatment, etc.

    You are fighting, Tracy, and best of luck with it.

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  • mbw
    mbw Member Posts: 8
    edited March 2011

    Thanks for all the foregoing.  I had been waiting for 35 years for the diagnosis after losing my mother to it.  My reaction was intially to 'just take them off' (age 69, husband of 40 years didn't care...after removing his prostate at age 50)...But, after 4 additional 'suspects' were MRI guided biopsied benign, I was persuaded to do lumpectomy..no margin nor lymph involvment.  

    I understand that if I get it again, it would likely be new stand-alone as this one was.  I have Radiation Oncology and Hormone appts next week but BC surgeon AND the radiologist who called in advance have said, against all usual odds, probably there is no reason to do radiation and perhaps nor Hormone....

    Is there any reason not to believe them.  My only regret, frankly is that I gave into the temptation of "you can have a lift and reduction" instead of going with removal so they were just out of the way since the lift nor reduction is sufficient to do away with bra's and rashes under breasts.  But am I a fool to look at this as when my tonsils that were removed at age 21...Gone, done with it until told otherwise?

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  • MarieKelly
    MarieKelly Member Posts: 591
    edited March 2011

    MBW, there's absolutely no reason for you not to believe what your breast surgeon and radiologist have told you about not needing radiation and possibly not even needing any antihormonal drugs. Believe them!   You're not foolish at all for thinking that this could be all gone and done with after just having a lumpectomy. It's quite possible however, that whatever radiation oncologist you see might recommend radiation.  But keep in mind that treating disease with radiation is their sole business and some radiation oncologists will insist on radiation after lumpectomy for almost everyone - unfortunately, even when common sense (not to mention research) should be telling them it's not really necessary for some people.

    Breast cancer in women your age has a tendency to be very indolent and just because your mother died of breast cancer 35 years ago doesn't in any way indicate that you'll have the same fate or that you were destined to develop breast cancer because your mother did. Your mother likely had a much different and/or more aggressive type of breast cancer and/or it may not have been caught early enough and was she obviously a much younger woman than you are now.

    7 years ago this month, when I had just turned 49, I had a lumpectomy and then refused radiation and hormonal treatment. You can see the type of cancer I had in my signature line. I was already in natural menopause at the time so biologically, I was already post-menopausal even though breast cancer research/statistics would consider me "young". I developed the kind of cancer common in elderly women.  I have had no recurrence and for me, in having just a lumpectomy and single node removed in a sentinel node biopsy, it really wasn't any worse than having any other type of minor surgery. I was back at work at a physically demanding job little more than a week later and the surgical discomfort was completely gone in about a month.  

    For some women, it really is gone and done with after just having a lumpectomy. That doesn't necessarily mean that there couldn't be another breast cancer someday - just like having strep throat cured once doesn't guarantee you won't have it again in the future. But just having a lumpectomy again someday if it returns or another cancer develops is a realistic possibility.  With small, low grade breast cancers, especially in post-menopausal women, there are reasonable options other than what the standard of care currently dictates. The most important thing is to maintain yearly mammograms, MRIs etc and catch it again EARLY.

    Best wishes -

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  • ma111
    ma111 Member Posts: 1,376
    edited April 2011

    One of the hardest things to deal with is people that do not know things giving their opinion.

    Part of the purpose of BM is that radiation is not needed because all tissue was removed. You do not have systemic disease to need chemo, congradulation. The cancer is gone.

    Stupid people's reaction, that sometimes mean well is why some of us are here.

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