Calling all ladies in their 20's

Thanks Melanie_Ann for the welcome, I just got my lumpectomy done monday, the Dr, said I am negative on my lump nods, which is good. Now I am waiting for the final result (which is the final pathpologist report) and see what my Dr going to tell me. Then I am go see my Oncologist for the treatment.

Hope radiation is not going to hurt! 

Mandy

Melanie Ann, thanks for the support. That is great to hear that you are done with radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery, now you can live your life normal again, but what is normal life? Anyway, I will give you an up data of what the treatment is. I hope radiation isn't too bad, b/c I am really affraid of pain.



Mandy

Hi Natalie. I would go ahead and get the biopsy just in case. It pays to catch BC as early as possible  The biopsy wasn't so bad in my opionion. I hope it's nothing!

Mandy- life doesn't really feel normal yet...I still have LE to deal with so it's a constant reminder that I'm not the same. But life definitley moves on. People still have high expectations of you. I get a little frustrated at times b/c I just want to hide in a hole and deal with what I went through the last 8 months. But it's been hard to find time. I got so behind on cleaning and organizing through all of it, so if someone offers to help with that, take it! I still have tons of stuff to clean and organize, but now I'm so busy again, I don't have time.

I do feel good though and I find that it is a real mood lifter to feel good again. I've started running and exercising again. I sleep better and feel more rested each day. These things make me feel as if I'm on the mend.

Nanna- sorry you're dealing with thoughts of death. I have had moments where I'm gripped by an all-consuming fear that I'm going to die. It's just happened a few times but it's scary when it does. I've found that my faith has helped me a lot in this area. I try to remember that today is all that anybody has. No one is promised tomorrow. So I remind myself that even though I had cancer, I am no different than anyone else. Others face illnesses and tragedies equally as frightening as this. But allow yourself to work through your emotions. I had a friend give me some great advice. She said that God gave us all of these emotions and he experienced many of them himself. So 1st we need to recognize our emotion and allow ourselves to momentarily feel them. Then she told me to ask God why I'm feeling them, and then give them over to Him. I practice that quite often. I still have many moments of fear and uncertainty but I try not to let them overtake my joy of living. I believe that those that have passed on, would do anything for another day. So I try to remember that each day is a new blessing, and try to live it with as much joy as possible. I feel like I succeed about 80% of the time.

I hope that helps some. I don't want to sound preachy but ya never know what might help someone else, so I try not to be my usual shy self all of the time.

Have a great day ladies! 

Melanie_Ann, 

Thanks for the support, well, normal life, like you said, we or I never be the same until I am done with all these treatment. Anyway, as I said before, I will updata my treatment, so I went to see my doctor for the follow up, she give me a great news. The report came back with negative, everything is negative. But still need to go through radiation.  Have an apointment next month with medical oncologiest, then radiation, also need to do a gentic testing for mutation. But other than that, I been happy and now I am back with planning and reserching for my wedding next year!

Mandy

Hi ladies - It's been a while since I last posted. I've just been treading water so to speak, but I'm done with AC and just had my first Taxol on Tuesday. I have 3 more treatments left and the last one can't come soon enough! I've been suffering from chemo induced anemia and then I had to start back up at work again (part time) last week to avoid having to go on COBRA, so that hasnt helped the fatigue factor. I wish I didn't have to get back to work smack in the middle of treatment, but I guess the world doesn't stop because I have cancer. At least I'm able to go back part time until after my implant swapout.

Nannababy - I think we hit a new "normal" when we finish chemo. It's okay to have your days of feeling down after what you've been through.

Curly- Welcome to our group. It sounds like you have quite a family history of breast and ovarian cancers and I'm sorry your mother and grandmother weren't able to be saved. I hope you were being monitored before your diagnosis and that it makes all the difference. Congrats on almost being done with chemo. I'm 5 weeks away from my last treatment and it will be good to be done! When is your swapout surgery?

Thanks Curly. My last one is October 4th, so I'm a month out from then. I go for my 6th treatment on Wednesday. Sorry to hear that you had complications with your mastectomy. I ended up having to have some skin removed as well about a month after mine, but it was around the stitching and they just restitched and it shouldn't delay my swapout. I hope we're both done by Thanksgiving!

I'm doing much better with the Taxol than I did with the AC. I had my 6th (2nd Taxol) chemo treatment yesterday and I'm 26 days away from my last one! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

 How are you doing? Have you started Tamoxifen yet? How is your hair doing? Mine already started growing back before Taxol, but just very slowly. 

KK- I'm doing pretty good. I started Tamoxifen a month ago. So far it has been ok. The only really thing I noticed with it is an increase in hot flashes. It's still not as bad as they were through chemo though. I haven't gained any weight but I've been diligent about not gaining weight. When I go back to the Dr. in Nov, I want to have lost weight. Other than that, I'm doing good...I've had some sort of stomach bug and yesterday had a really bad cold/flu type thing. Ugh...reminded me of chemo. So I didnt' sleep well last night but I feel much better today.

hd- sorry you had a hard day. My  hair is growing back very, very slowly. I hate how I look too.I almost liked myself better bald. My hair is much lighter than it used to be and so are my eyebrows. I miss my dark hair. I haven't started my period either and it makes me feel bloated. I haven't had one since January. I never thought I would say I miss my period, but I do. It always made me feel better once I was over it for the month. 

Melanie - It's good to read that you're doing okay so far on Tamoxifen. I'm NOT looking forward to it! As far as periods are concerned, I haven't had one since before starting chemo and I had only recently gotten them back to normal after the whole molar pregnancy business, so I too miss my period. I hope it comes back quickly for us. 

 HD - I'm sorry you have been feeling depressed. I have been down this week too because I'm nearing the end of treatment and I know that is when the clock starts ticking for when we get to try for kids (b/c of Tamoxifen). They told me to wait 5 years, though some doctors are okay with 2. My husband and I were trying for a baby as of the start of 2010 and we had a complicated miscarriage (molar pregnancy) and I needed chemo for that. 2 months after I finished chemo, I found the lump and on to breast cancer, so 19 months later we are still childless and that's not changing anytime soon. I am 2 treatments away from finishing with chemo and I would feel better if I didn't have to put the next 5 years of my life on hold. I was only 10% estrogen positive, PR-, and HER2-, so kids aren't out of the question for me in the future, but it's still hard. I can't imagine being told no kids at all. Sending you virtual hugs.

Brenna - Welcome to our group, but so sorry to read you are at Stage 4. I don't really know what to say except you have someone in California praying for you and hoping you can beat this nasty thing. How are you and your family handling this? What treatments are you getting? Was it already in your bones, bone marrow, and pelvis when you were first diagnosed? If so, have things improved? I apologize if I'm asking too many questions. I'm just trying to understand your story. Know we are thinking of you and please keep us posted on how you're doing whenever you feel up to it. 

Brenna= welcome to this group i've talked with you on the stage 4 boards. Feel free to PM me anytime you want to chat! Totally know exactly what you're going through.

2young4bcancer- Postive goes a long way! Glad to hear you sound so up beat, good luck tomorrow I will be thinking about you!

Hi ladies....just checking in. I have my 7th chemo treatment on Tuesday and then the countdown really begins for my last one, which is just 17 days away. For those of you who had mastectomies with reconstruction and also needed Tamoxifen, when did you start the Tamoxifen? Did you start after the end of chemo, or after your swapout surgery? I'll be asking my oncologist on Tuesday, but I just thought I'd check with you ladies too.