Diagnosed at 29, and scared

JBen,

I am not, though I once was, your age. You are actually my daughter's age, but I can't stand to see your post hang unanswered.

You are at the hardest part of this crap. You know that you have cancer, but only a bit more. I was >5% ER+ and yet have responded very well to estrogen-supression treatments. I had my chemo pre-surgery, but the protocols have changed a lot in the past 10 years. If you want to get an opinion at a NCI cancer center, I would suggest that you do this before starting treatment. The fact is, this cancer has been in your body for a while. A few weeks won't make a difference either way. If your cancer is BRAC positive, that will affect your treatment plan, especially when it comes to surgery.

Take the time that you need to breathe. Hard to do, but allows you to find your center. Lean on this forum for assistance. This is not easy. I am really very sorry that you have needed to find us... let me know if I can be of help.

*susan*

JBen, Welcome, you will find a lot of support and answers here. And there are a lot of young women here as well, I'm not young, just my brain is! Take a notebook with you everywhere you go to write down questions that you have for all the Doctors etc. you see. You can also record the meeting with the Doctors so you don't miss anything. Or if you others going with you, they can be the extra ears. A smartphone can be very helpful for notes, voice memos, even pictures if needed.

I know it is so hard but take a deep breath and relax a little. The waiting game is the worst, we all know it. But once you have the info, you will feel more in control of the situation. Look at the other threads, the info you find here will serve you well. Good Luck!

JBen, sorry to hear that you had to join us. Know that these boards are a life saver even if you just want to vent.

I was diagnosed last year at 32 and like you, my husband and I were trying to get pregnant again after a miscarriage 4-5 months before. I have heterogeneous dense breast and I had a benign tumor on my left side so I was going for yearly u/s. I had a clear u/s a year before my diagnosis but my cancer was multi focal and quite big and I believe that it was due to my pregnancy/miscarriage that I was able to feel the lump as the sucker was 95% ER+.

My diagnosis was stage IIIa grade 2 and I had 8 lymph nodes involved. I went through surgery first as I wanted to go through a round of fertility treatment due to the fact that the chemo protocol I was going for had increase chances of inducing early menopause. It's been 7 months with no period.

Being diagnosed, no matter at what age is hard but the fact that you are healthy otherwise works in your favour. I had an easy time during chemo and radiation (felt mostly tired but my skin reacted well).

Please be gentle to yourself and if you have days that you feel blue deal with the emotions and pick yourself up again. take things just one day at a time and know that you will get through this.

If you want you can pm me even though I am ER/PR+.

Big hugs!!!

A second opinion is a very good idea, JBen, and does not reflect in any way on the quality of care you are already receiving.

I think your nearest NCI center is Dartmouth Hitchcock (DHMC.org), where I have my treatment, about a 2 1/2 hour drive for you (two hours for me). If you're a fan of train travel, however, I guess it would be out of reach, and Sloan Kettering, or maybe Dana Farber or Yale would be your other options.

Even if you decide you prefer the plan the second opinion offers, you can usually still have exactly that protocol in your local center, with your local surgeon, and medical and radiation oncologists. These specialists are very, very accustomed to working together for the benefit of their patients.

The way a second opinion could best work for you would be for your doc to send all your reports to the NCI center. You could then take a day to meet with a team (surgeon, medical oncologist, radiation oncologist), probably with the appointments lined up, exhaustingly, one after the other. You'll have spent one whole day (or maybe two) in travel and meetings, will have a great deal more information, and the collective wisdom of your teams and the tumor boards at both hospitals. Some, for whom travel is too difficult, simply send records. If you decide to make the journey, please do take someone else with you, to serve as notetaker; it's pretty durned difficult to absorb information from so many points of view.