Seeking Input

Hi, 98765--Sorry you find yourself in this position but glad you are expressing your shock and fear. Rest assured, many--actually most--of us felt the same way, even with such a hopeful diagnosis as yours. I know I did, and my diagnosis story was very like yours--I felt great, was the picture of health, with no cancer history, and had a small tumor (1.6 cm)--what my surgeon described as "the best breast cancer scenario to have, if you have to one at all," Two and a half years later, I can say that he was right--I'm cancer free by all tests, feeling even better than before without the 15 pounds I determined to lose, and living life as fully as before I hit this "speed bump" in life!

As for your fear about whether the cancer has spread, the pathology studies done after the surgeon removes the tumor and the sentinel lymph node during the lumpectomy will determine that information. (Surgeons take a sample of your nodes, just the one sentinel node if you are lucky.) So there is no need to stew about that info before you get it several days after surgery, especially since there is nothing you can do about it now except worry and the stress from worrying is most definitely not beneficial for you. I found that staying busy helped keep my mind off the "what ifs" (easy to do since I got my diagnosis 4 days before Christmas). and taking long brisk walks and keeping up my regular workouts at the gym also helped stave off anxiety. (I am most definitely NOT a pill-taker, so chemical stress relief never crossed my mind.)

As for outcomes and your fear about dying, both are sources of more unneeded stress right now. Put them out of your mind--thinking positively and keeping a "glass-is-half-full" attitude really will help. To reassure you a bit, I can tell you that 6 months after my lumpectomy, I hiked up to an 11.000' peak in Utah from 8000' feet to 11,000 feet, and two months later was hiking in the Austrian alps. Not all bc patients have to deal with the serious scenarios that you see on the bco discussion boards, so relax, and breathe normally, until you have reason to fear a dire outcome.

Now that you are moving through the treatment process, you will benefit from using the information (the topics appear at the top of the bco home page) to get factual information that will help you understand the disease and treatment options and also help you speak proactively with your medical team. The menus cover all stages of breast cancer, and the articles are written by physicians and health professionals. .

Good luck as you move through the process, and keep thinking positively until you have good reason not to! Trudi

Dear 98765 ,

I am sorry to hear of your diagnosis. I was diagnosed with the same thing in April of this year and also had no family history of cancer. I can relate to your feeling of fear, as I too was scared to death. There is probably no real way of knowing about any spreading without just going through the motions of testing and scans to be sure. Each new test demands more of our patience and can be tremendously anxiety-producing. All I can say about that is breathe, take deep breaths and hold your self-talk and self-vision as being healthy and strong. A cancer diagnosis changes us immediately, and forever, but I am doing my best to stay as positive as possible and keep my life routines intact. I continued light exercise a week after surgery and all through my radiation, something I was told is critical in "staying ahead of the fatigue affects of radiation." It definitely helped, just as being diligent in learning as much about breast cancer as possible. But I do feel tired and anxious still as each new step of treatment presents itself because there are many steps in this healing process, first surgery, then radiation, then hormone therapy, etc. All we can do is take it one step and one day at a time. Surround yourself with positive and supportive friends or boards such as these where other women can support you. Trying to take all the focus off myself helped my anxiety to some extent, by just doing something for someone else, even if it was just share a smile. My diagnosis has made me very present to what is most important to me in my life and has a way of re-prioritizing where I spend my energy. Just take care of yourself and know in your heart that you WILL get through this, and that you are not alone.

All the best to you, please let us know how things continue.

Hi and thank you for posting how you feel and giving me the opportunity to hopefully give you some emotional support and to share some of my experience.

I was diagnosed with a "tiny" cancer deep in my left breast in May 2015 during a regular mammogram. There was no lump, no pain, and I had to trust the word of the pathologists. It helped to learn that it is more common in older women (I am 73).

I live in a retirement community and one day another person shared that someone in her family had recently had a newer procedure where the radiation was done during the lumpectomy. Europe has been doing it for some time but it is only now being done here in the US and as part of a clinical study in some hospitals. Fortunately, I live in the Denver area and near Rose Hospital where they are part of this study. Long story short, on July 20, I did have a lumpectomy with radiation done during surgery (IORT or Intraoperative Radiation Therapy). Afterward, the reports came back negative and I am now taking Tamoxifen to keep the cancer from recurring. I would suggest reading up on it (i.e., the National Institutes of Health website). There is a very practical reason for this type of surgery for women who do not live near a radiation center as they eliminate the time and trips by doing it all at once during this type of surgery. As I understand it, the long term prognosis is about the same for either type of surgery (IORT or lumpectomy with radiation afterward), and I thought that was a form of good news in case the IORT is not available in one's area or one does not want to have it.

I wish you well and again, thank you for posting so we can share during this time.

I am new to the boards but have been on this site reading for a few weeks now. I was diagnosis with IDC, grade 2, stage 1 on 6/23/15 and had a lumpectomy on 7/9/15. I could really use some advice from you ladies as I consider you all to be the experts.

I have not started radiation as I had the Oncotype Dx testing done, I'm at a 20, and then my RO felt that it would be in my best interest to also be tested for gene mutations as there is some family history of BC. No mutations thank goodness.

From the very beginning of this nightmare I wanted to have a BMX but my surgeon was very persuasive in regards to a lumpectomy and radiation and that it would give me the same end results with less recovery time then a BMX but did state that he would do a BMX anytime I wanted it done. 

I've seen so many of you on these boards who have the same diagnosis and I wonder what helped you make the decision as to lumpectomy with radiation or mastectomy?

I'm tired of percentages and statistics and that's all I can get from my BS, RO and MO. I'm a very black and white person so all of this grey area does not work well for me. I terrifed of a recurrence or new cancer, as I'm sure all of you are as well.

I need to make the decision soon as they are going to start bugging me to start radiation real soon. I really don't want to do radiation so maybe I really do have my answer as to what I want to do but I sure would love some advice, first hand knowledge and encouragement.

Hi Sammia and welcome to Breastcancer.org -- you've found an incredible Community here!

We're sure the others here will be happy to help you sort out your decision. In addition to their advice, you may want to check out the main Breastcancer.org site's page on Mastectomy vs. Lumpectomy, which can help you weigh your options.

We hope this helps! Please keep us posted on what you decide. We're all here for you!

--The Mods

Hi runninggirl46, my understanding is that if you have IORT during surgery, that is not a guarantee that you won't need radiation afterwards as well, based on what they find during surgery or pathology reports. But having the IORT can reduce the rad treatments by a week. In my mind there is no downside.