Were you told your risk of distant recurrence?
Comments
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Linda (lkc), you have no idea how many times a week I think of you--you've given me such hope. Someone said on one of these posts (and I've repeated it before), if you ruin your happiness worrying all the time then the cancer has already won!!! I know--easier said than done--but (most of the time) am SO grateful for the good life and health I have right now.
Kathleen1966---my heartfelt thanks to you, too, for posting your good news. Your diagnosis is similar to mine so has special meaning to me--gives me lots of hope. Do wish more Stage 3, Her2+ -er-pr ladies would post.
Cyber hugs, love and especially wishes for peace of mind to all of you. Stephanie
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I didn't read all the responses but I was diagnosed 11 years ago with stage III. My pathology report is frightening to read. 6 positive lymph nodes, cancer in 1/4 of my breast but small 1cm lump. Additionally, I had extracapsular extension-I literally had cancer spilling out of 2 of the 6 lymph nodes. I did chemo, mast (no recon) and rads. My children at the time were 8, 6 and 4. My oldest daughter is now a sophomore in college, my middle daughter will be going to college in the fall and my youngest is a sophomore in hs. In a million years I NEVER thought I would even see them finish elementary school. However, here I am looking at my kids at ages 19, 17 and 15.
The fear is so so hard right after you finish treatment. It gets better but it is still here at certain times. There is never a day that goes by that I don't think of cancer but I have pretty much contained the fear (pretty much-not completely).
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caaclark, thank you so much for sharing!!! What an inspiration that brings us so much hope. I'm really struggling with the fear as you described. I have 4 very young girls and am so afraid I won't see them grow up. Stories like yours give me a lot of hope.
Just curious, did you have chemo before surgery? Did you take antihormonals?
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caaclark, thank you so much for sharing!!! What an inspiration that brings us so much hope. I'm really struggling with the fear as you described. I have 4 very young girls and am so afraid I won't see them grow up. Stories like yours give me a lot of hope.
Just curious, did you have chemo before surgery? Did you take antihormonals?
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Caaclark, I wish our posts had "LIKE" buttons. I "LOVE" yours. So much hope!
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I was told I had about an 45% chance my cancer would stay away over the next 5 years. With the chemo, radiation, herceptin and hormone therapy I can up those odds to 80%. Then what............ So far I've done the chemo, rads, am on herceptin until August and started femara 3 week ago for the next 10 years. So I guess my job is to just breath and carry on living. I'm not sure about what becomes my anniversary date so I will be going with the day i got the news - roll on 6 May
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Artista: My onc said more so than size of tumor, it lands on how many nodes are positive. One can have a huge tumor over 8 or 9 cm and only a couple nodes positive. But then again, there is much more they have to figure out with cancer. As she put it, cancer is a lot of different diseases put into one category. I took it to mean a lot of different reasons could've caused my cells to go bizerk.
Yatcom: you are definitely inspiring and keep on the road to NED !!
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