Just diagnosed at 31

Warian 7,

Welcome to BCO. Sorry that you had to join us at such a young age but there is no better place to be. The support amongst this sisterhood is amazing! So sorry to hear about the bedside manner of the surgeon you saw..how insensitive! Definitely try to get a surgeon who is caring and compassionate..it really makes all the difference. 21 years ago, I was diagnosed with BC at the age of 29. I was devastated! I survived and you can too! You will find that there are many women who are alive with Stage IV and mets and they are doing well and moving forward with life. You are a warrior so ball your fists up and fight like a champion. You will win. Sending you a big cyber hug and don’t hesitate to reach out to your sisterhood sothat we can be of support along your journey. 😘

I am very, very sorry you are walking this road so early into your life. What type of b.c. do your have? HR+ or HR -? Treatments are different for each. There is still hope for many years of life and most importantly, there are genetic researches going on to make b.c. either curable or a manageable chronic disease and I think this will be available sooner than we think. I know pregnancy doesn't affect survival among women who have had breast cancer but don't know about active b.c. Anyway, let us know where you are with your type of cancer and we all have our cybers arms around you! ((((HUGS))))) BTW, removing the original tumour from the breast when it is stage 4 can actually make things worse.....your doctor needs a kick in the bum.

I hate this disease, and hate that you are facing this.

I definitely encourage you to get multiple opinions. I can only speak from the experience of several of my friends, but do know that there are varied opinions on your questions among oncologists. Many like to start with hormonal therapy and not start with chemo. Many hit it aggressively initially to try to get you NED, and then maintain that. The 3 people I know with bone only metastasis went this route. The first is a family friend. She had bilateral mastectomy, chemo, and then radiation to her bone metastases (she had 2). She has been NED for about 10 years. The other 2 are local. One is in chemo now and will do BMX then radiation. The other did chemo about 18 months ago, then BMX, and has been NED since. I would get a variety of opinions from various doctors at various locations. For me, a major medical center wanted to treat me non aggressively, "sure" that my tumor was non aggressive. They would not even consider further testing. A more aggressive doctor at a local center did more testing and realized my tumor was very aggressive and treated it accordingly.

As far as surgery, I think you do need to consider it. Especially based on this: http://www.ascopost.com/issues/july-10-2016/mixed-...

The key statement applies to you: "The greatest benefit was observed in patients with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative disease, patients with solitary bone metastases, and those younger than age 55—"persons with a more indolent form of metastatic breast cancer," he added. On the other hand, patients with multiple liver and/or pulmonary metastases had a significantly worse prognosis with initial surgery."

Thinking of you!

Hope ur doing well. I been recently diagnosed with hers2+. Not staged yet. I have a friend diagnosed stage 4 in her bones. They gave her 6 months. She went on chemo and she kept working. It's now 3 years she fighting this and she is 67 yrs old. Some docs have no bedside manner. I'm so sorry ur going thru this at a young age. I will pray for u just don't give up. So many are surviving. It isn't a death sentence. God b with . You. Give this to Jesus.