New, Would Love to Hear from Others in 30’s/40’s & Survivors

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Hi Pebbles. I was diagnosed July 2017 at age 42. I had 2 tumors, both under 2 CM, but no lymph nodes. It's been over a year, and while side effects from medications aren't fun, I'm adapting to my new normal. I was told "no chemo" (but the doctors had some disagreement about that), but I am doing Zoladex to put me into menopause and taking an AI. It's a crazy ride. Definitely not where I thought I'd be. But I look to all of those who are so far out from diagnosis, and I can only home that'll be me someday. One step at a time, but so far, 1 year NED.

Pebbles. I have been off work a year. Looking back I could have definitely worked through parts of my treatment. And I think that would have been a nice distraction. I go back to work half time in November. A year and two months after diagnosis

Hi PebblesV, just chiming in as someone else who feels "young" to be going through this. I am 42 and was diagnosed in July of this year. Like you, I thought I would have surgery only and maybe hormone therapy as I was originally dx'd as 1A until they found a ton of positive lymph nodes during surgery. So now I am getting the full monty of treatment - chemo, rads then hormone therapy (and am also looking at a clinical trial to add a cdk4/6 inhibitor). I've only been through one round of chemo at this point, but BY FAR the worst part of this process for me was waiting for the bone and CT scan and results. I honestly wondered how I was going to get through it. Luckily they came back clear, but no matter what, I think once you have results you can start planning treatment and next steps. I find it so much easier to be doing something rather than waiting for things that are so out of my control.

Workwise, if you like your job well enough and they are flexible, that is a great place to be. I am working through out of financial necessity, but my workplace has also been quite flexible about taking time off and working from home. I took a week off following my first AC with the idea that I could take less time for the next ones if it ended up being easy side effect-wise. It didn't (though not terrible either) so I will continue to take the treatment week off for the next 3 rounds. To my surprise, I really enjoyed going back to work afterwards. It was just nice to feel normal and do something non-cancer related.

Sending you lots of support and comfort while you wait for those results. These boards have been amazing for me, so I hope they are a help to you, too. Good luck with what comes next!

Nowhere girl...how did you decide to do 12 more weekly Taxols? So fascinating!

Hi Pebbles, I am 40 and 2 months after my bday, I went through the ordeal of mammo, biopsy, MRI when the roller coaster ride started. Based on current status lymph nodes are not affected. It is ER/PR+ and Her2-. Genetic tests came -ve too. But onco came 41 and my 'no chemo' wish was destroyed. I have to take chemo first as the tumor is near chest wall, so they want to shrink it before surgery. No breast cancer history in family and none of the ladies/girls that I have known in my whole life have BC (I hope no one has to go through this). It was definitely a shock and our fear for the word 'cancer' makes it worst. But take one day at a time, one test result at a time and keep as much positive attitude as you can (easier said than done!). I am done with round1 of TC chemo and have to go through 3 more rounds. Then have to decide which type of surgery I want. Even now I go through cycles when sometimes I feel I can do it and sometimes I just feel sad that it happened to me. But my husband and family, friends are very supportive without whom this would not have been possible. I have continued the work, but take off in the week of chemo and next few days I work from home. I count my blessings that they are flexible with this. It is another story that the company got taken over and soon I might be out of job, but now I am giving health the most priority and will search opportunities once I am through all this.

Wishing you the strength and resilience as you move forward in this process. It is already good that your bone/CT scan came clear. The path will get clear as you take each step. This board is amazing. Ladies here that go through this come out stronger and every word from each one offers great support and guidance. We all are in it together and have faith to meet on the other side. Take care.

Hi all of you lovely ladies,

Pebbles, hooray for clear scans! The letter "C" is not always so bad, right? I don't know much about Oncotype DX as it became available only a year before my DX so it wasn't really popular back then. What is your grade? I guess your onc may still want you to have chemo if your grade is high. When I got all my test results, I was told to come back 3 days later to have my first chemo (Taxol). As much as I was scared, I didn't even think about avoiding it as I was determined to do whatever was thrown at me. Trust me, it was NOT because I was strong. It's completely opposite. I just didn't want to miss out on anything that had potential to get rid of this rotten disease because of "what if"s" that I didn't even know would happen. Like I said, until shit happens.

PreludeSing, yep I did rads. 30 rounds of them. Luckily I had almost no s/e's. Quite a few ladies here recommended me to apply aloe vera gel and even sent me some they got from CVS by mail as I couldn't find an organic one here. Thanks for them, I didn't even get my skin dry.

WC3, don't you ever be disappointed, OK? Just because you got sick doesn't make you a weak person. You ARE fighting right now. There is absolute no warrior that doesn't need or take a break. And your chemo cocktail appears to be a lot tougher than what I did. Take as much rest as you need. Your mission is to kick this stupid disease's ass. Anything else is not important at the moment. Yes, there are a lot other things that are important to you and hell I do know how much you miss doing those things. But you know it's not permanent. It's just that you have a table full of dishes and you are eating from the one that you least like. The best dish feels the best when it's left for the last, right? Hang in there, you will sure get through this.

Pebbles, thank you for starting this thread. I'm 42 and I was diagnosed in late August. No family history for me either, so it seems out of nowhere and it's been a roller coaster of emotions. I had a lumpectomy and port insertion on 10/10 and am scheduled to start weekly taxol on 11/13 (eek!) with radiation to follow. I haven't met with the RO, but that's going to be happening in the next few weeks as well.

I'm still slowly telling friends, but one of them gave me a a batch of notebooks, fun pens and a big calendar, which I think might be the perfect gift. I now keep one of those notebooks in my purse at all times just in case some question or need pops in my head - which is how I showed up to my chemo education meeting with the NP with 6 pages of questions last week.

I'm planning to keep working - my office knows and my boss is a bc survivor (although no chemo for her) so it looks like I'll have a lot of flexibility about working from home. I'll guess we'll see though.

Hi all, hope it is ok that I post in here. I’m 45 and was diagnosed on Halloween with IDC. Still waiting for many test results, MRI on Monday is the next step for me.

I’m extremely worried about work and income, since I am an hourly employee with no paid leave, and also worried about my 3 daughters and all their extracurriculars and how I’m going to get them there/pay for them. My oldest is a senior in HS and I have to pay for college next year! I don’t want my cancer to change their lives. I’m terrified of telling them and bringing them sadness. Pretty much, I am just worried.

Love to all that are here with me