Diagnosed today as Stage IV

I echo DivineMrsM....it's not easy to do it, but just take one day at a time. NO ONE knows exactly how this all plays out, how we respond, etc. I was diagnosed a stage 4 at age 50 (March 2014). Now here I am at 55 and still enjoying every day! Who knows what the future brings to any of us. I am currently NED (knock wood!) and have been since Nov 2014. Who knows what the future brings, but I just feel that every day brings us closer to the miracle drug that becomes our insulin.

Sonda, I'm sorry for the news but I get it . I was diagnosed at 41. I continued working for about a year, then decided I was done. Now, I spend most of my time doing whatever I want! Day to day, stage IV is less stressful than my former job and I love sleeping in 🙂

Sandra divine is right. My grandmother had inflammatory breast cancer back in 05 and it had worse to her bone and her oncologist said ste had years left. Prayers

Bone scan is the gold standard for bone mets. CT scan can pickup all kinds of things, including false positive. The fact that you have an injury at the site it is also important to keep in mind. In a nutshell, there is not confirmation you are stage iv until the bone scan proves otherwise.

I remember the time of my diagnosis, 2 years ago. It was hard, in my case the cancer made me sick and I had a plethora of symptoms (all gone after treatment). In fact, I started to worry about cancer 5 years prior, and possible metastasis 16 months before diagnosis, which was at a routine mammogram. I remember telling my husband when the docs won't find any reasons for my symptoms :"I am afraid this is a cancer, and they will find it too late." (of course, at the time he looked at me like I was crazy). When it was found (4 tumors and a lymph node), I was sure it was all over me. This may sound funny, but at that time, I could not even believe that it was breast cancer. I thought it was other type of cancer that metastasized to breast. (My most bothersome symptoms were abdominal, all wiped out by chemo).

Unfortunately, even if you are not stage iv now, there is now guarantee. If you search on this site, you'll find ladies with stage 0 that become stage 4 after two three years; and stage 4 ladies that are ned for many years (perhaps cured). You'll have to learn to live with this uncertainty. The good part is that in this process you learn to prioritize and sort out crap much faster.

You'll go through ups and downs. Some days you'll feel very upbeat, some day you'll be sure it's the end of it. Most of us do, you'll see this over and over if you search this site.

No matter what happens, the doc cannot tell you the future, nor anyone else. Even if it is stage 4, you may very well be cured, some people here are, or at least they are ned for many years.

Also, for me it was tremendously helpful to keep working, it kept me sane. The social interction, the sense of normality, the preoccupation with things other than cancer, it all helped, although cancer and death was always in my mind (not as much now, after two years). I work in academia, and I taught during chemo and continued to advise my graduate students, but the level of effort had to be turned down. I did take time off after the bilateral mastectomy, three weeks. That semester I did not teach, but I continued to interact with my students after that and during radiation. I have a role example too, one of my friends who is metastatic and lives a pretty normal, very busy life between dr appointments and treatments.

I was also 44 at diagnosis, but I don't recall anyone mentioning nor even hinting about fertility. I do have kids, maybe that's why.