Stage III Cancer Survivors ...Five + Years and Out.

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  • ash123
    ash123 Member Posts: 99
    edited January 2020

    Thanks neeli

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  • KiwiMum
    KiwiMum Member Posts: 704
    edited March 2020

    Nine years out! I come back once a year to give you hope. I was so grateful for these pages and it was such a comfort to read survivor stories.

    From diagnosis with two daughters aged 9 years and 6 years to now. An 18 year old off to College and 15 year old ballet dancer daughter. Life is good.

    Those 12 positive nodes haven't beaten me! I'm doing great, happy and healthy and looking forward to reaching the 10 year milestone. See you next year!

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  • beeline
    beeline Member Posts: 308
    edited March 2020

    Thanks kiwimum, love this! Congratulations! (from another kiwi mum :)


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  • sbelizabeth
    sbelizabeth Member Posts: 2,889
    edited March 2020

    Kiwimum, you were diagnosed a few months before me. I'm glad to see you here, healthy and thriving. I'll be nine years in October. Here's to long years of NED!

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  • 7of9
    7of9 Member Posts: 833
    edited March 2020

    12 nodes 9 yrs later...amazing. I had 10 and am 4 yrs...lead the way!!!!!

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited March 2020

    Seven years in March after my diagnosis as Stage III IDC - and HER2+ on top of that. Keep on trucking.

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  • libby2002
    libby2002 Member Posts: 41
    edited March 2020

    @ Kiwimom - when did you have your ovary removal?

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  • ilovemymom4ever
    ilovemymom4ever Member Posts: 42
    edited March 2020

    hi guys


    my mom's ct scan showed pulmonary nodules on her right lung, but her oncologist and surgeon said it is most likely due to infection because they are very small yet i am still worried. Could they be metastasis?

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  • mpv459
    mpv459 Member Posts: 114
    edited March 2020

    Probably not. Nodes on lungs are very common. Sometimes scar tissue from colds, flu, asthma, ect... They will probably keep an eye on them but they probably will stay the same and not be cancer. Don't borrow trouble. <3

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  • ilovemymom4ever
    ilovemymom4ever Member Posts: 42
    edited March 2020

    thank you! I just feel anxious and worries. I just love my mom so muc

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  • beeline
    beeline Member Posts: 308
    edited March 2020

    Congrats minustwo! What a milestone and after a recurrence! Thanks so much for sharing the hope with us.

    Ilovemymom - you’ll probably get more responses if you make a new thread in the stage 3 forum or the ones for friends and loved ones. If you fill in your profile with your mom’s diagnosis details it will enable people here to help you more, too.

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  • JMouse
    JMouse Member Posts: 78
    edited March 2020

    Congratulations, KiwiMum and MinusTwo and 7of9!

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  • cordelia
    cordelia Member Posts: 23
    edited April 2020

    Hi Everyone....

    It has been years since I've been on this website. I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer 7 years ago. The spread to my lymph nodes was extensive. There were multiple tumors in my breast. I went into free-fall panic mode and stayed there for two or three years. If that's where you find yourself right now, I just want you to know that it gets better. I had fairly young children when I was diagnosed and had years of obsessive thoughts... hoping that my oldest would be able to drive before I died, so that if my husband couldn't pull himself together, my daughter could still go to sleepovers.... hoping that my youngest could wash her own hair...hoping that they would remember me....hoping I could stop reading this website for hours and hours in the night when I couldn't sleep.....hoping that no one could see that inside I was certifiably insane..... hoping the treatment wouldn't kill me.

    Flash forward to now... I am doing so well. My treatments worked. I have had no health issues after my treatment ended. I'm living a full, happy life with my family. My son is in college. My daughter is in high school. I rarely think about the terrible time we went through 7 years ago. I used to obsess over being super healthy. Now I just do my best, exercise a little, eat some veggies, have some wine, take my medicine.

    As you read through survivor stories, don't worry about the ladies that don't post here. They are most likely busy living their lives with this chapter behind them. Know that medicine has come a long way. There is always something new to try. Hope and survivors are around every corner. Some day you will realize you haven't thought about this for awhile. You will take some things for granted. You will be calm. You will laugh hard. You will live a full life.

    Be well.


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  • Ausykaren
    Ausykaren Member Posts: 68
    edited April 2020

    Congratulations Cordelia.
    Thanks for giving hope. Did you have 15 positive nodes or 4? May you have many happy years ahead with your family.


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  • cordelia
    cordelia Member Posts: 23
    edited April 2020

    Sorry, I didn't know how to record the lymph nodes on here. This is what happened... before any treatment, at least 15 lit up on the scan. Then I had chemo. That killed the cancer in most of the lymph nodes. By the time I had surgery, they only needed to remove 4. Any remaining disease was taken care of with radiation. Take care. :)


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  • Lexica
    Lexica Member Posts: 259
    edited April 2020

    Thank you Cordelia!! Glad to hear you are doing so well :)

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  • 7of9
    7of9 Member Posts: 833
    edited April 2020

    Cordelia...I could kiss you! (That directly goes against social distancing). I had 10 positive nodes. Am 4 yrs out. Convinced I have a recurrence every few months. Then it goes away and I'm living what I feel is mostly/somewhat normal. You captured my emotions and thoughts about kids, insanity etc so well above. Have an awesome weekend!

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  • Francesca30
    Francesca30 Member Posts: 82
    edited April 2020

    thank you @Cordelia! I just passed my 1 year mark post surgery. Still attribute every pain and ache to worrying if it had spread. Thank you for coming back and giving us words of hope. Can’t wait for the day when I can leave this all behind me and move forward without worrying.

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  • Jettie
    Jettie Member Posts: 81
    edited April 2020

    Hopefully this is a ray of sunshine to some, My mom had stage 3 breast cancer when I was in my teens, so she's now 30+ years NED, We can do this :D Hopefully I can do the same!!!

    She had a lumpectomy and whole lymphatic node system removed with skin graft (her memory is a little fudged now on exactly what they did. I still remember passing out in the hospital with her as she had her dressings changed.... ended up on the bed next to her, what a day that was hehehehe

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  • Misha13
    Misha13 Member Posts: 240
    edited April 2020

    Thank you Cordelia, as well as all of you who have posted here!

    I’m grateful to have come across your story today. Keep safe and healthy!

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  • Flo80
    Flo80 Member Posts: 349
    edited April 2020

    Hi guys I am on exemestane and zoladex and herceptin/perjeta. Did anyone experience breast pain in normal breast

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  • honeybair
    honeybair Member Posts: 746
    edited May 2020

    I was diagnosed in December of 2012 and all my treatments began in January of 2013. That year in March I welcomed my one and only grandchild, a girl, who is now 7. When she was born I was unable to attend her birth because I was undergoing chemo and really very sick. My daughter brought the baby for me to meet and spent as much time with me as she could during that year. I am especially grateful that there was no horrendous virus around during that time. I am doing well, feeling great, still on letrozole and so thankful for each wonderful day with my beloved husband. I do confess that I positively miss my right breast... a fact that I shared with my female oncologist. Sleeping with my mastectomy pillow each night helps the discomfort of the missing breast. I did develop lymphedema two years ago in my upper right arm, but thank to my specially trained physical therapists, I now enjoy having sleeves to wear on the right arm as well as a lymphedema pump which greatly decrease infection risks and help me to be more comfortable. I am so grateful for each day and rejoice in being alive and feeling well. Wish all my sisters in this journey the very best of health.

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  • NancyD
    NancyD Member Posts: 3,562
    edited May 2020

    Congratulations honeybair! Here's to five years and many more!


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  • papaska4
    papaska4 Member Posts: 8
    edited June 2020

    Stage 3C ILC for me. 27/43 nodes positive. Five years out today!!

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  • NancyD
    NancyD Member Posts: 3,562
    edited June 2020

    Congratulations, papaska! Here's to many more!

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  • Francesca30
    Francesca30 Member Posts: 82
    edited June 2020

    congratulations @papaska! Just what I needed to read today <

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  • KMom57
    KMom57 Member Posts: 252
    edited June 2020

    congratulations papaska. I too badly needed to read that today. Thanks to all of you who come back here and encourage and help those of us at the beginning of this nightmare.

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  • Lexica
    Lexica Member Posts: 259
    edited June 2020

    Awesome papaska! Thanks for coming back and sharing!

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  • jenni__ca
    jenni__ca Member Posts: 461
    edited June 2020

    papaska4 congratulations !

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  • Artista928
    Artista928 Member Posts: 2,753
    edited June 2020

    I'm so caught up in current events that I forgot 5 years on June 2. From what I was told for ER+ is your chance of local recurrence in the breast tissues, what's left in some cases, goes down. Overall survival remains the same. With my profile, barring another med comes out, tamoxifen is for min 10 years since I can't do AIs due to ses despite being in menopause.

    Tamoxifen contributes to rattling my 12 uterine fibroids with cramping. I have no help after a hysterectomy so I have opted to do a uterine embolization that should block the blood flow to the fibroids and slowly cause them to die off. July 15 is the date. 4 days before they do covid test. 1 night stay. Then as with all the many sxs I've had, I will be set to care for myself.

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