Topic: Any other young Manitobans out there??

Hi Melanie,

I am new to this site but I will let you know some things that hopefully you may have already found, or come in contact with.

I was diagnosed in 2006 at the age of 39, my kids were 3 and 1 1/2 at the time, had bilateral mastectomies with immediate reconstruction.  I was referred to the Breast Health Centre in Wpg.(which you can find a link to on the WRHA site) for biopsy and diagnosis. I had to wait 3 weeks to get in but once I was seen things moved fast enough for me as after I saw a plastic surgeon (Dr.Buchel who works with Hyakawa and are both highly respected, but also very busy), and my other surgeon was Dr. Inglis. I was booked two weeks later for surgery.  I agree that the waiting is the very worst part of diagnosis.  Once I had biopsy results I wanted a plan, once the plan I wanted the surgery, once the path I wanted to start treatment etc. ...like a domino of waiting.  I had the clinic where I got my mammogram tell me to call everyday to see if there was a cancellation, and I did the next day and got in, same thing with a recent biopsy so sometimes it helps to be the squeaky wheel.  The two weeks before surgery time line helped me to adjust to what was going to happen and to plan how people could help our family, so that felt fine to me.  As for telling the kids I used a resource at CCMB, a book called 'When a parent is sick' by Joan Hamilton which was excellent.  The resource centre is good as well as the guardian angel room if you happen to need a wig depending on your treatments.  They also have the look good feel better program which was a nice afternoon with other women going through similar treatments.

Breast Cancer Centre of Hope also has a great resource library with books and video /DVD resources. It is across from the Misericordia Hospital.  There is a Younger and Wiser group which puts on evenings about issues related to younger women with breast cancer and there are DVD's of some previous sessions which you can take home to look at.  They also have someone you can talk to over the phone as that might be an issue for you in Oakbank even though it is not far away. They were one of the first places I called for information which was really helpful, you can also make an apt.

Cancer Care Manitoba has a website cancercare.mb.ca which can link you to pt. and family services where they have a support group for younger women that you can register for.  I found it helpful to have that place to ask questions with people going through the same thing or similar to me. Again the travel and time away from your family might not be as flexible but it is worth a try and then you could exchange emails if everyone is comfortable with that.

I have blabbered on so I will leave it there.  Hopefully you know some of this already if you do then maybe it will help someone else.  

Hope you're still not waiting, kids certainly can keep you distracted until you want to fall asleep that is.  Movies are great, and I found once you get to a plan the waiting frustrations slowly go away. 

Hope to hear how you are doing,  whatever it is you will find a way to get through it. If someone offers to help ...say yes.

Diane.