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Success Stories!

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  • LucieB
    LucieB Member Posts: 1
    edited February 2004

    I'm loving this thread. My grandmother had breast cancer with lumpectomy and radiation when she was in her 60s and lived to be 86. Also a co-worker's mother had a double mastectomy (cancer in both) when she was in her early 70s and lived to the ripe old age of 93. When I get down, I think of these two women in particular.

  • Uunicorn
    Uunicorn Member Posts: 1
    edited February 2004
    Hi This is a great thread! It gives all hope.
    I am a five year survivor. Just had a mamogram and all is clear. I hope i'lll be one of the little old ladies dying of something else!! [Smile]
  • heidiho
    heidiho Member Posts: 1
    edited February 2004

    My grandmother was diagnosed in her late sixties or early seventies (early 1980's) & had a mastectomy. I first saw her again about 10 years later and wondered why she was getting radiation treatments so long after her surgery. At the time, she said something about having "a positive lymph node"--I didn't really know what it meant at that time. But every time I'm agonizing about my OWN situation (6 months after treatment) and my own (one) positive lymph node...I remember that she lived to be 88 years old, more or less 17 years after her own diagnosis, dying of non-related cardiac causes.

  • Boo
    Boo Member Posts: 1
    edited February 2004
    Hi all, just thought I'd add mine to the list. Haven't been here for some time - too busy living a busy life!
    BC at age 35 with 2 young kids, worried about not seeing them grow-up, and grandkids etc... Now, almost 4 yrs later I feel great and have stopped letting b/c ruin my life. Finnaly accepting my body for the way it is after dbl mast. w/implants. and early menopause. Worst lasting side effect has been the "power surgesses" (hot flashes), but since switching to Femara have had less, and less intense too. To all feeling blue today - hang in there, keep your sense of humor, be positive, and tell yourself you will BEAT IT!
    Best wishes to all,
    Boo
  • Sachi
    Sachi Member Posts: 63
    edited March 2004
    We can't let this thread escape! There are so many great stories here!

    Barb
  • jeng
    jeng Member Posts: 5
    edited March 2004

    My wonderful aunt just celebrated her 70th birthday. This is remarkable because she was DX 22 years ago with TERMINAL ovarian cancer. (I know this is a BC site but this is amazing). She had chemo for over a year (administered on a 3 day in-patient basis back then) and her insides were cooked - but...she beat the odds.

  • Tinkerbell03
    Tinkerbell03 Member Posts: 1
    edited March 2004
    So nice to read positive things!! Someday, I hope to come back to this thread & tell my success story!!

    Although, soon it will be 1 year since diagnosis and that's success in itself...

    Ann
  • Veryhopeful
    Veryhopeful Member Posts: 2
    edited March 2004
    We all have to believe in miracles - they really do happen! Medical science can do a lot..... but can only do so much.

    I LOVE reading all the stories! Keep 'em coming.

    Hugs,

    Savannah
  • denisa
    denisa Member Posts: 8
    edited November 2010

    ...

  • mpaulsen
    mpaulsen Member Posts: 1
    edited March 2004

    I just posted on the metatstic board how depressed I was feeling. What a wonderful thread - gives me hope!

  • carmelle
    carmelle Member Posts: 134
    edited March 2004
    moving to top!

    Michelle
  • Sachi
    Sachi Member Posts: 63
    edited March 2004
    Bringing this topic back to the top for everyone to see.

    Barb
  • gh
    gh Member Posts: 1
    edited March 2004

    I know a fiesty 84 year old woman who was dx when she was 34. She had a mast(no chemo, don't know if she had rads)...and now, 50 YEARS LATER IS STILL CANCER-FREE, never had a reoccurance!!!!!! Her son (who became a minister) now teases her because sometimes she forgets to wear her prostesis to church! Again..50 YEARS CANCER FREE!

  • jeng
    jeng Member Posts: 5
    edited March 2004
    Wow!!! What a great story! Interesting, in part because BC was so "in the closet" way back when. Ladies were afraid to touch themselves. I had a great aunt that feared cancer all her life and when she found a lump she was too embarassed to go to the doctor. You can imagine her outcome.
    Question - were diagnosis' 50 years ago reliable? Did they look at lumps and really know they were cancer?
  • Catherine
    Catherine Member Posts: 15
    edited March 2004

    No one talked about breast cancer 50 years ago. Mammograms were the usual norm too. My grandmother said that they told her they'd do the biopsy and remove the breast, if necessary. She woke up without a breast. Gram never had reconstruction. She just bought a prosthesis. She worked at Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago for 30 years. They forced her to retire at age 80. She worked as a volunteer for other women who had surgery. One woman said, "You can tell by looking at you that you never had a sick day in your life." And Gram would tell them she was also a survivor. She said a lot of the women were happy to see that she was doing so well and that it gave them hope for their own circumstances.

  • Sachi
    Sachi Member Posts: 63
    edited March 2004
    moving this back to the top. Its such a great thread - we don't want it lost.

    B
  • Sachi
    Sachi Member Posts: 63
    edited April 2004

    ditto

  • rosebudd
    rosebudd Member Posts: 5
    edited April 2004

    Back to the top you go! Rosebudd

  • Not_Me
    Not_Me Member Posts: 1
    edited April 2004

    I want to come back here and post my story thirty years or even fifty years from now. Heck, I can't wait to post 1 year from now. I have just completed radiation 26 tx today. I am feeling great and even ran 3 miles afterwards. All I can say is...you go women...we are strong!

  • jeng
    jeng Member Posts: 5
    edited April 2004

    A lady in my support group has a 75 year old mom who was DX at age 35. I especially like the stories of women dx young that live on with no recurrance. I was so happy she told me about her mom.

  • Sachi
    Sachi Member Posts: 63
    edited April 2004
    moving this back to the top!

    B
  • raven81
    raven81 Member Posts: 4
    edited April 2004

    Denisa--thank you for sharing that story. It's just what I needed right now to give me hope!

  • pmack93
    pmack93 Member Posts: 1
    edited April 2004

    Shortly after my diagnosis I discovered that one of my coworkers is a 20 year survivor. She told me she had 10 positive lymph nodes. She underwent a radical mastectomy and one year of chemo and is still working full time in her 60's. Just this past week I found out that one of the nurses in the radiation dept. is a 9yr. 8mo. survivor. Also right after I was diagnosed I received a lovely card from an elderly lady at our chuch telling me that she was diagnosed with breast ca in 1959 (the year I was born). She said she had a radical mastectomy and "cobalt" tx's and has never had another problem with it. I guess there is hope for all of us. Pam

  • Sachi
    Sachi Member Posts: 63
    edited April 2004
    Hi everyone, Here's a good ER- story. A friend from church had a mastectomy 11 years ago. She's doing great (just got back from a trip to Africa). I asked her a little more about her cancer yesterday when we talked and she told me she hadn't gone onto Tamox because she's ER-.

    Barb
  • shelliks
    shelliks Member Posts: 10
    edited April 2004
    I have been talking to a woman at radiation who is 83. She just told me that this is her second bout with bc. She had it 29 years ago in the other breast! I asked her if she had it in her lymph nodes then and she had 6 that were malignant. Unfortunately, it is in her nodes this time too(as is mine), but I found it so encouraging that she survived 29 years. I'll take 29 years!

    My radiation tech told me today that her sister-in-law had it, also in her lymph nodes. She had a bone marrow transplant.....13 years ago!

    Gotta love those "lymph node" success stories.
  • Sachi
    Sachi Member Posts: 63
    edited May 2004
    Back to the top with this thread so that Melissa can find you. Melissa is going to make a heading of Success Stories so this thread can go there - and I'm hoping Sierra might post her story there..... and others who are years out can post and inspire the "newbies".

    Barb
  • carmelle
    carmelle Member Posts: 134
    edited May 2004
    great news barb!
    i also love the pos lymph node long term success stories. i remember my dr prepping me for pathology saying even if it's in the lymphs it doesn't mean it's travelled elsewhere or even has the ability to survive outside lymph system.
    i guess that's what all of our systemic treatments are for, the chemo, and the hormonal, herceptin stuff.
    i saw another twenty year story somewhere on the boards today. The woman went 10 years without recurrence and then had liver mets that went away with tamox completely and she lived another 10 years to perish from something else.
    michelle
  • weezer
    weezer Member Posts: 1
    edited May 2004

    My mom had ovarian cancer when she was 33 year's old she had three tumor's removed. My dad said when they took the tumor's out a three of them weighed 35 pound's. Last year my mother now 62 year's old was told they found something on her mamagram that ended up being nothing she's fine but I remember her sitting there before she found out and crying and saying please God dont let me have cancer I dont want to die and I want to be here to see my grandchildren grow up!! So you can imagine what she's feeling now that tree week's ago I came home and had to look at my mother and tell her that her 35 year old daughter had breast cancer. Then she was asking God to give it to her and not her daughter that had two youn children and that she was old and already lived her life. It just proved to me what a mother wouldint do for her children. I think that she is taking it harder then me.Im her only daughter and I have two brother's, so I guess being the only girl make's it harder. I had to tell her the other day that they will have to do a mast and chemo on me and she looked at me and said I cant take anymore bad new's my heart cant take it anymore. So I find myself trying to pretend to be ok with this cause I dont want my family to suffer. Thank's for listening

  • beachcottage
    beachcottage Member Posts: 49
    edited May 2004

    This is a great thread...Thanks for all of the inspiring stories ladies ...Can;t wait to post ours..............................xoxo,Patti

  • Judy_Mc
    Judy_Mc Member Posts: 5
    edited May 2004

    Just to move thread up so newbies know they can do it!

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