Ladies in their 30s
Comments
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Steph, my parent's neighbor was diagnosed at 29 right after she had a child. She is 37 now and cancer free.
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thank you so much ladies for giving me hope that's what I needed having a rough few days after my chemo Thursday has me down..I truely appreciate that there are others out there like me
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I hope my message didn't come across the wrong way. I just meant that the fear about having post partum breast cancer has totally consumed me and I'm trying to take steps to figure out how to deal with it. This is just my thought process in how to deal with it, and yours may be different. It is so hard, especially when you're going through chemo.
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I totally get it. I am terrified, and I don't even have kids yet, but I really want to, especially since I don't want to die and leave my husband and parents with nothing. Hoping now that chemo is ending, I can start therapy and try to be able to live rather than being consumed with dying. Its a really scary place to be. Every day I keep surfing these threads and going to darker and darker places in my head. At least while doing chemo I feel safe, like lingering cancer is being killed. Early on, I was in fight mode, but now, the better I feel physically, the more terrified I am- like every minute. I mean, how the hell will I even know if it comes back- I have back pain and hip pain and shoulder pain every day, and always have. I feel like i"m going insane. Everyone says triple negative has such a bad prognosis- all i can think is "Dead woman walking". I feel like my husband has already given up on me- he has totally withdrawn and spends every minute he can away, and i have never told him how I feel, just tried to be an upbeat fighter and survivor. Wondering if I should be looking into plans for my funeral, and how to even go about that process, just to spare my husband and parents as much pain as I can.
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mamabearmo your message didn't come across wrong at all I think counseling is an excellent thing to do I have started a light antidepressant too hard the thought of leaving them. My dr is confident though survival rates are higher now her2 cancer which many young women have had to totally changed she's optimistic I should be to
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For whatever it's worth, I was diagnosed when my first son was 2.5 and I was 19 weeks pregnant with my second. We are all doing great now. My cancer was stage 2, and as of my mammogram last month, I am cancer-free. It's still hard not to catastrophize, but I have to believe I'll stay ok. Counseling and/or antidepressants are never a bad idea if you think they could help.
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Littleblueflowers, my friend was diagnosed with Stage 1 triple negative at 34. She is eight years out and doing fantastic. There are many triple negative women out there that are many years out. Yours was caught early and so was hers.
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Hello ladies!
I'm looking for some words of wisdom from you all :-) I had my first meeting with an oncologist yesterday and they say they recommend radiation and Tamox only, no chemo. I questioned them fairly extensively on that as I don't really think they're taking my age (35) into account. They told me that the size of my tumor and my -ve nodes trumps my age (and Grade 2) as risk factors so they have me classified as low risk. At the cancer institute here (in Alberta, Canada) that means I don't qualify for Ki67 or Oncotype testing.
I've read a number of studies that indicate that young age should automatically put us in the high risk category but the guidelines in my province have the cutoff as younger than 35. I've asked for a second opinion but this whole thing has me gutted. I don't particularly want to do chemo, I know how hard it is, but at the same time I want to do everything I can to make sure this bastard never comes back. I'm thinking that if they could give me the oncotype test and show me low numbers (which they think would happen anyway, they said it's very common with ILC) then I might be able to rest easy with this but they've said there's nothing to indicate it's necessary.
Sigh. Can you tell I didn't sleep much last night?? I know a lot of you have wrestled with this so I'm just hoping someone could share their experience.
Thanks for letting me rant and thank you for being here, everyone has been wonderful! Gentle hugs all around!
Jenn
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I had not heard that a breast cancer diagnosis within a couple of years of giving birth means a higher likelihood of recurrence? My daughter was just shy of 3 when I was diagnosed. My MO didn't mention that?
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Tresjoli2, I think there are two things being conflated here: Women who have just given birth are likely to be younger (30s or early 40s), and younger women are more likely to have aggressive cancers that recur. I'm not sure that there is any data that postpartum diagnosis is especially bad.
Edit: I was wrong, and I've linked to the Schedin papers below.
Also, hello, I'm here too. 36 at diagnosis with a 3.5-year-old son. Originally diagnosed with quite a lot of DCIS, but the pathology from my mastectomy revealed a very small portion of IDC. Sad to join this sucky club, but nice to have company.
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I'm not completey convinced that post pregnancy breast cancer is worse prognosis I asked my oncologist about it she said the hormones do play a role they were articles about your breast tissue going back to normal from breast feeding causes the cancer to travel faster I'm not sure but my dr told me she is convinced that survival rates are going to go much higher next 10 years thanks to new drugs such as perjeta which I am recieving
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hi : unfortunately , breast cancer on the postpartum environment has a tendency to spread faster. Look into Dr Borges an Schedin studies.
Also most oncologist are clueless about this:(.
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I've looked at her studies they are small and old statistics so I'm not 100percent convinced maybe I'm just being niave but I think I have a good as chance as any other person diagnosed with my disease
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Well, yes indeed: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/education/schools/school-of...
That's some depressing reading.
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guess we just have to remain positive and believe I have been stuck in the hospital since Monday night my port became painful turns out it for infected had to get it removed oh then I found out it traveled to my bloodstream so I am septic although I am better I have to get a picline and Iv antibiotics for 4 weeks chemo will be postponed until then I'm so upset had lots of plans to celebrate being done now they will be on hold :
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so sorry to hear it, stephmoen!
By the way, guys, don't read those papers I linked. It's a horrible rabbit hole. I've ruined my own morning; it's not too late for you!
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Too late for me, ugh! I don't know why I do that to myself. I'm such a masochist. Gotta keep repeating to myself...I did everything I could, I did everything I could....sigh.
Steph, so sorry to hear about your port issues and chemo delay. I was hospitalized before my last chemo and had to delay as well. It sucks when you were so looking forward to be done.
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https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/23/topic/57562?page=1
here, read some of these! They always make me feel better.
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stephmom, so sorry to hear about the port! how did you learn that it was infected? were they noticable side effects? Sorry just asking b/c I'm paranoid about mine
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I had infusion on Thursday Monday morning my port was sore then it started hurting and for swollen went to ER spread to my blood very fast scary thing can be deadly if not caught fast I don't think it's common but it can happen now I have a picline ugh
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I'm so sorry to hear about your infection, Stephmoen! That sucks it's delayed the end of chemo for you but it sounds like you caught it fast and hopefully the infection will be knocked out quickly! Try to take it easy and rest as best you can. Gentle hugs!
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MamaBearMo thank you so much for the link to that thread! It is wonderful and amazing to hear all of the awesome stories on it
I've added it to my favorite topics now!
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Shellym1,
I am interested to hear if anyone is on Celexa and how they feel about it as well. I feel like I have a lot of highs and lows as well. I am on Tamoxifen only too! I see my onc August 10th so would like to talk to him about it then.
Stephmoen,
Sorry to hear about your port and having to postpone chemo:( I remember checking off the calendar with a big X after every treatment and definitely had the final date in mind from the beginning.....sorry!
Kathy
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I newlydx15......just wondering what you decided? I am in a very similar position with a 15 month old baby myself....but I do not think my diagnosis will give me time to hold off chemo in favor of surgery. My personal decision would ride on whether there are lymph nodes involved and how aggressive the tumor was....it's a tough decision to make especially if you are sure you want more children.
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Hey Steph, how is the picc line working out? Hope you are doing well and sending you lots of good thoughts!
Have any of you ladies had any experiences with adoption or trying to adopt after cancer treatment? We were trying to adopt befor all this happened, but now I'm wondering if I can ever be a mom...any advice, info, or experience would be so much appreciated!
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picc is ok I am getting used to it. I hate that I can't go swimming and have to tape it up everytime I shower What a pain in the ass!! Last chemo is scheduled August 6 can't wait to be done
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Hi to everyone,
I was 34 when diagnosed-dec 2014- IIIA , multi lumps, estrogen and progesterone positive, he 2 over expression. with lymph nodes . I did 6 round of chemo, which shrink my tumor to 0.6 cm, and no lymph nodes after surgery, double mastectomy and now in radiation.
Doctor will prescribe me tamoxifen, which I am not if I will take.
I was wondering if anyone get pregnant after all of this?
Nice to meet and read all this stories
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i had both my babies after my breast cancer. they are 4 and 2 now!
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Congradulations and thanks for posting, Miss302! Gives me hope- I want kids so bad! Did you do anything to preserve your fertility, or did it come back on its own?
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Hi ladies! I had just turned 35 when I was diagnosed. I have a husband and three young children (identical twins, who are 2, and my son is 1).
I have no idea how I will handle chemo if necessary. MRI showed some suspicious findings in my lymph nodes, so not convinced that it is DCIS only lurking in there. I'm waiting on my BRCA results this week.
For those who have children, were you diagnosed shortly after giving birth? I am wondering about this... I have a friend who was diagnosed with triple negative IDC 4 months after having her daughter (she is 31) and I was diagnosed 13 months post-partum.
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