Ladies in their 30s
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Hi Ladies - thank you for your replies. I'm sorry it took me so long to write back. I've calmed down a lot since my earlier post. I know I am in really good hands with the fertility doctor I am working with. I was put on tamoxifen a couple days ago, and I start giving myself the injections tonight. 3 days Gonal-F and Menipure, then I go in Sunday morning for bloodwork and will get new marching orders from there.
As predicted, it is not throwing off my start date of chemo too badly. If everything goes according to plan, I'll be able to start the last Friday in April.
I'll report back and let everyone know how it goes. Thank you again for your words of encouragement - they really helped me wrap my head around this part of the process.
Take care,
Liz
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Hi Ladies,
I finished my radiation and have started Tamoxifen.. my five year count down begins!
I have been having vaginal discharge and discomfort since just a few days after starting the Tamoxifen, finger crossed! this is just going to get better over time
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yay Sarah_sunflower!!!
So excited for you that you will be moving forward! Wishing you all the best!
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Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful mothers giving all you've got every single day.
Congrats, Sarah!
I've started my 11 year countdown on my clinical trial of Everolimus+Arimidex. 😬
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Almost exactly a year to the day of starting chemo (I started May 15th), I finally got my period back. Never EVER thought I'd be so happy to get cramps and start bleeding! Makes me feel more 'normal'. But now I have to start buying tampons again...ugh!
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Hi there,
I don't think I've ever contributed to a discussion board and certainly thought I would be on one about cancer, but here goes! It's been helpful for me just to read through everyone's different experiences, know what to expect, and also know that there's an end in sight to this!
I am 30 years old and was diagnosed with IDC (two 1.4cm masses, high grade, HER2+, 1 highly suspicious axillary node) and DCIS last week. I don't have many specifics on stage or treatment plan - my team of doctors are talking about my case on their tumor review board today and I have meetings all day with the surgeon, oncologist, radiologist, genetic specialist, and social worker on Thursday. It does make me feel very good knowing these doctors are at the top of their game and come to decisions by consensus. I also talked with a friend of a family friend who is a breast surgeon, and she gave it to me straight about how she would recommend treating me - hearing that I'll likely need chemo knocked with wind out of me, but I'm glad I'm prepared for Thursday.
Today is actually me and my husband's first anniversary - we were supposed to be in Europe celebrating, but last month (before I even felt a lump) I had a gut feeling that we shouldn't go (had no idea why) and we cancelled the trip. I was diagnosed on May 19th - the day we were supposed to leave - things happen for a reason, right? I know we can get through this, and he is being incredible. I am just so, so scared about chemo and the side effects, and what it will do to my husband and my family seeing me go through that.
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Hi DistrictGirl, and welcome to Breastcancer.org!
We know it's overwhelming trying to figure out a treatment plan, but there are lots of incredible members here who have been through it all and can help you feel better about your treatment, no matter what it is. In fact, if/when you're ready, there are super supportive Chemo threads devoted to the month that you'll be starting chemo so you can have a network of encouragement and support from others going through treatment at the same time as you.
Try to stay calm and positive and let us know what your treatment team suggests, and we'll all be here for you to help you navigate treatment!
Happy anniversary to you and your husband -- do something great to celebrate!
--The Mods
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Hi DistrictGirl,
Sorry you had to join us. I found my lump just before my first anniversary too and at 33. It was a shock but things went well and here I am 2 years after.
Just take it one day at a time and come here to vent when you need to. Consider joining one of the chemo thread for support during chemo (if you are going to have chemo). Good luck on thursday and keep us posted.
Hugs!
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Hi District Girl - Sorry you're here, but glad you found us!
If you are recommended for chemo and decide to proceed, I think you will find the experiences are all over the map and there's no real predicting how you will respond. I had minimal trouble with the "red devil", A/C, which was supposed to be awful, and then had a really hard time with Taxol, which was supposed to be easy. My friend from law school, who was 32 and few months ahead of me with chemo for triple neg., had NO side effects other than extreme fatigue.
As far as long-term side effects go, I finished active treatment on 4/12 with a complete hysterectomy. I finished chemo in Jan. and 33 zaps of radiation in March. Other than lingering fatigue, I have no residual side effects from chemo/rads other than a slightly lowered WBC and a treatment resistant UTI that has finally resolved. It feels like my body has taken a beating, which it has, but for the most part, I feel good. I even started running again last week!
I'm not going to sugar-coat this experience. It is not pleasant and I've now had everything thrown at my very aggressive cancer. But, I got through it with 3 little ones (twins are 3, son is almost 2) and I'm back to work full-time, so life CAN and WILL go on. :-)
Please let us know how you are doing!
Xo.
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Thank you lolis, cajunqueen15, and moderators! I'm in awe of those of you who are mothers with young children - that must have been crazy hard!
My meetings with the multidisciplinary team at Georgetown went really well on Thursday. I was really impressed with their "bedside" manners and it was very much a conversation and dialogue, rather than being very prescriptive. They know it's important to me to be in the driver's seat here and to be involved in all decisions, and they strongly encourage that. It felt refreshing since I know that's not everyone's experience when dealing with something like this. They also helped me feel better about chemo. I'm still nervous about it and I know it's not going to be easy, but the side effects seem much more manageable than I was expecting. Still a little stressed and anxious to get started, but definitely am feeling better about it each day.
I still need a lymph node biopsy on a suspicious axillary lymph node and an MRI next week, but the initial plan of care looks like it will be A/C every other week for 8 weeks (4x) and 12 weeks of Taxol + Herceptin + Perjeta as my neoadjuvant treatment. That will be followed by a month of rest, then either single or double mastectomy, possibly radiation, and then round out the year with Herceptin every 3 weeks.
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That sounds like standard of care. I too, refused to be a passive participant. When I couldn't tolerate weekly Taxol without delays, I demanded a change to DD. I fought hard to start chemo early and hard to finish on time. I ask for medical journal articles and have done a LOT of research on my own. I got a second opinion. My MO did his fellowship at my alma mater and I believe he cares, but it's not his life on the line!!!
I really would have liked to have not needed chemo. It was by far the worst part for me because the fatigue just does not stop BUT the good news is that aggressive cancer tends to respond very favorably, so we are the target population, so to speak, for ACT.
As far as kids - I've been going all weekend...the park, the beach, church, horseback riding lessons. By myself. My husband works ALL the time. I was up all night with my daughter and her stomach bug. I feel like death, but I'm still going!!!
You can DO this and you can come here to whine and get support from us. We get it! **This ain't your gma's breast cancer.
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Hello everyone....this is the last place I thought I would ever end up...
I am 36 & was diagnosed May 10th with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. BC runs in my father's side of the family..it has always been post menopausal until it found me. I am married & have 3 children (19, 16, & 10). We moved 800 miles away from my family a few years ago to be closer to my husbands family so I feel pretty alone in all this. I knew it was cancer before I had the test results back....in my gut I knew. I had noticed what looked like a small bruise & kept watching it....it slowly indented & got larger...it took me almost 8 months to get myself together & get to the doctor. I went in on May 2 for a yearly & found myself getting a mammogram later that afternoon, the next week I had a biopsy, & it just went on from there. Genetic testing came back negative but my dr doesn't believe that it isn't genetic with the family history, it is Er+ & Her2- so hormone treatment is imminent. Chemo & Radiation now depend on sentinel lymph node & margins in surgery. I undergo a bilateral mastectomy with the first part of reconstruction this Wednesday....about 30 hours away. I havent had a surgery since I was 5 yrs old....I am freaking out!!!! My husband is being as supportive as he can, my children don't talk about it & the oldest stays away. .... the Dr's are talking Tamoxifen & Herceptin after surgery...I have read that these can cause issues...such as higher risk for uterine cancers, can throw you into early menopause etc.... this is so not where I wanted to be in my 30s!...this northern Yankee is scared senseless in the swamps of Louisiana!
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hi everyone..
We have all ladies in their 30s here.
I want to know how many of you went ahead to have more children after completion of cancer treatment.
I am not even 3 years out with Triple negative cancer and in remission now. i have an 8 year old at home. In ten years she will be an adult. If I live for ten more years at least, I can see her get into college and stand on her feet. At the same time, I also desire to have a second baby. But then, it will be like, turning time back with the new baby and if God forbid, something goes wrong with me, to leave 2 kids alone with my husband, is not a good idea too. My daughter is growing up, life is moving ahead, so let it be!! Extremely confused. Anybody else been through this confusion..?? Do share your ideas and thoughts
warm hugs to all..
Yankee.... tamox will increase the risk of uterine cancer but patients who take hormonal supplements have their uterine wall regularly monitored and cases ending up with uterine cancer is also pretty low. It is a necessary evil...cycles might pause but since you are in your 30s cycles have a high chance of returning back too. When chemo began my cycles paused but it came back in a year.
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Ban - I'm doing having kids so no sage words of wisdom, but your comment "if I love for another 10 years" really struck me. I think like that too... If I see my kids finish high school, if I make it past 40, etc, etc. It's so odd.
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I do the same thing, think how old my kids will be if I live for another five or ten or twenty years. It gives me a lot of motivation to get well and work on staying well! My baby is only 3 and I feel she needs me around for long past her thirteen birthday!
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hi blue! My identical twins are 3. My son turns 2 this month.
it is a hard and awesome age. 0 -
Yea!A thread for 30ies! Boo:( I'm late to the party again and there are 79 (pages) of posts. How shall I ever catch up and be a useful poster? I feel like it's hard to break in to any of these bco forums. It's so much info.
I'm 39 so I still count. I have 2 girls,4 and 10 years old and my journey has just begun. Not like my watch has just ended.
I am by far the youngest at my cancer clinic and my surgeons office and my plastic surgeons office too. I definitely feel young.
Happy to be here and hear some young stories especially of fellow moms. My girls and I speak freely about my tissue expanders and the upcoming surgery and make jokes. We like the unicorn astronaut mom who gets cancer video series.
Wendy the weimlover
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I approached my pastor today with the hard question that has been plaguing me - what if I have only a few years left? Who will guide my children towards Christ? We talked about a lot but one thing really hit home...you are God's and your children are His too. They are a good gift from your Heavenly Father but they are His and He loves them more than you do.
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Yankee, how did your surgery go? Praying you are on the mend!
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THought I would share with you that I'm past halfway through chemo: 4 dose dense AC done, and had my second Taxol today. Everyone at my clinic is really impressed how I'm holding up through it.
I'm impressed, though, that I can barely feel the tumour anymore. It was a massive lobular mass - my MRI said about 10cm of tumour - that there was no way you could miss it. Even my oncologist said a few weeks ago that if she didn't know it was there she probably wouldn't have said there was anything there. I'm hoping this means really good news for my prognosis.0 -
blue, praying you have a complete pathological response to chemo. Great news indeed!!!
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cajunqueen15- Surgery went well. They found surprises that no one was expecting so now my treatment will be approached differently. The bc lump they were watching on the left side was larger than they originally thought, it measured 2.5cm. They also found another hidden lump behind that one....my breast tissue being so dense & it being so small & close behind the larger one it never showed in the MRI, CT scan, ultrasound...they found it in the final pathology. My dr told me it was 4mm very small but it was cancer & it was not just a piece from the original lump, it was another cancer. Margins were clear so NO RADiATION, however Sentinel lymph node was positive so they removed 10 other nodes...3 of them were positive also so Chemo is in my future. I am 5 days post op & feel pretty good so far.
Cajunqueen- are you in Louisiana? It would be nice to maybe meet someone near me going through this sucky thing also!
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Oh man, I'm sorry to hear about the additional tumor. I was told it was "only" DCIS even with a secondary consult. I knew they were wrong, somehow, but my doctor was shocked to find in in my sentinal nodes with extracapsular extension. The good news is that of the 2 other women I personally know that had a BMX all have had very few side effects. I think it's one of those surgeries that being young does really give us a leg up. I was exercising 3 weeks after mine,
I'm curious - why no radiation? My team said it was automatic with positive nodes even with clear margins, but I'm not sure that is really standard of care - maybe just his preference. He is a radiologist, he's probably somewhat biased about its effects, lol.
I started law school in LA, which is where the name originated. But I transferred out after Katrina, because I lost everything. I still have friends there and go back occasionally. I would have loved to meet up with someone. I would be lying if I said cancer is not a lonely disease. Especially at this age.
I'm also really sorry to hear about chemo. I distinctly remember meeting my MO before my surgery and he said, "I doubt I'll be seeing you again." I said, "Yes, you will." And 3 weeks later I was back. I vaguely remember him diagramming the chemo options on a stand and recommending the "hardest hit," AC and T. I said I wanted him to do everything he could to stop the spread, whatever the long-term side effects might be. And away we went.
After my clinical trial put me in the ER, we had a long discussion. He said there are a lot of SEs to everolimus and they can be very severe. What is your priority? I said again, do everything you can to stop this. And round 2 of the trial was initiated.
I'm sitting here watching my fever rise... my husband is supposed to be at a work conference, but he had to go get the kids because I flew out of work early. Soooooooooo don't want to go to the hospital, really dreading calling the doctor.
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cajunqueen- they haven't told me for sure now if I will have radiation or not, however I was told before surgery that the radiation Oncologist would look at final pathology reports & make a final decision then. The radiation Oncologist saw me once before surgery & told me she didn't think I would need radiation at all & that she probably wouldn't see me again. I was told that the margins would determine radiation or not and that the lymph nodes would determine chemotherapy, that if it hadn't spread to lymph nodes i wouldn't need Chemotherapy, & that my only treatments would be surgery & Tamoxifen & Herceptin for the next 5 years.
I totally understand about Katrina & leaving. I am a transplant, my husband is from here & my family moved here when I was a teen. However my family moved back to Illinois 6 years after moving here. I stayed a few years with my husband &vthen we followed my family to Illinois. We just moved back to Louisiana in 2011 to be closer to his family & for jobs. Katrina changed so much here....even near Baton Rouge, it's not the same here.
If your ever going to be down this way please reach out to me & we can maybe meet for lunch or something.
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cajunqueen- how are you? Did you have to make that trip to the ER? I have been & will continue to pray for you.
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It's so interesting how different doctors take different approaches. Although it makes sense if chemo is to kill what's in the blood/lymphatic and rads to kill what remains in the tissue. I knew from the start my prognosis was not good and they would throw the kitchen sink at it, and further testing just confirmed it. Being diagnosed post partum ups the ante too to the tune of a 38% chance of mets within 5 years. And yet...life goes on and is better in so many ways.
I'm going to try hard to get to NOLA next year to see a dear friend...BR is not far, would love to meet up and bring my 32 y.o. friend who is a triple neg survivor too.
Stayed home on a zpac. Feeling better, thank you for the prayers!!
Good news coming to us from 1 Corinthians tonight. 😀
"But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"—"1 Corinthians 2:9
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BanR- my daughter is now 5 (she was 2.5 at my diagnosis). I have always wanted more children. I just got the go ahead to try. My oncologist says that it will not increase my chances of recurrence but of course I worry all the what ifs too. Right now, I feel hopeful. I know that if I do get pregnant that my kids will be a bit far apart but by the time they are adults they will be friends. And I feel like then I haven't left her alone when my husband and I do eventually die (hopefully a long ways away). It is such a personal decision. How does your man feel about it? Mine was afraid to talk about it for a long time but is cautiously optimistic now. The diapers and crying feel so long past. If we are lucky enough to experience it again it will be an adjustment indeed. And I am clueless about bottles and formula (I breast fed my first for almost 17 months).... lol. I say if you are both wanting more children then go for it. I think I will feel like my body has redeemed myself in some way if I can get pregnant.
I know my fertility numbers aren't good after chemo. I still don't know how I feel about IVF or adoption. No answer is wrong or right with this very hard decision Ban. Good luck!
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Hello everyone -
I was diagnosed last June 2015 w/TNBC & BRCA1+. I've since completed all of my treatment in February 2016 (A/C, Taxol, Carboplatinum and finally 5 weeks of rads). My question is around fertility. I didn't have time to freeze embryos prior to my treatment, but I did receive a monthly Lupron shot to stop my ovary function. The last Lupron shot was in December 2015 and 3 months to the day of my last shot I got my period back. From then on out I've gotten my period right on time every month but its so so light, almost like I'm just spotting for 3-4 days. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this? I guess I'm freaking out a bit that my ovaries are so badly damaged from the chemo and I wont be able to conceive.
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Hey Clarrn and LMC826, good for you both trying to conceive after treatment, it's not often that you get to hear from pre menopausal ladies pregnancy stories on here, so I'll be really interested to see how you get on.
I was diagnosed nearly a year ago at 34 yrs old and have no children. My oncologist has advised I wait the full 5 years of AL before trying I'll be nearly 40 then, which sucks really. Not because she thinks pregnancy contributes to recurrance but because she thinks my BC is high risk and wants me to wait until out of the high risk period. However I have heard of women trying after 2 years and they have been perfectly fine
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Thanks Lottemarine. I am in a unique position as I'm BRCA+ so need to have my ovaries removed between 35-40 yrs old. I really want to conceive naturally so the clock is ticking. My oncologist said I could get pregnant tomorrow and he wouldn't be worried, even though I'm definitely typically high risk he seems to think my reoccurrence rate would be low as I had a good response to the chemo. That being said, I wouldn't start trying for another year. I'm already worried all the time about everything, so a year and half out of treatment seems to be a good compromise. Ahh so many life decisions to consider, who knew that after treatment would carry so much stress.
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