Ladies in their 30s
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Thanks so much Jezikah, Bravemama34, and Keebee85!
I think I should arrange to do this. It's funny, I had just been reading stuff online about people's decisions to have children or not, and then this news really brought the issue to the forefront of everything and now with the possibility of infertility I really feel that I still want to do what I can to keep the option there.
I need to get rid of my fear of syringes pretty quickly here, hah. I think all the exposure might do it.
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Yeah, I don't know yet if I'll even have more kids. We have a 4 yr old and my husband is happy to not have more kids, but would have another if that's what I really want. I always wanted more than one, but we'll see how we feel after my treatment and everything.... I just feel relief knowing I have the option. Also, as my endocrinologist said, either way it's better to have younger eggs - early 30s frozen eggs are better than late 30s fresh eggs.
And the shots are definitely not fun! I had to do shots 2x a day for 10 days (they're short needles like what diabetics use for insulin injections, and really not painful, just a prick, maybe a little sting from the meds) and then 2 'trigger shots' 36 hrs before the retrieval. At the time, I just had to keep reminding myself it was all for the potentially great payoff in the end.
Good luck!
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Hi ladies,
I am sorry to see there are so many of us diagnosed so young. I was diagnosed yesterday and am 30 years old. I am also 20 weeks pregnant with my second child. My son is 2. I am having a really, really hard time with all of this. I am worried about my baby but I am also terrified that I won't be able to see my son grow up. The last few days, since I received a tentative diagnosis on Wednesday, I've had a hard time looking at him because it makes me so sad to think about what I could miss out on. I'm trying hard not to think that way, but it is hard.
I think things will be better once I know my exact diagnosis (hormone receptors status isn't back yet, nor do I know how many lymph nodes it has spread to). I went in for a very large lump in April but the ultrasound was negative and they didn't do a mammogram (likely because of my age, I was 29 at the time). I went back because the lump had grown during pregnancy and they found two masses within the bigger lump and they did a mammogram that showed calcifications from DCIS making up the large lump. Biopsy confirmed a mix of DCIS and invasive cancer and the lymph node is positive. I am very worried that this was caught too late since it was there back in April but they didn't catch it (it was likely just DCIS at that time). I know there's no point in worrying, but the idea that it could have metastasized is terrifying.
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hi sky chick. , I'm so sorry for what u are going through. This waiting game is the worst part out of all this. I also have a 2yr old and when I first got diagnosed I assumed the worst , I would look at my kids too just wanting to cry thinking I'm not gonna make it. You won't get accurate results until after surgery once your pathology report is in. I need you Case you might need chemo first to shrink your tumor, but since you're pregnant idk if chemo is recommended. Just take this time and enjoy your kids. Also you might want to contact a lawyer once your settled with all of this for failure to diagnose. I know someone in similar situation as you and won her case.
Hugs....
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Ski chicken, sorry to hear about your situation. Chemo can be safe at 26 weeks and there have been women that had Chemo and both the baby and themselves were fine after that. 6 weeks might seem as a long time but if you focus on your baby and the one growing inside the time will pass by quickly. Have talked to your doctor's about a game plan?
Also, just because it has spread to the lymph nodes doesn't mean it has spread to distant organs. Your lymph nodes might be doing their job and containing the cancer in the nodes.
Be kind to yourself and pamper yourself.
Keep us posted on what your doctors say.
Hugs.
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my apologies my autocorrect spelled your username wrong
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No worries Lolis. Thanks for your support. Although chemo during pregnancy seems pretty crazy since getting this diagnosis I have talked to many doctors who have stories of pregnant patients receiving chemo any time after 12 weeks. I don't have a plan yet, but I am meeting with a breast surgeon on Tuesday and an oncologist the following Tuesday so I hope to have a solid plan by then.
I also wanted to ask, based on your signature I notice you had both DCIS and a large mass. I am in the same boat - I have what appears to be a 7 cm DCIS mass and inside it there are two smaller masses. Is this similar to what you had? I am trying to figure out if this is common, since most of what I've read talks about either masses or DCIS, not both together.
Thanks again!
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Hi SkiChick - Sorry you have to join us. I had a 3 yr old and was actually trying to get pregnant last summer when I found my lump (had been trying for only 2 months). I am so thankful now that I didn't get pregnant - I can't even imagine what you're going through. I hope you come up with a good plan that you feel comfortable with for you and your baby.
After surgery, it was discovered that I had an area of DCIS, along with 2 IDC tumors in my left breast. They were 3 separate regions, but I suppose you could have an overlap of the areas since DCIS is a precursor to IDC.
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SkiChick, I was diagnosed at 19 weeks pregnant with my second child, and it is terrifying. I had surgery and chemo while pregnant and it was thoroughly unpleasant, but we all came out ok (that's him in my photo). Please feel free to ask me anything, here or via pm. There are a few other moms on the site who went through it while pregnant, too.
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Jezikah and Boxofrockstar, your kids are adorable! Thanks for your thoughts. Boxofrockstar, I am really glad your son is doing ok and I appreciate you reaching out!
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Ski chick - I had multifocal idc in a bed of dcis. My dcis was 5.8cm and idc 5.4cm. My BC was highly hormonal and was dx after my first miscarriage. I have seen many other women with similar situation to mine (both idc and dcis). I had a fibro adenoma about 8 years before my dx and my breast was full of "wonderful" changes.
I hope that your team will come up with a plan to treat your BC and have your healthy baby.
Hugs.
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Hello,
I was just wondering if anyone has an answer to this question or may know a little about this topic. I had the oncotype dx test done and my score was 24 and then I talked my MO into sending away for the mammaprint test, which he did. It came back as low risk. Does anyone know why oncotype score was intermediate and mammaprint was low risk? Is one more reliable than the other? I know mammaprint tests more genes, but does oncotype test more important ones? My MO puts no stock in mammaprint as the onco test he says is the standard test that is run and is the one FDA approved to be the most accurate. He says the scores are basically the same, that the risks and benefits are the same, but they're not if I read the reports correctly. The onco score says that I have a 20-30% chance of recurrence without taking tamoxifen, and a 10-15% chance of recurrence if I do take it. Mammaprint scores says that without taking tamoxifen or having any other treatment other than surgery that I have a 10% chance of recurrence, and since this test is based on chemo as treatment after surgery I would essentially be "cured" if I had chemo because the benefit with it would be another 3-4% from the already 93% chance of it not coming back without treatment after surgery. That is what the report said if I read it correctly. So there is a difference. Mammaprint scores are giving me the results of having a recurrence without treatment being the same that onco score gave me WITH treatment with tamoxifen. Why are the tests showing different results? Why did they both not come back low risk? One is intermediate. Which is more reliable? Does anyone know?
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I don't know the answer unfortunately, but I am in a similar situation so I'm following this. I get my oncotype results back on Tuesday
. "Please no chemo, no chemo, no chemo" has been my mantra.0 -
Hi everyone, I hope I can jump into this thread. I just joined the BCO community after lurking for months. I am 38 and was diagnosed in October. I find that dealing with all of this is oh so very hard. Finished radiation a couple of weeks ago, and will start tamoxifen next week. I had two really bad allergic skin reactions, back to back, to some things along the way, so I'm pretty anxious much of the time--expecting everything to go wrong.
Just wanted to say hi. There are so many subforums and threads on this website, I wasn't sure where to jump in.
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hi gb, welcome. Glad your done with treatment other than tamoxifen. Hope that goes well with no SE. I will be starting tamoxifen soon once I'm done with chemo. I think there's a tamoxifen thread on here. Welcome
Hugs.
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Thanks Hopfull2! :-)
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Hi ladies! I jumped on this thread because there seems to be more moms than in the 20's board (I'm 29, so hopefully that's close enough). I was recently diagnosed at 7m postpartum with IDC, it's triple negative so we do know chemo is in my near future. With summer approaching I don't think I'm going to bother with a wig and probably just wrap my head. My question is, how did the hair loss effect your baby? I have long dark hair and I don't want to totally traumatize him. I was thinking about cutting most of it off and wearing wraps around him just to get him used to the new mom in his life. If I don't need to do that, I'd like to salvage the lasting days with my hair, so your experiences would be super appreciated!
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babykeeps,
I had a seven month old as well when I was diagnosed along with a 19 month old. I was worried about the hair loss as well, as I have always had long brown hair. My son loved to curl his fingers around it. The funny thing was, the night I shaved it I walked downstairs to present myself to my two kids. They looked at me, smiled, and went on eating their dinner. It was completely a non event! It was almost as if they had never seen me WITH hair!
Now my hair is past my shoulders. They kids see pics of me during chemo and they say "who's that?". They are now 2 and 3 and don't remember that I went through chemo. It's amazing!!
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hi babykeegs, sorry about your diagnosis. I thought the same. I didn't want to traumatize my 13 and 2yr old children. So I cold capped. I just ended chemo and I lost about 25-30% of my hair. I think it was well worth it. U might want to check it out. There's a cold cap thread too. Good luck with everything
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My daughter turned 4 right after I started chemo. I buzzed my head right before my second treatment when my hair started falling out, and she just laughed and thought it was funny. I think attitude is everything when it comes to children. If you don't act like it's a traumatizing thing, they won't think it is, either. Obviously at 4, I can talk to my daughter about it in an age appropriate way and we have some story books where the mom is going through treatment and loses her hair, so we read those together as well. But she quickly got used to my no hair look - I've been wearing hats or nothing at home. I tried the wig for a couple weeks, but it was just too much hassle and not as comfortable as the hats.
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Is it possible to live till 70, 80 without recurrence? It just seems impossible to me.
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hi steph, I feel the same way. I know mine was caught early but I still had to do chemo so after everything sometimes I wonder if this will come back. I try not to think that way but I do. I want to live till I'm 80. That sounds nice
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I'm less concerned about making it to 70 or 80 without a recurrence as I am about either getting another cancer (because I wonder what is haywire in my genes) or about something else going awry thanks to early menopause.
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BlueKoala, I feel the same way, at this point I feel like I would be lucky to get to 50 without getting another cancer. I know a couple of people who got cancer young and went on to have several different cancers within a few years. I just hope I'm not one of those people. And I wonder too, what are the consequences of having menopause 20 years earlier than normal.
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I have the same thoughts - RE: other cancers and recurrance. However, I am also very optimistic that any recurrences will be even better managed than they are now. Think about the development of Herceptin and what it means for people with HER2 positive cancers. It drastically decreased the recurrence and mortality rates for people with that diagnosis. Also with advancements in gene therapy, it hopefully will be a simple and permanent solution to replace or repair cancer genes and/or immunotherapy that teaches your body to kill cancer cells. I think with the way technology is advancing, we all have a very good chance of living another 50-60 years, even with this diagnosis.
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hey, just jumping in here to share a Lupron story.
I started the injections last summer before chemo, hoping to protect my ovaries. Fast forward to today: I just got bloodwork results back, and i am vividly NOT MENOPAUSAL! The lupron served me well. Very happy. I feel too young to be in menopause, and part of my grief after the diagnosis was fear that i might lose the saucy, fiesty pre-menopausal version of myself that i am used to. How i see myself.
Anyone heading into chemo might wish to consider it. Side effects yes, but worth it for me. Best of luck to everyone. The weeks after diagnosis are the worst.
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Anyone notice that tamoxifen side effects get worse at certain times of the month? I've been taking tamoxifen for a couple of months with only mild night sweats, then during my period I had a couple of really bad nights with drenching sweats and bad joint pain.
It makes sense to me that side effects might change as our natural hormonal cycle fluctuates, but I wondered if anyone else has experienced this?
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Hey Mellee, I haven't started tamoxifen yet, but I'm just curious, how has it affected your period? My doctors said it makes some women's periods irregular or further spaced out. Any lighter? That would actually be a rare bonus
Thanks, Sarah
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I've only been on tamoxifen a little over 6 weeks, so I don't know exactly how it will affect me over time. But the first month, it threw my cycle way off and it was short and light (unusual for me). This month, it came a couple of days early (also unusual for me) and was short but heavy. I'm curious how things will shake out over time. I think it's too early to tell.
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Hi all. I was just diagnosed last month at age 39. Glad to have found this thread.
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