Stage III Cancer Survivors ...Five + Years and Out.

Thank you for sharing. These comments are so reassuring to us Stage 3 ladies/men. I am over 6 years out. Amazing never thought I would be here at year one. Thank you MD Anderson.

Just checking in as I was 5 years out this week. I thought I would be counting down the seconds to post but am actually a few days late - the general chaos of life has resumed in a way I didn't dare hope for at the time of diagnosis and I was busy with the sticky business of living - working, family, housekeeping, just daily existence in all its mundane glory.

I am hopefully just a baby in this journey but I wanted to mark this anniversary anyway. Not to boast or take any credit for it, but because when I was diagnosed, comforting as the 10/15 years out threads were, it felt like my future was, at best, a very long and empty road stretching out before me. Was this what my horrid treatment had earned me - the right to cross off dates and plod through life towards what felt like an unachievable goal?

No, thankfully not. Life feels very normal again for me I'm grateful to say. And, being caught very late, I was in a place of abject terror when I was diagnosed. I had a small lump checked around August 2019 and was reassured that it was a cyst. It was drained but refilled within weeks. Then Covid landed, the lump very slowly grew but didn't really become obvious until April 2021. I was diagnosed the following month, by this time node positive with two large low grade tumours. There is no question in my mind that cancer was present at my initial check. However, I have made my peace with this and no longer rage or self-flagellate. Sometimes despite our best efforts, things are just not within our control.

I told myself if my cancer meant business, it would show itself in the first three years, given that it had a considerable head start on me. This was based on no science whatsoever but has yet to be disproven as a theory so I'm going with it for now.

I take my tamoxifen, show up for my Zoladex, walk for 30 + mins a day and hope and pray for the best. I pray for a cure for us all. I feel well day to day - probably better than I did pre-cancer. I definitely no longer sweat the small stuff.

Perhaps surprisingly, my team were actually quite optimistic, or at least did a good job of pretending to be. My oncologist said he expected me to be here in 40 years (!) and breast cancer was 'no longer the disease it once was'. My surgeon said he had seen people like me 'do well'. Another oncologist said he felt I had 'localised disease'. I didn't believe a word of it at the time but clung to their words and sometimes still turn them over in my head.

The reason I'm sharing all this is to help anyone in a similar situation since it is a bit unusual. Maybe it can bring hope to someone newly diagnosed with a large tumour. One thing a friend said to me was: breast cancer is a hundred different diseases. And she is right, whatever happens in my own story.

Sending love to you all. This forum was an absolute life saver for me in the dark early days. It will always have a special place in my heart. I'm so glad people feel able to share their stories. And I'm grateful for every day of the past 5 years.

Five years ago, the Friday of Labor Day Weekend, I got the news that I was expecting and dreading. This particular thread and BCO was my lifeline. I promised myself I would come back and post my own story, if I was lucky enough to reach five years NED. It was hard to imagine it being possible. I hope my story helps anyone finding themself in the same situation. At first it seemed like the news kept getting worse. My tumor was hormone positive, grade 2 and probably in my lymph nodes, per MRI and biopsy. Surgery confirmed it was in 10/14 nodes and grade 3! I did 4 DDAC chemo, 12 Taxol, and 30 plus radiation sessions (I can't remember exactly). Verzenio was newly approved for Stage 3 and I did two years of that and continue to take Exemestane. My then 10 and 7 year old kids are now 15 and 12. I just switched to 2x yearly onc visits. Life is good and cancer is becoming a smaller part of it. The AI does make my muscles sore and cause me fatigue. Shortly after starting Verzenio, I had the chance to participate in a CTC DNA study. I was so disappointed when they found 14 circulating cells (and they were all HER2 as well as hormone positive--what?!). I didn't even know if I was on the "right" treatment. Six months later, they found 0 cells. Another 6 months, still no cells. That motivated me to continue the Verzenio and stay on the AI. They're not easy drugs, but they seem to have worked/be working. For those of you just starting treatment, I'm sending a big hug. This is the hardest and scariest thing I've ever done, but it does get better, and the treatment options available to us are very effective. I am so grateful! And thank you to all of you who post and share your stories. The hope and strength you show, helped me pick myself up and move forward.