Posted on: Jun 30, 2021 02:07PM

pinger2474 wrote:

So tomorrow will be my one year anniversary of my Dx. My surgery was in late July, 3 weeks after my Dx. I had a left mastectomy with no reconstruction. I am currently on tamoxifen, 5 mg a day, a much smaller dosage than normal simply because I was not able to handle the side effects on the full dosage.

Overall, I feel like I am doing well. I went back to work part time 4 months after my surgery and I have my family to take care of so my days are generally full. But I still think about my cancer every day and there are times when I feel really sad and would have a good cry, something I never used to do much before all of this. I did see a therapist for a few months after my surgery but then I realized that I just needed time to process what I went through. Does this get better? Do any of you go through days without thinking about it? Because I am on a reduced dosage of tamoxifen, I also tend to find myself worrying about a possible recurrence or a new cancer. I've been trying to be more mindful and I do meditate. I know I'm OKnow, but I feel like I'm in a playback loop with all of this sometimes.

Another issue I have is that I still have quite a bit of sensitivity around my scar. It is slowly getting better over time but it feels like it's taking much longer than expected. When I search on the Internet about this it seems that generally six months is the recovery time. My scar looks like it has healed, but every day I still feel irritation with whatever clothing is touching it (I find any bra to be too much) and sometimes I still feel pins and needles. I'm sure it's probably just the nerves regrowing but just wondering if this is normal.

Thanks for any advice and info. I'm glad that this community exist because even though my friends and family are very supportive of me, it's been a year and everyone has pretty much moved on. It's hard to keep bringing up this topic.