Grade 1 breast cancer

[ohdoriswheresthesalad]

I have been diagnosed with grade 1 Non specific type breast cancer today with dcis in situ. Lymph nodes clear from ultrasound.

I am massively worried. has anyone had any experience of this?

• [Title and first post edited at OP's request - originally titled Stage 1 breast cancer]

Morning, happy Christmas Eve

feeling ok this morning minimal pain still. Feeling ok in myself. Hope everyone else is doing ok!

Happy Christmas 🎄

Hope you had a restful day and you are not in too much discomfort @ohdoriswheresthesalad

@LoudSnoringDog
feeling absolutely fine no painkillers since Xmas Eve night!

plaster coming off today very bruised but no actual pain. How are you

Diagnosed after first screening mammogram. no symptoms. Lumpectomy following by 3 weeks radiotherapy and 5 years tamoxifen. Had annual mammograms for 5 Yeats and now back on screening programme. That was 12 years ago. No after effects apart from being a bit lop sided and nit being allowed to donate blood as they don’t take you if you have had cancer . Lucky it’s been found so early .

That is so good @tougholdbirdy
not that you had to go through it but that you are 12 years clear. That’s excellent exactly where I want to be!
I am quite lopsided but still swollen and VERY VERY bruised. I didn’t know that about donating blood! I’m a regular at that!

I think you may be able to donate blood once you are a certain time post treatment, but depending on what type of cancer you had. I believe any type of blood cancer rules you out.

I’m 15 weeks post WLE/SLNB and 5 weeks post radiotherapy and have been feeling ok recently but since late afternoon today, I have been having stabbing pains regularly by my WLE.

@LeftBoobGoneRoguethats reassuring to read your 15 weeks post surgery, how do you feel other than stabbing pains?
are you free of disease?

Yes @ohdoriswheresthesalad, I had clear margins and sentinel node was clear, as expected. I was feeling very tired after the RT but not too bad.
ive benn on letrozole for a month now. I was on HRT at diagnosis and then halved the dose and stopped a couple of weeks after surgery. I noticed a difference even just reducing the dose by half. So far not left any worse on letrozole than I did just without HRT but it’s early days. I was very unhappy about having to take letrozole because blocking estrogen can have serious health consequences, not just quality of life issues.

@LeftBoobGoneRogueserious health issues? Like what?

Not breast cancer but stage 3 bowel cancer (at 45) I spent the 1st 2 months pre scan convinced of the worst and went into shock and getting my affairs in order.

im currently on round 7 of 8 chemo then im done - cancer free!!!

its easy to assume the worst but hang in there because it does get easier. I found hoping a specific fb group helped me massively xx

Increased risk of high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugars. More likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Plus highly likely to have bone thinning risking osteoporosis. Brain fog and possibly dementia (suspected). Also other less common side effects.
Lack of estrogen for women and testosterone for men really can affect QOL and cause serious health problems.
I’m certainly not happy about taking this medication even if I’m not obviously suffering at the moment.

Oh my good lord! Something else to worry about!

Hi , I’m so glad you had a good Xmas and are healing well. Also for other posters who are also coming through recent treatments

the great recovery threads may be helpful - many treatments for all sorts of cancers affect female hormones or need hormone blockers. Many of the associated issues can definitely be addressed via a range of
lifestyle approaches . exercise is particularly helpful.

this is thread 4; I was on thread one.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/general_health/5270506-the-great-recovery-part-4?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

i can also recommend the cancer and menopause podcast and facebook group :)

The jury is out a bit re dementia and oestrogen. Some studies showed hrt increased the risk. I’m on tamoxifen which is an oestrogen blocker - it does cause some brain fog but also apparently reduces the risk of dementia later in life somehow.

hrt is only actually licensed for hot flashes and bone density. There’s much more evidence for exercising helping the risk of dementia in later life. Especially weight training iirc. Cardio helps the vascular issues.

I’ve found insomnia and hot flashes are influenced By stress and diet - I do now eat very well, loads of plants and plant protein, gut microbiome stuff. I do I eat some meat, particularly fish as omega 3 is also v helpful (I also take that and b vitamins as they’re both helpful for brain health.)

I follow Stacy sims approaches (I’ve been doing power happens since last year.)

Strangely I live in France and no one ever mentions HRT, you hardly hear of it , I know my close friends don’t take it. I don’t know of anyone that does tbh. Its quite strange!

Quite! Liz o Riordan did take Louise Newson to task quite a bit on Twitter over the inaccurate dementia claims. The evidence lies with exercise

We are currently in Austria at DPs aunts. You can’t get HRT here at all apparently. The medical profession is completely against it for the longer term implications

Tamoxifen was mentioned for me by my consultant as I’m still quite young that’s the go to for younger ladies apparently?
so is it HRT? I’m confused?

No its not the same at all. Tamoxifen is very good at protecting you from a recurrence of certain types of breast cancer. I took it for ten years in all.

Tamoxifen does a similar job to aromastase inhibitors such as letrozole but does it in a different way. Tamoxifen is usually given to premenopausal women and AIs to post menopausal women. Sometimes one is used followed by the other. Also some premenopausal women have injections to shut down their ovaries to stop estrogen production. Your onco should explain it all to you when you have your first oncology appointment after surgery. Maybe have read on Breastcancernow or MacMillan so you have some knowledge before the appointment. This was discussed with me at the same appointment regarding radiotherapy, 4 weeks after surgery. This is also when I found out my Oncotype and that I didn’t need chemo.
How are you feeling?

Perimenopausal and menopausal women who are on hrt have to stop taking it when they get breast cancer.

I had to. That was more scary than the cancer tbh as I’d struggled so much. Also as there had been so much publicity about how great it was for you - Dr Louise Newson with Davina in particular but it turns out she’s exaggerated some claims. So I was terrified.

It was hard at first but following exercise and diet regimes I actually sometimes feel better than when I was on hrt. Tamoxifen stopped my periods after a year which has been a silver lining!

I’m feeling ok thank you @LeftBoobGoneRogue
i don’t like reading too much information as it makes me spiral and I get in a tizz.

What do I need to expect from this next appointment?