Mutual support thread for breast cancer patients. All welcome including non-cancer patients who want to chip in!

[anorak]

There seem to be quite a few of us now so I thought we might like a place where we can congregate to laugh, cry, share, compare notes and give each other a bit of support.

Hello everyone - just checking in

Hope you are feeling ok huffpuff - must have been quite a shock. But there are some lovely ladies on this thread!

I wish there had been something like this for my mum when she had her mastectomy... she had her best friend, and that was it. My dad was pretty useless - although I get the feeling that everyone's dhs are being very supportive - especially in the pub, Anorak

Mars, hopefully by having the operation I will be avoiding or at least reducing my risk (85% doen to 6%) of developing breast cancer

Just wanted to say hello to you all, such a lot of good advice flying about on this thread. Mum hasn't been on, but I've been relaying bits of it to her. Yesterday I shaved her head which was a very surreal experience for both of us. She's being really positive about it though, and is enjoying the array of hats and scarves we have been stockpiling!

Hope you are doing well..best wishes from me x

Is it wrong to eat three slices of fruit cake in a row? Does it count towards my five a day? I am having a bit of a piggy day.

I look a complete idiot in a headscarf. I think you need the complexion for it.

I have found a couple of nice sun hats though which I will be taking to Portugal at half term for a bit of a break. The dcs are v excited. I'm so glad it fits in with the chemo.

Hello.

pigleto I think the headscarf thing is just a question of getting used to seeing yourself in one. I'm used to it now. Not wrong to eat three slices of cake - you need something to cheer you up don't you?

Hooray here, I am starting massage therapy for my lymphedema tomorrow.

Hi all, I'm bandaged up from armpit to fingers as mt lymphedema treatment has started - be typing with one hand for the next two weeks!

Glad to hear they are finally tackling it anorak. Can you change the bandages yourself? Is it hot?

I've got a stye in my eye. Which shows that I am half way through my chemo cycle. I'm feeling a bit tired but we did manage to Noddy day at the local stately home which dd adored. ds went on one of those bungee trampolines and had a whale of a time. I have been spoiling them both rotten, which is not good for them but hard to resist.

re headscarves - i was massively self-conscious to start with, then i realised nobody was pointing and laughing. After that, I was too self-conscious to wear my wig! Never wore it in the end. dd used to play with it instead.

hi everyone. i was wondering if i could ask a question?

i just found out a girl i know in college has been diagnosed with breast cancer a few days ago. she doesn't know that i know, i haven't seen her since i found out over the weekend from a mutual friend.

she's 21. i'm not sure if she'll tell me or not. we get on well as we get a bus in together once a week and i knew she was feeling generally unwell, she told me she was having a lot of tests. they had no idea what it was when i spoke to her about ten days ago.

anyway, if she does tell me can anyone recommend any good book or gift of support i could give her? dont want to say the wrong thing to her. i'm so fond of her and i just want her to know that i really care about her and what she is going through.

thanks

Oh the poor thing at 21 years old I reckon the best gift you could give her is to tell her you will be there for her, there is nothing else that could possibly be of more value.

I have to learn to do the bandages myself for the weekend, pigleto. Till then I will be seeing the therapist every day.

hello ladies- right bite the bullet and say.......
i have been diagnosed with dcis, seeing head honcho consultant next wednesday to discuss treatment.

i am bf my 4mo twins- how will this be affected- do i have to give up immediatly

sorry if my post is a little short mannered, but i'm still slightly shocked and bemused.

Sorry to hear your news wontbepreggers again. It is a terrible shock, especially as you have two such young children.

Your breastmilk will be perfectly healthy for your dc to drink but the treatment for DCIS is usually mastectomy.

When I was diagnosed with DCIS the consultant said that he would happily wait six months before operating. So you could discuss with your consultant if you could breastfeed to six months if it is important to you.

mamaloves, a bunch of flowers and a hug are always welcome. Just tell her that you are available if she needs a shoulder to cry on.

I haven't spoken to any of my friends directly since I was diagnosed. I have retreated into the bosom of my family. They have all sent flowers and cards but I don't want to call them as I will just cry at them which will make us all feel worse.

thank you very much anorak and pigleto. i will take your advice.

wontbepreggersagain so sorry to hear your news. there are lots of wonderful ladies here who will give you support. best of luck.

wontbepreggers I'm sorry about your diagnosis. I learned when I received my own news that DCIS is a slow-growing and self-contained type of cancer with a high treatment success rate. I expect your head is all over the place at the moment. I hope we on this thread can give you an extra place to air you worries. And you don't sound short-mannered at all.

Sigh

Oncologist appointment today. Apparently my tumour markers are up slightly. It isn't "significant" but another blood test ordered next month to keep a check on it. If they're still up he says he'll try a new hormone treatment.

Knew it was all too good to last. Trying not to dwell on it but it's difficult.

Going to go and have a glass of wine (or several) now and b*** the consequences!

MM

Enjoy your wine! It's one of my enduring pleasures

Hello, I am just a supporter and am blown away by all of you, what you are coping with.

I work with the communications side of cancer drugs, how to get doctors to use the new and up-and-coming treatments etc. We try so hard to see things from the patients point of view and try to help the doctors prescribe according to the needs of the patient. However, it does not matter how hard we try we can never understand what you ar going through and how your lives and your loved ones lives are affected.

All I can offer is to be here on the end of MN for a chat or a laugh or an e-shoulder to anyone who needs/wants it. Good luck with all of your appointments and treatments, I wish you all the love in the world.

Fruit cake is fab I hear.... especially 3 big bits with a large glass of wine... xx

hi all - saw consultant today. They'r gonna give me chemo first to see if the tumor shrinks enough for them to be able to just remove the lump and preserve the breast. They said at 33 they would want to try and save the boob first! Chances are i will still have to have a mastectomy but at least now there is a glimmer of hope.

Got to have lymph nodes taken out on 22nd to see if the cancer has spread.

Hope all you wonderful ladies are ok XX

huffpuff it must be a very little tumour for them even to consider saving the breast. That is good news. I do hope your lymph nodes come up clear.

The chemotherapy side of things really isn't as bad as I thought it would be for me so far.

Hello BBfly, thanks for your input.

huffpuff you sound a bit happier - it's always easier once you know what you're dealing with isn't it?

Glad things aren't going too badly pigleto - what chemo drugs are you on?

Wow you ladies are fab I admire each and everyone of you. I saw this thread a few weeks ago and couldnt bring myself to look in.

Im waiting on an MRI, they have found a mass in my uterus following a long drawn out mc, they have no idea what it is. Preg HCG are back to normal so they have said its one of two things, an innocent heamatoma or a uterine sarcoma (sp) At the moment I am terrified. I am 26 yrs old, have 2 DS's 6 and 1, getting married next yr...

the mass is in an awkward place, half in my uterus wall and half on my scar tissue from previous sections, so if its not a heamatoma it will mean surgery and damage to my reproductive organs or a hysterectomy. Bit mixed up at the mo trying to make a decision before I need to

Life can be good at throwing bricks at us! I think the first diagnosis is awful, and all the not knowing.

I've got my 1st lot of antibiotics for a tiny infection in my arm caused by horrible ecxema and my skin drying and cracking. I use vast quantities of hand cream and I have masses of steroid cream.

My parents have just been to stay, which was mostly ok. It's really my difficult to know what the hell to do - my father is mad and my mother apparently has alzeimers. She has the drugs to treat it anyway. My father was harrassing us AGAIN, and this time I let rip. I told him he was a filthy bully who had no respect for any of his family and that he was out of order for losing his temper, and that it was bloody miserable living in fear of him. I also told him that he didn't deserve his children with the way that he has treated them. The sad thing is that I may as well have been talking to a brick, but whatever about that, at least it was the right brick. My mum said that I was perfectly right to say what I said. Anyway, probably the wrong thread to say this kind of thing.

I think that a diagnosis of cancer makes plan-making different. I think it changes things and I think it makes it clear that it is so important to see the people you like and do the things you want to do.

All things being well, I may go to America next year with my mum.

Hello Julezboo, don't be afraid of us we don't let things get low-spirited for long around here! Try not to worry about your mass - after all it is most likely to be the haematoma, surely? Don't try and make a decision - if you just let it all compute away in your subconscious it will prepare you without you even realising. Please let us know how you get on.

BlaDeBla, well done for standing up to your father. You might well feel like you are talking to a brick - but it helps to heal you and that is the most important thing. And you might have given your mum a feeling of being supported too.

hi all - am bit confused today. Am now wondering if i should just have the mastectomy and be done with it. Any thoughts?!