aww Unauthorized Cinnamon, this sucks! Sending you all the warm thoughts in the world. Also sending you a PM.
Sending good and healing thoughts your way, Unauthorized Cinnamon.
My mom in her 50’s (almost 20 years ago), my cousin in her 30’s (6 years ago - with subsequent brain cancer she also beat) and my closest friend in her 50’s (last year) have all been through it. All lumpectomies with varying degrees of chemo and radiation. All doing fine now.
Hope your treatment goes as great as it possibly can and you’re cancer-free in just a few months!
For positive there’s my grandmother’s story. She had a cancerous lump in her breast, at the age of 91. So a mastectomy was performed. It never went further than that, and my grandmother passed away just short of her 108th birthday.
My sister was diagnosed in her early 40s and is still alive and kickin’ at 70. A friend of mine was diagnosed last year, she’s mid-60s, and after a lumpectomy and radiation she received a clean bill of health.
Fingers crossed you’ll beat the odds, too.
Unauthorized Cinnamon, I’m so very sorry to hear that!
All our hopes & prayers are with you…
Fuck Cancer. (Yeah, I know **Dangerosa **said it already. Oh, well.)
If it helps any, I’ve had a couple of patients now go through chemo and radiation without a single bout of throwing up or losing hair or weight or any of the dramatics you see on TV. It’s no guarantee, as every treatment and every patient is different, but don’t go borrowing trouble - it might be awful or it might be surprisingly mild.
But yes, I second the sentiment that you needn’t keep your game face on all the time. There will, of course, be times when you gotta, so you don’t terrify the offspring and such, but also find a way to vent. Y’know, maybe on a message board full of supportive people who care about you but won’t freak out if you freak out.
And yes, I’m lighting a candle, too, woo or no. It’ll make me feel better, if not you. hugs
My mother is a survivor. She went from Stage 1 > Stage 4 and lumpectomy > mastectomy in a very, very short time, but that was almost 15 years ago and she’s fine.
Her advice on the hair thing: scarves.
The other thing she did that was amazing was talk to me very forthrightly about what if she died. She firmly believed she wasn’t going to, but having that conversation, while difficult, made the whole process easier for both of us. I was an adult, but I still recommend having an age-appropriate version of that conversation with your kids.
It’s a lot to wrap your head around right now but it will get better. Right now just make sure you take your husband, significant other, sister,mother, whomever with you to you doctors appointments so they can listen and take notes when you zone out because of information overload. My wife had a bilateral mastectomy six years ago with reconstruction and is doing great! Lucky for us she has an uncle who is an oncologist who specialized in breast cancer and helped tremendously by explaining all the medical lingo into real english, but the best thing he said was that breast cancer has an almost 95% cure rate so everything will be ok. My thoughts and prayers go out to you. I would also wait to tell your kids until after Christmas.
We’re all with you, UC!
My mother did this, almost 15 years ago. They found cancer in one breast and wanted to do a mastectomy. She insisted on the double, because she didn’t want to deal with the risk factors for the original equipment. They biopsied both breasts after the surgery, and found cancer in both. Turns out to have been a very wise decision.
It was very odd sitting in the plastic surgeon’s waiting room with my Mom while she was going for a consultation on breast reconstruction.
In any case - she kicked cancer’s butt, and is still going strong today. Recovery took a few months, but that’s long past.
I’m so sorry, Unauthorized Cinnamon. I have two friends who were both a bit younger than you, who also did all the things right and still got breast cancer. They are both survivors. Hugs!
{{{Unauthorized Cinnamon}}} When I found out I had breast cancer I wanted to unscrew my boob, set it down in the middle of the road, and drive away as fast as I could. But that cone of betrayal wouldn’t come off. :smack: What I did do was have a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation. The chemo wasn’t awful though I remember nosebleeds and lots of couch time after treatments. If you don’t already have tats, you will now. They tattoo little blue dots around the area so they can hone in on the right spot every time. Do you have any old tops hanging in your closet? After the lumpectomy healed I found that a shoulder pad was soft and just the right size to give me the lift I wanted. (Now I don’t wear bras anymore and could care less.) That was ten years ago and I rarely even think about it. It sounds like you’re in excellent hands and ten years from now I’ll bet it will be “a thing that happened a long time ago” for you, too.
Sister-in-law currently undergoing chemo for this. She is doing well, and her oncologist described herself as “thrilled” in a letter to her GP. May your own road be as straight toward recovery.
(((Unauthorised Cinnamon)))
Forget scarves; have fun with wigs! Now is your chance to experiment with hairstyles you’d never otherwise try.