Hi all,
Just wanted to chat to others who are supporting their better halves dealing with cancer. Not to mention our 3 boys......
My wife was diagnosed in 2017 with breast cancer where she had a 5cm tumor against the chest wall.
In 2018 she went through a mastecomy (and lymph node removal where 26/29 nodes were cancerous), radio therapy and chemo.
She had failed reconstructive surgery in early 2019 (tummy tuck and then the fat used to build the breast), but the blood didn't flow properly for the surgery to succeed. She had further surgery in late 2019 to take some muscle from her back to build the new breast (can you tell I'm not a medical practitioner? :S)
We were then clear until late 2021 when my wife had pain in the left side of her neck. After investigation and a biopsy it was confirmed to be cancerous, but inoperable due to it not being in one "lump". She had more radiotherapy and was put on chemo tablets.
In June 2022 she had pain in her left arm and more cancer celss were found in her lymph nodes. She was moved to intravenous chemo indefinitely.
Last week after a Cat scan and mammogram they found cancer in the reconstructed right breast (which I don't understand as it's not breast tissue now). We are meeting the surgeon next week to see if it's operable.
I'm always trying to be the positive one in all this, to both my wife and of course the kids, but it's exhausing.
Al
Hi BigAl1976
Welcome to our club - not one we every really wanted to join though.
Being a carer is great fun - if we just look at Your feelings when someone has cancer we can see how it affects most if not all of us. Well done for coming here though - I broke first and then ended up in tears in a Maggies centre.
My wife's cancer is different, Leiomyosarcoma but also inoperable as she had secondaries scatter through her lungs. Chemo was the only option but for us, luckily, has managed to render the cancer stable - and been that way for some years now.
I do wish "being positive" was as easy to do as it is to say - I know how my emotions are nearer the surface now though more often than not something really nice will trigger tears of happiness than anything else.
We have a son who will be 19 next month but he has been living with our cancer for so long I guess he can not even remember a time before. I know we found a lot of the information in Talking to children and teenagers quite helpful.
Do post on here whenever you need, someone is always listening and it can really help to talk (or type).
<<hugs>>
Steve
