I had a lumpectomy before last Christmas with full node clearance on the left side. The cancer was 14 mms and grade 3, there were 3 lymph nodes affected, they were sent for onco type testing and came back as no need for chemotherapy. My surgeon when I had my follow up appointment in January said “the cancer has gone, radiotherapy and letrozole is just belt and braces” . Radiotherapy was tough, made much worse with an extreme bout of sciatica, finished four weeks ago and at last I’m recovering from the sciatica. I also had the Zometa infusion with possibly no side effects. Now my mind is going into overdrive. Do I refer to myself as having breast cancer or I’ve had breast cancer?
I realize that the Letrozole is to cut down the chances of it reoccurring, but does that mean I’ve still got it hiding away waiting to come back?
Everything happened so quickly in the beginning , just 3 and 1/2 weeks from a call back on the screening mammogram ( to old at 73 so I asked to be included but had no symptoms) to surgery. Now I feel confused. Thanks for reading.
Like you, mine was picked up from a routine screening and I had no symptoms.
After surgery my surgeon told me that she had removed all of the cancer. Micro deposits were found in one of the sentinel lymph nodes they removed so I had chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I was told by my oncologist at the end of treatment that they did not expect it to come back and I'm now coming up to the end of my 3 years of Zometa.
I consider that I had cancer but no longer do.
Anne
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
