Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Hi Gill,

Thank you for sharing your positive outcome with us.

How much chemotherapy did you have and how did your body cope with it?

She’s worried about the chemo process as she’s quite fit and healthy and she’s worried about it zapping the good out of her, we have been told she has 4-5 months of it.

Do you have any tips or good advice you could share with us and did you make any life style changes?

Thank you! Best wishes xx

Hi. I had 8 doeses 3 weeks apart. Don’t google anything. Just take each one as it comes. It’s not great but not horrendous either. Eat well and sleep well. Just tell your mum to think this time next year it will be like a distant memory… xxx 

Hi Anxious Maryoma, I’ve just had my lumpectomy and sentinel node op done today. I also have TNBC and similar sized lump to you.   My was more on the surface so didn’t have to search for it.  Clear margins achieved and node gone for biopsy.  I’d tell them when they do the guide placement that biopsy was painful  and hopefully they can up your local anaesthetic.  Good luck with it all.  X

thnx for the positive reply. im more anxious today because I got my confirmation letter yesterday for the savi scout marker ...next Monday so yes I will inform them of my painful experience of the Biopsy. 

I'll get back on wen more to report. 

can I ask how you felt after the lumpectomy.  was there a big recovery period . did u stay in hospital or home same day .???????

Hi there, I’m in Spain so having my treatment there.  I‘d been an anxious mess this last week waiting to go in, tears at the drop of a hat.  It really wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be,  They really couldn’t have been nicer to me.  My little Spanish got me through the day with a few laughs thrown in.  Morning surgery then the whole afternoon to recover before being sent home at 6pm, that’s standard here, I did feel I could have come home earlier.

 Don’t be shy, if you need pain relief ask for it, it’s best to have it before you really need it, keeps on top of it. I’m alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen and that’s working just fine.   Definitely get a soft front fastening sports bra, M&S do them or look online.  A normal bra will catch on your lymph node site.   Loose front fastening clothes too.  

You’ll be fine, you’ll be under anaesthetic so it’ll all be a blur, less stressful than being awake for the biopsy I thought. I drifted off to sleep hearing “buen viaje” good trip from my lovely anaesthetist.  

I’ve just woken up and it’s a little stingy but nothing major.  Saying that I’m still going to milk it, husband on household duties and dog walking for the next wee while. 

I‘m 64 and was shocked to get the diagnosis but now I’m in treatment, feel like I just have to take every day as it comes.  This site is great, nothing,like this in Spain I’m afraid or if there is I haven’t found it yet.  You’ll get all the advice and support you need from a lovely group of people. 

My very best wishes to you.  I hope it all goes smoothly.  

thanx again for ur positive reply ....awww maybe Spanish Health care better than UK atm im in Liverpool and health care is up the wall. so we will see...although my care up to now is good and efficient.  I have a breast nurse called Sharon and my surgeon is from France. 

You’re up early!   Hopefully not fretting too much.  I’m still tucked up in bed reading.  A real godsend is my V shaped support pillow, it’s really good  Argos has them very cheap.  Get everything in in advance then you’re sorted especially when the sales are on.  

it’s good you know your team, makes everything more personal.  I had the most lovely, and handsome!, recovery room nurse allocated to me yesterday.  I think that might have accounted for my slightly raised heart rate!   

ha ha ha. Good 4u. my hubby is younger than me so he's my nurse of fancy wen I will be recovering at home ....I already have the v shaped pillow its memory foam got it last year from Dunns . 

take it easy back soon . yes anxious just had hot shower  hopefully I can sleep

Hi isellplatesandglassware 

I noticed you were asking GillSM how she got on with chemotherapy so I thought I'd chip in too!

I'm a few years older than your mum (61) and also reasonably fit and healthy. I had 3 cycles of EC, each one 3 weeks apart, before 12 weekly doses of paclitaxel. I found that I felt a bit under the weather and tired for the first 10 days or so while having the EC and then back to normal for the remaining time. I found paclitaxel even easier with no horrible side effects.

I did lose my hair after the first cycle of EC but I'm now rocking an Annie Lennox look! With both types of chemo it did alter my taste buds for a few days after but I found if I ate spicy foods like curry or chilli I could still taste it. Also, pineapple doesn't lose it's taste! Disappointingly wine tasted disgusting, although that wasn't too bad as I wasn't supposed to drink while having chemo anyway.

x

I found my taste for somethings changed before I even knew I had cancer. Wine I think if in a much less favourable way. Humous which I used to love made me fart and coffee tasted like poison. Such a stressful year last year and then cancer . A friend told me it's a good time for treatment, at least by summer I will be through the worst of it . She has had breast cancer twice and is now 79.

I have googled and got stressed and reassured in quick succession. We have to do what is right for us. Trying to have a little control or be informed is what it's about for me. I'd just started getting my state pension and got my bus pass when I got my first symptom. The Covid jab is what started it. I had a pain in my arm pit. All I can really say is I choose life whatever I have to do I'll do it. I am the oldest member on my side of the family.  My Mother made it to 86, I want to try for that. X