Hi, I am new to the Macmillian community page. I am currently supporting my mum though breast cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer on the 6th September 2023. At the time of her diagnosis the treatment plan was to have a lumpectomy/removal of some lyphnodes to test and 5 days of radiotherapy 2 months later. My mum has today had her follow up appointment from her operation. The cancer is still stage 1, the operation successfully removed the lump and had not spread to any of the surrounding tissue. The cancer was however found in the sentinel lymphnodes so her treatment plan has changed. My mum has been given 2 options, she can either have all her lymphnodes removed or have radiotherapy to target the lymphnodes as well as the previous cancerous area of the breast. If my mum was to have the lymphnodes removed, these would be tested and if the cancer had spread to more than 3 lymphnodes more test would be carried out to see if the cancer had spread to anywhere else in her body. Alternatively, if she was only to have the radiotherapy, she would never know if the cancer had spread to other lymphnodes or any where else in her body. There is also the higher risk of lymphademia if she were to have all the lymphnodes removed. My mum has also now been told that because of the type of cancer she has, HER2 positive, chemotherapy for 5 months would be recommended to prevent the cancer from coming back as well as radiotherapy. It’s also recommended that she has an injection every 3 weeks for a year after the chemotherapy treatment. Me and my mum are both in shock and absolutely devastated as this is not at all the treatment plan we expected. I appreciate that she is very lucky and that there are a lot of women out there in much worse situation than she is. I was hoping to be able to reach out to women who had a similar diagnoses/treatment plan to my mum so she can hear their stories and maybe help her decided what to do moving forward. I am absolutely terrified that the cancer may have spread because I cannot bare the thought of loosing her. I would be so grateful to anyone who can offer advice/reassurance for me or my mum.
Lucy x
