Holey moley.
I'm 42 with 2 kids age 3 and 7 , 7 year old non verbal autistic and just got my diagnosis of “early breast cancer” yesterday. Awaiting mri as scan show discrepancies so its either a 1cm or 5cm tumour and its in lymph nodes node too. Hormone positive and awaiting HER2 status.
I do have a partner but he works away being self employed, has his own medical and alcohol issues and whilst he tries , isn't a great emotional support . Life isnt too easy and i don't have a lot of emotional support from family and still being treated for PND and have suffered emetophobia (phobia of nausea and sickness) since childhood due to trauma.
How the hell am i going to cope through the cycles ? Ive been told i will need chemo definitely after surgery, maybe before , and that feels like the scaryest bit. My kids need ME to function, supervise them and do all the daily tasks akin to caring for two toddlers.
any tips or advise about hot to cope with chemo OR ANY ALTERNATIVES without support network would be greatly appreciated
MY HEAD IS SPINNING 
thank you x
Hi there, and gosh, this sounds pretty daunting, I hope you'll get lots of advice and ideas here. Firstly, please find a link to my blog which is everything I wish I'd known about chemo before I started. I hope this might be of some help. Chemo Blog link
In terms of support for your kids when you're going through treatment, you might want to call the lovely folks at the Macmillan helpline to see if they have any ideas for support networks. You can reach them 8m to 8pm every day on 0800 808 0000.
I can only imagine this will be harder without a strong support network, but sometimes people step up unexpectedly so I hope this is the case for you. Best wishes
Hi. Just wanted to pop by and say you are going to cope just fine.
I am also 42 with a 5 year old. I was 40 when diagnosed and my daughter had just started reception, all I could think of was how could she grow up without a mum 
I had a mastectomy. 12 sessions of chemotherapy and 15 sessions of radiotherapy. The chemotherapy was not as bad as I thought honestly I still worked, still took my daughter to school and picked her up every day even with the breast drain strapped to me. I still went to my weekly reformer Pilates class and went out with friends. The worst thing was constipation but they do give you stuff for whatever you are struggling with. You can do this you might not feel like it but us mums are stronger than we think.
Here if you have any questions or anything at all xx
