Hello....I have joined because like everyone else, I won't know if this helps me and/or helps me help others?! So I am giving the forum a try....which I suppose is my mindset for accepting initial treatment recommendations. 4 years after mastectomy I found a lump in Feb this year and it has taken 9 weeks to get the diagnosis of recurrence and that it's elsewhere....sternum and two places in my spine. I knew that it was cancer again and I knew that is was more than just the chest tumour....I think women are quite good at intuition about our bodies but its still scary and like all of us I veer from brave and practical to emotional meltdown.
MRI brain scan tomorrow and oncology next week....it's all speeded up this week because of such bad headaches...or rather very bad head 'pressure'. Obvs I am preparing for neck/brain metastasis diagnosis as well....as I said 9 weeks and then fast speed.... in last six 6 days GP has put me on pain relief patches, hip nurse put me on Steroids after phone chat, she also got my MRI scan brought forward a week and hopes those results can be chased in time for first oncology appt just 3 days later, and she rang today to say please don't drive. Fast track?
I know I am lucky to have a husband for care support (if he holds up to the stress?!?) and a 23 year old son who I can't tell about the new 'upgrade' to incurable stage IV while he is revising for his Masters exams in mid May.
I know everyones cancer/diagnosis/treatment plan/success of treatment plan is hugely different....but I do hope connecting with others in the group with a very similar diagnosis might be a two-way help to us! x
Hi JaneCM
Welcome to the forum. It’s a great place to get support, as is our main Breast cancer forum which tends to be a bit busier than this one.
I am sorry you find yourself in the lovely stage 4 club and hope the other scans don’t reveal further bad news. I can also understand the difficulty of living with this whilst not distracting your son from his Masters exams. I well remember when I received my own ‘upgrade’ not wanting to tell my daughter because she was about to leave for a holiday in South America. Realistically there isn’t anything they can do but worry at this point. It will be a more constructive discussion once you know what your treatment plan is.
Which brings me round to the topic of living with stage 4 breast cancer. You don’t say what time you have, but there are lots of treatments these days, especially if your cancer is oestrogen driven. Many oncologists refer to it as living with chronic disease - many people live good and long lives with it. Even I, with harder to treat metastatic TNBC, have achieved a stable remission - I got my upgrade in 2022 a few months after my initial diagnosis.
Wishing you all the best b
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I have metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer, in remission
