Diagnosed as a new mum

Hi Fee77 

Welcome to our community, I hope you find it both informative and supportive.

I am Steve, one of the community champions and my experiece of cancer is via my wife who has Leioyosarcoma. Our son was about 8 when Janice was first diagnosed so a bit outside the "new mums" bracket. 

As you have probably heard sarcomas are rare forms of cancer and so the numbers in here can be a smaller sample than in some sections of the community. 

Janice has had two different types of chemotherapy and ended up with her cancer becoming stable and it has been that way now for over 10 years so good news on that front.

<<hugs>>

Steve

Hi src60, I’m glad to hear Janice has been stable for so long Yes I’ve read it is rare, and even more so to have liposarcoma when you are under 30 years old! How did you find bringing up your son after Janice’s diagnosis, is there any particular support you leaned on at all or any advice?

Hi Fee77 

Michael is perhaps rather more familiar with the hospital that we would have liked. It was something of an interesting challenge because he was diagnosed with autism too and I was very aware of not promising something we could not deliver. 

We did introduce him to the team at our local Maggies - though that was a bit of a own goal since we had not explained before hand and when we got to the hospital he asked if we had come to drop off mummy - oops.

We did get a lot of support from his schools and also a couple fo very dear friends were often a lifeline. The helpline here can also be very useful and certainly done my share of crying at them in the past.

<<hugs>>

Steve

Hi Fee

I had a myxoid liposarcoma in my hip when I was 36….30 years ago! I had 3 muscles removed, but no radiotherapy or chemo. Unfortunately, it looks as if there might be another tumour deep in the other hip now, I’m waiting for the biopsy. But 30 years cancer free! 

My children were 5 & 7, and at primary school, so not the same ages as your baby. I didn’t have any help.  I imagine the recovery from your surgery will be similar to the Caesarian. You could express your milk and freeze it.  Do talk to your surgeon and the nurses in clinic, ask how long they expect you to be in hospital, so you can plan. Wishing you all the very best. 

Thanks for sharing this Steve, I can imagine it was tricky to navigate with your son, but glad you had lots of support! 

Hi Grannycam  

Thank you so much for sharing this, it’s put my mind at ease a bit more  and yes I think I will talk to an infant feeding specialist too on the breastfeeding matter! 

Sorry to hear about the possible other tumour, I have my fingers crossed for you that whatever it may be, it can be sorted quickly and easily!

Take care x

Thank you. Yes, ask for all the help you need. Breast feeding support, NCT, Health Visitor. Your baby has already had a fantastic start with colostrum, and ongoing breast milk. With expressed breast milk, which freezes well, you will know baby is still getting the very best. But also, the formulas are so good nowadays, so switching at some point is still a good option for baby. Remember the important thing about infant feeding…is feeding the infant! Either breast or bottle. Wishing you all the very best. Take care. X