Dear friends, I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer last May 2019. I had a lumpectomy first and all the sentinel lymph nodes that they took out during surgery had cancer.
I then had 6 months of brutal chemotherapy which wiped me out followed by 3 weeks of radiotherapy. In June this year I had a check up and my breast was starting to develop lymphoedema. I had a mammogram which was all ok.
I was referred to the lymphoedema clinic and was seen at the end of August and given a handout on massages to do.
I had to have 2 teeth out in July before starting on zoledronic acid in September. All of this delayed due to covid.
The lymphoedema got worse so I went to my doctor and she made me an urgent referral back to the hospital. I saw a different breast surgeon and he wanted ultrasound scans done. These showed that the lymph nodes in my armpit were enlarged so they took biopsies.
I had the results last week that the lymph nodes have triple negative cancer. I'm still in shock at the moment and don't understand how the cancer could return so fast only months after finishing all the cancer treatment.
I've already had a CT body scan and am seeing my oncology consultant tomorrow afternoon.
I'm very scared and really struggling mentally with all this and I live alone.
Has this happened to anyone else and if so what happened next and how did you cope.
Thank you x
Hello
I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that you didn't have a reply before today, it didn't seem to appear in the group, but the Macmillan team picked it up in their queue and have moved it to the correct place - apologies that this happened and now the technical issue has been sorted, I'm hoping that other triple negative ladies can help you with plenty of advice.
I wasn't triple negative and don't have experience of the cancer returning, but gosh! yes - that is a huge shock to return so quickly for you and I really do feel for you and can totally understand how overwhelmed you must be after such brutal treatment to have it return so quickly. This is definitely a question for your oncologist to see if they can give you more insight as to how it could return so quickly, even if they don't have the answers, hopefully your team can give you some strong reassurance regarding your treatment of it. My guess would be that they'd now remove all your lymph nodes in the affected side and hope and pray for you that because they have picked it up so quickly that the lymph nodes have done their job and prevented spread elsewhere. I suppose it is possible that if just one stray cancer cell managed to avoid the treatment or wasn't discovered in your lymph nodes -perhaps it had got into another lymph node and not the sentinel lymph nodes, which they would have removed and tested this might be how it's now showing - pure guess without any medical knowledge!
This is the link to 's suggestion of a Macmillan buddy - which I think is a great idea to have regular contact with someone on the telephone to support you.
Do you have just one close friend who you could rely on for support as well? Or a group of friends who could 'take it in turns' to be there for you?
I'm sorry I can't offer anything much expect to say, that I'm so, so sorry that is happening to you.
Kindest wishes, Lesley
