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Chemotherapy

Jobieejo
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Hi,

so I have stage 1 grade 3 breast cancer and was fully expecting to have surgery then chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

instead I’m having chemotherapy then surgery which has sent me into a complete spiral of doom.

instead did ask my breast doctor why it was being done this way but I’m still none the wiser ( my doctor has  a very thick accent that I’d struggle with in the best of times) all I know is that I have to wait for oncology.

my questions are

why this way round is it better?

is it because my cancer is worse than they say

is the cancer spreading while I wait?

what can I do to prepare.

i have read the leaflets and googled and everything says this way round to shrink a tumour or to kill of the spread of it, I’ve been told nothing concerning on my MRI it’s not spread to the lymph nodes and I have dcis on my records which doesn’t tally with what I’m reading.

can you offer some clarity? Has anyone else had the treatment this way round? 

mentally I’m not dealing very well with all this and at the moment I’m struggling to function properly, I did mention this to my breast doctor but I’m in the hands of oncology now so I’m completely lost.

thanks

jo

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    Dear Jo, I am sorry to hear your news.

    I have breast cancer too.   The lump is small and  I have been told I have a very good prognosis.  I have still had chemo prior to surgery so I’m not sure there is always a link between concerning disease and neoadjuvant chemo.  I am triple negative though so this may have influenced the decision.

    i have just had an MRI scan after 11 sessions of chemo and it showed “no evidence of active disease” ie no cancer currently showing up so chemo seems to have done a very good job.  So it might well do in your case too. (I still have to have some more chemo, surgery etc though)

    Hope this helps

  • Offline in reply to Hopecalm

    I’m sorry to hear that you also have cancer. Mine is positive for all three tests so it just threw me that chemo before surgery as I’d never heard of it done that way. I’m thrilled to hear that you have no active cancer and I truly hope your treatment keeps it that way. How did you find chemo, what side effects did you experience? I’m so full of questions so sorry. Please keep in touch if you would like. 

  • Offline in reply to Jobieejo

    I had no sickness at all during chemo - they give you lots of meds to counteract sickness. I feel tired but in a manageable way..  I've had hair thinning but no actual hair loss (cold cap seems to have largely worked). So overall chemo has been much easier than I thought 

    However I'm going on to a new chemo regime next week and I've been warned it's likely to be tougher.  They have medication to deal with most side effects so I'm not over concerned at the moment.

    Hope that helps

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