A big welcome to our forum Gloria!

And I know Newcastle well, nice part of the world and very friendly people - I lived in Durham for a year. 

Thank you for sharing your story. It's great that despite the fact that letrozole has been a challenging drug, the tumour is now nearly half its original size! I hope your appointment goes well on the 4th - let us know what the oncologist says!

I thought you might be interested to know that someone posted here a few months ago who also has invasive ductal carcinoma. You can read her story and feel free to respond to her if you wish as it may help you both to talk to each other and to discuss for example your respective treatments.

Many on this forum are also familiar with breast cancer and it won't be long before they come and say hello!

Best wishes,

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator 

Dear Gloria,

I have just read your post and hope that my reply will help you.

I am now 59 and almost exactly ten years ago was diagnosed with stage three medullary breast cancer.

It had spread to most of the lymph nodes under my arm and the prognosis was not very sunny! Maybe a few years.

I had a lumpectomy, my lymph nodes were removed, six months of very aggressive chemotherapy and seven weeks of daily radiotherapy. The treatment was grim and took most of a year. However, my hair grew back, I slowly recovered my health and now you would never know that I had been ill apart from feeling tired a lot of the time.

I try to eat very healthily and drink little alcohol and I do exercise whenever is I can but I am not a saint! I 

was determined to do my best to get better for my children and my husband. What worked for me was focussing on the end of the treatment and always trying to look forward. There were some really tough times but tomorrow is always another day. I found that believing there was a light at the end of the tunnel helped me to get through the treatment. 

Concentrate  on what helps you and don't worry about other people. Take all the help you can. Sleep when you need to.Your real friends will be there for you. Good luck.