Hello so sorry about your diagnosis, my story is very very similar just a little ahead of you, I’m 35 with stage 1, grade 3 hormone positive her2 negative breast cancer (also no family history). I have 2 young sons, 3 years and 18 months. I was diagnosed in February and have had my lumpectomy and now 2 out of 8 rounds of chemo. 
you sound quite level headed and like you are coping fairly well so well done, I was an ABSOLUTE mess for the first 6 weeks, literally could not function. The first part is definitely the hardest it does get a bit easier once you start treatment and have a plan. 
I have been cold capping and still have my hair for now but it has started shedding quite a bit, I can keep you posted on how it goes if that’s something you are thinking about? 

I’d love to stay in touch as there are so few women in their 30s going through this. If you have any questions please ask, I’d be happy to try answer them. Take care xx

Hi Em, I’m so sorry for your diagnosis. It seems mad to be that this can just randomly happen to such young women - even after I found my lump it genuinely didn’t occur to me that it would be cancer. Having said that I feel like I have managed to get my head round it & have had lots of conversations with family and friends. I’m not sure if I’m kidding myself though & will fall apart at some point! 
How was your surgery? It seems like if it’s HER2 negative they do the surgery first whereas I’ll be going for chemo first. Do you have a PICC line? How has that been? Really interested in cold capping - how have you found it? I really hate the cold so I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it but I really want to.

How are you feeling in yourself and are you managing to take care of your boys? I’m guessing they are too young to understand much about what is going on? 
I would love to stay in touch, even though I have wonderful friends I just know it’s going to be so valuable to talk to people who are going through the same thing, a bit like having an antenatal group when you’re having a baby, although I wanted to be in that club!

Best of luck and take care, Hannah x

Hi Em, I’m so sorry for your diagnosis. It seems mad to be that this can just randomly happen to such young women - even after I found my lump it genuinely didn’t occur to me that it would be cancer. Having said that I feel like I have managed to get my head round it & have had lots of conversations with family and friends. I’m not sure if I’m kidding myself though & will fall apart at some point! 
How was your surgery? It seems like if it’s HER2 negative they do the surgery first whereas I’ll be going for chemo first. Do you have a PICC line? How has that been? Really interested in cold capping - how have you found it? I really hate the cold so I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it but I really want to.

How are you feeling in yourself and are you managing to take care of your boys? I’m guessing they are too young to understand much about what is going on? 
I would love to stay in touch, even though I have wonderful friends I just know it’s going to be so valuable to talk to people who are going through the same thing, a bit like having an antenatal group when you’re having a baby, although I wanted to be in that club!

Best of luck and take care, Hannah x

Surgery was totally fine for me, it was a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy. Recovery was pretty straight forward, minimal pain and scarring. I wasn’t offered a picc line they said they aim to just do a cannula each time unless there are issues and I’ve been ok so far. I’ve not found chemo too bad so far either just tiredness has been my main symptom. I thought I would hate wearing the cold cap but it’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be, I find it quite bearable. However I would say I start to get a headache towards the end and the chemo I’m on at the moment, EC, only takes about an hour plus you wear the cold cap for half and hour before and an hour and a half after so about 3 hours total, my final 4 treatments will be paclitaxel which I think takes like 3 hours to go in so will be like 5 hours total, I think that could be tough. I will let u know how that goes. I definitely recommend giving the cold cap a go as you have nothing to lose, if you can’t stand it or you lose too much hair then you can just quit but you could be one of the lucky ones it works for. At the very least it’s meant I have kept my hair an extra week (I believe you would normally loose it all between 2 and 3 weeks after the first chemo and I’m at nearly 4  weeks with a full head of hair). Don’t get me wrong it’s shedding quite a lot but no bald patches so far just a bit thinner. I will keep you posted on the shedding. I do also have a wig that was free on the nhs (I’m in Scotland and you get a prescription for free synthetic wig here) and I also got some headwear so I’m prepared for more or complete hair loss. 
It’s been tough with the boys to be honest because they are a handful - 2 very energetic boys! So the tiredness makes it challenging, I’ve got them in another day at nursery so they’ll be in nursery 4 days instead of 3 so I’ll only have 1 day on my own with them. My youngest is definitely too young to know what’s going on and my 3 year old doesn’t really know anything so far as it’s not impacted him much yet, I think we’ll only need to explain to him if I did lose all my hair as this would probably scare him. Have you said anything to your daughter yet? 
xx

Hi Em, just checking in to see how you are getting on? How’s the chemo going? Are you still having the EC? How is your hair? Hope you are managing ok xxx

Hi I’m not too bad thanks, I have my 4th treatment which is the final EC this afternoon. Hair is still hanging on but shedding a lot, I really hope the shedding slows when I move to paclitaxel - fingers crossed!
How are you getting on? Have you met with your oncologist yet or got a date to start treatment? 
xx