Hi Claire,

Of course this is something you can survive!! Breast cancer, caught early, like ours, means we have a survival rate of in the 90%'s!! One of the worse case sceneries is that they find some cancer cells in your lymph nodes but then they will offer you chemo, which, with the radiotherapy and tamoxifen will ensure that the cancer is eradicated.  Please don't think that this is going to kill you!! Breast cancer nowadays is one of the most treatable and has the highest survival rates. I work in palliative care and they say that breast cancer is classed more as a chronic illness these days as survival is so high!! It never even crossed my mind that I wouldn't survive. I knew that I would be fine.  Like I said, I was lucky to avoid chemo but did have radiotherapy which apart from making me tired, wasn't hard. I worked all through my cancer and the treatment. I have 3 boys, aged 21,19 and 15. We did tell them after my diagnosis but they are older than your 5 yr old. I told them I would be fine and once they saw that I wasn't any different to normal, they soon became a lot less worried. I would say you don't really need to say anything until necessary and even then, dampen it down. You need to focus and believe that you are going to be absolutely fine!! XX 

Thank you ️ This is so good to read. I am overthinking everything and scared. But I hope you are right. Thank you it's all just so new and still a shock. I am meeting a Macmillan nurse tomorrow and just waiting in a date for the op. Once that bits done I'll be able to cope with whatever the next step may be. Did you make any diet changes or anything lifestyle wise that you recommend? 

It definitely helps having someone who has been in a similar position to talk to, friends and family just try their best and say what they think is right. I've gone off everything and thought all I should eat is veg and have lots of healthy supplements, that probably hasn't helped how I'm feeling. I've got an excersise class tomorrow with my baby so I'll go to that and carry on with some other excersise classes too. It helps the mind. X

I've just seen the Macmillan nurse for the first time and actually feel worse. She fell covered my results again and told me the underarm ultrasound wasn't reliable so they may find cancer has spread. Also talked about genetic testing as my mum had ovarian cancer at 45. I feel way less positive after the meeting, actually thought I was going in for pre op tests rather than a recap of everything plus some extra risks

Well I'm here for you anytime xx

Thank you, so if my Senital nodes are positive could this mean it has spread through my body? 

No, not necessarily. They will take out between 2 and 3 sentinel nodes to see if they have any cancer cells in them.  If they find a small amount of cancer cells, which was what happened in my case, it is known as micro metastises. They won't worry about that. If they find a lot of cancer cells in the sentinel nodes, they will take out your anxillery nodes, which are further along, under your arm.  It may be that your anxillery nodes only have micro metastises but they will more than likely offer you chemo as this does mean that it has start to spread but chances are they have caught it early. Your lump is still quite small so that is a good thing. Try not to worry too much!! Stress won't help, so try and stay calm. Xx

Thank you, it's so hard not knowing and waiting. Did you have an ultrasound on your underarm that showed anything or was it at lumpectomy they found the micro metastasis? X

I completely get that. The waiting for all the appointments /procedures really is the hardest. The ultrasound didn't pick up anything under my arm. They tested 3 of my sentenol nodes and 2 were clear and 1 had micro metastises, but that meant I didn't need my anxillery nodes removed. Xx