Hi, I've recently been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, i've had my first lot of chemo and just want to chat with other people that are going through the same as me, your experiences and thoughts etc.
I hope you didnt find your first session too bad. I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer just before the summer and had my first session of chemo at the beginning of July which touch wood hasnt gone too bad. I have my 4th chemo next Monday when I go over to Docetaxel. Had an appointment with my Oncologist this morning and he is delighted at how things are going.
I am 38 and I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, stage 1, grade 3 in March and had 4 sycles of TC chemo, and two weeks of radiotherapy. The physical side of things went surprisingly easy. After each chemo I felt like I was hungover for few days and things would go back to normal. Radiotherapy treatment went even easier and I did not feel any symptoms. Emotinally though it was very rough. Chemo made me feel weak and hopeless. After chemo I started taking antidepressants sertraline and I felt better. I don't feel like jumping from joy, but things are managable and I feel like everything will be fine (most of the time).
Another issue I had was lack of information. My oncologist was not giving me much info on the type of cancer I had, on my prognosis and etc..I had to find all the info online myself, go back to oncologist and confirm what was correct and what was not. I found out that there are different subtypes of TNBC and each of these subtypes have different prognosis. Mine was Medullary and it is on of the better subtypes. 5 months after my diagnosis I received back my gene tests and I was positive for BRCA1 gene, which meant that my chances of getting ovarian cancer is 40-60%. Ovarian cancer has much worse prognosisi than breast cancer so it looks like I will have to get rid of ovaries, fallopian tubes and have mastecomy in order to minimise further risks. I checked relationship between BRCA1 gene and I was releived to find out that TNBC patients are NOT more likely die if they have BRCA1 gene. Some studies show that TNBC patients with mutated genes have even better prognosis than TNBC patients who do not. Unfortunately, patients with normal breast cancer have much worse prognosis if they also have mutated BRACA1 gene. Another good thing about TNBC compared to normal hormone positive breast cancer is that after initial 5 years after diagnosis, it is extremely unlikely to come back (5%) while regular cancer can come long after the intial diagnosis.
During my chemotherapy I found out that my work will not be prolonging my contract (as I was hoping) and I had to find another job. I called Mcmillian, they checked what kind of benefits I would be entitled to and it was only 600 pounds, so I had to look for another job. Chemo was suppose to effect your ability to think, so I was worried how I will cope with interviews while having "chemo brain", but I did ok and managed to find a job within 3 weeks(with worse pay though, but still better than 600 pounds). Then I had another issue.. I had to be at the oncology hospital every day for my radiotherapy for 2 weeks during my first month at my new job and I was really worried about speaking to my new employer and they were not thrilled by it, but it was ok. I managed to get early appoinmnts at 08:30 am and the treatment itself took around 20 minutes only before starting my job. I was also worried about wearing a wig at work and it was uncomfortable at the begining, but I quickly got used to it. I think people figured out that I was wearing a wig, but nobody said anything. Nobody at work knows I have cancer.
