Things I didn't know last January!
Well, wasn't that one hell of a quick year!!
I am coming down from a day of a huge high after getting my results of MRI/ultrasound/mammogram which were all good and made me grateful that surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and now Herceptin all did a great job on getting rid of cancer - so far, so good!
I knew nothing about breast cancer last year only negative things:- it was something to fear and it wrecked lives. It is still something I wouldn't like to keep around like a pet puppy, but I didn't know how successfully it can be eradicated when caught in time, and with the right care and treatment. It certainly wrecks lives but I've been so lucky that I am blessed with the amount of love and support that I have been shown and continue to receive that it can make you appreciate what you have.
I still have a few doses of Herceptin to go through, so it's very reassuring to know that I will be cossetted in the bosom of the oncology team and if I think there is a problem, the Fairy Godnurses and doctors will look into it immediately; but I came away today feeling even happier to know that I will get seen twice a year for five years. I will not be cast off into the wildnerness and have a great team that genuinely care about my health and me.
I have learnt there is so much more to breast cancer than the cancer; it has tested my time and patience with family and friends, it has tested my patience with myself and made me learn to lean on these people, not to be afraid to talk, and get up of my arse and not let it change who I am, despite what I look like!
I know it's not the same for everyone, and that unfortunately breast cancer isn't always as lenient as it has been to me so far but if nothing else, I hope that other women (and men!) who do find themselves in the mire of being newly diagnosed with breast cancer learn that it's not all doom and maybe learn that if you get a second chance, then take it with both hands and run with it!
Comments
Hi encee
So nice to be reading something positive I am in a similar situation but will not have test to find out how everything had gone until May am still having herceptin which apart from vein hunting isn't too bad! I was doing ok for a while but am now getting very nervous as time approaches for tests. In the last year I have been kept so busy between hospital visits and family and friends. Now everyone seems to think its all over and I am finding that strange.
I hope your life continues to improve and you get many happy and healthy years with your children.
God bless xxx
Ladies,
Delighted to hear you all doing so well.
I am further out, over three years since diagnosis, and life is mostly back to a new normal.
I was at hairdressers yesterday getting a lovely bob style cut. It got me thinking to the time I had no hair and then really short hair and I thought it would never grow back....but it has and although I don't do it often enough, I just love treating myself to a good hair cut.
Lindylu
Hi.
Well well done. Let life begin! It is some feeling to come to the end. Good luck with the rest of the treatment.
Sunflower
Hi
Lindylu I think reading about your visit to the hairdresser has given me theist hope I have had in ages. My hair (or lack of) is what is bothering the most now. It didn't bother me too much loosing it bit it does now.
It's really nice to read about ladies who are finished their treatments. Thanks for sharing.
Take care x
Thanks everyone for those lovely messages, it means a great deal to have your support.
I can only hope that I can give back to this forum what I have gotten from it over the last year; indeed I know that I'm not done with dealing with cancer but it no longer feels like the biggest thing in my life anymore! And I can only thank God for the great advances that have come about in treating cancer over the last few years and hope that it continues.
X
Hi Encee sleep deprived so what better to do than scroll through old forums.
I love reading your posts you are always so positive and that was a great one. Lovely to read from somone getting out the other side.
Onwards and UPwards!!!
Dee xcx
Haha deefed your gas but glad you resurrected this forum, I feel the very same as encee just lucky and privileged to have been under such nurses and doctors who are guardian angels and I love them all xxx
Ah bless... I didn't keep a diary during the time I was being treated but looking back at this post that you ressurected has giving me a warm fuzzy feeling.
And heading into another year since that posting, I have had such a year full of loads and loads of highs, one or two lows and feel like it was some sort of hazy dream really!
And to you Deefed & WWL, you have made such lovely contributions yourselves - upbeat in the main, along with such kindness and gentleness toward others. It's wonderful to see people like you here x
Ah thanks I love the people on here it's helped me so much and I'm glad I found it. I've been keeping a diary but don't know if ill be good at keeping it ow that chemo is over and do I really want to go back and read it as it contains all the 'feeling bad today' 'not feeling good today' etc etc. yes I feel a better person and feel I can bring some good out of this situation. I can barely remember when I had hair and have got used to putting on my bandana in the morning and my hat when going out., but I'm looking forward to my hair coming back over the next months.
Encee do you feel you are enjoying life more and appreciating things better? Suppose we will never be the same people we were and maybe hats a good thing
We'll all be a band of harlots after getting out through this - throwing cautionto the wind and flashing our new boobs in public 
Yes I'll be ringing playboy magazine!! If Rosanna can do it ?
I'd say I'd be lucky to make Page 23 of the local paper, let alone page 3 of the tabloids or Hugh Heffners rag
I remember promising myself during treatment, that when everything was done and dusted then I was just going to go out there and enjoy everything. And of course.... we go back to (the new) normal.
Being in treatment probably allowed me more time to do "nice" things and also I let people facilitate some of the "nice" things like having coffee mornings or lunch dates. I stopped working for nearly 16 months so I had more time to rest and do housework at an easier pace.
Now I'm back to work in a different job and different location than when I went out on treatment. I was meant to go back to less hours but in fact I'm doing more hours now than I did before. Also, the bills have to be paid, the dinners have to be cooked, the laundry has to be done and while my lovely husband does loads for me, he simply can't do everything either. And while I have delegated the simpler jobs like vaccuming and dusting and cleaning the bathrooms to my children, there is only so much they can do too without it taking over their childhood. So I guess I have to learn to pace myself on a new plateau.
However, I have done loads of things that I wouldn't have done before but these things only came about as a result of being diagnosed - TV, radio, local paper, national paper have all featured me in some shape or form.
And yes, I love looking at the sunrise in the morning and know that I have another healthy day ahead of me, and I look at the moon and the stars at night and thank God for giving me the chance to have happiness in my life.
And I'm off now to do "normal" things like get the children from school before they start walking home!!
Hi Encee
Congrats on your news today,delighted for you.Also congrats on getting through the year.So nice to read your post,its so true as you say when you get second chance grab it!!!!If having breast cancer has given me anything its confidence in myself i never thought i had.I too am 39 with 3 children.I wasn't and amn't going to let this beat me,i will live my life as full as i can,BC has taken enough!!!!
Its lovely to read of your journey and positive news today and again am so delighted for you.I look forward to the day i can post the same news.Please keep us posted.
xxx Have a lovely weekend