I am new

[Birthday2018]

I'm new here, hello everyone.

I was diagnosed in June this year with Grade 3 ER+, PR+ and HER2 positive 3+ ductal carcinoma. My treatment started in July with chemotherapy for 6-7 sessions, every three weeks then follows with surgery, mastectomy and then medication for 10+ years after.

I am proud of myself up to now as never thought I could deal with any of this. I have some hard times after treatment and it is not always nice but I am managing to cope better than I ever thought.

I have arranged to visit The Haven as feel it could be good for me to treat myself with therapy, a chat, counselling etc to help me along the journey. Any info you can give on your experiences please tell

Thanks Serena

[Lainey66]

Hi there, well done doing as well as you are. It is not a nice place to be. I am triple negative which is a bit of a bummer. I have wrtitten a blig on my experience. Feel free to dip in and hopefully you will get some help/reassurance from it. elainemurphy66.blogspot.com It is a warts and all blog. Links are all on the right dating back to Oct 2015. I wish you all the best for the rest of your treatment and a full recovery. Xxxx Lainey66

[carolinenailsea]

Fabulous that you are doing so well. The Haven sounds perfect. Good luck with your continuing journey. xx

[Haven44]

Hi Serena,

Good for you. I had a very similar diagnosis and treatment plan to you and although the chemotherapy got a bit harder with the second regime of taxol managed to keep on working for the most part - I was lucky enough to be able to work from home if I didn't want to go to the office and live relatively normally once the immediate effects of the chemo treatment had died down - not to belittle what we all go through, as you'll know the side effects aren't pleasant! I am lucky enough to live close to Leeds where they have a Haven and I found them absolutely amazing. They gave ten free treatments so I was able to have some massage, nutritional advice and counselling and as they have so much experience of breast cancer they can answer a whole host of questions and put you in touch with people with similar issues. It's great to be able to speak about things you might not feel able to talk about with family and friends. Anyway, I wish you the very best of luck with everything. I'm nearly 2 years on since diagnosis and so far so good. I have considered going back to the Haven for advice about reconstruction and just to chat things through and your post has inspired me to do so, so thanks for that! Wishing you well. Kate x

[Birthday2018 in reply to Haven44]

Thanks so much for coming back to me. I am currently working after each chemo when I can or as you say work from home. I have booked to go look around at the Haven and you have made me feel even more so that it is a good decision. I thought it would be nice to treat myself throughout this journey as I am sure it will be the hardest thing I will ever have to do. I just want to stay positive, hopefully make some friends who understand what we are going through and be able to talk to people as I do like to talk. Good luck to you too, maybe you should get back in touch at the Haven and see if they can see you to discuss or just talk to someone xx

[pegomh]

Hello Serena, best wishes for you, stay positive and look for the good things. It’s okay to have hard days too. You will get through this!

[Vgrady76]

Hi...i was also diagnosed in June 2018 i had Ductal Carcinoma, Grade 2 Stage 2, ER+ hormone type......well like you are coping quite well considering my rollercoaster of emotions, my only concern for me is my aniexty I had it before my BC but now it's just having a huge impact on my life, I'm a housewife so I don't work and things just run through my mind all day, but like you am proud of myself for not letting it ruin my life....well done to you as well as we all know a cancer diagnosesis is the last thing any of us on here thought we would ever hear...I know how your feeling .xx

[RuthJ]

I had some therapy and a massage at Haven and it was great look after yourself x