CrazyBlessed1's Journey with Breast Cancer

Knew as soon as I felt the lump what it was. Turned out it was in both breasts and lymph nodes, and the mammogram missed the bigger tumor.

Chemo wasn't as bad as I expected but it was no picnic. I worked through most of it taking off just the third day when I felt the worst. Hated the constant metalic taste. Only got sick once when the dog threw up!

This wasn't optional in my mind. Didn't have a lot to lose anyway and I wanted to live.

Radiation itself was not painful but having it right after my surgery proved to be hard. The first treatment for me was unbearable to keep my arms over my head that long. They had to stop and come back later - on drugs! After the first one it was fine and I came to love my team. After 6 weeks of 5 days a week it was hard to leave them behind. That sounds crazy but there is a certain comfort in the treatement process that leaves you hanging out there on your own when you're done.

5 years of Arimidex. In the beginning made me feel like I was 90 but that passed. After that the affects were extreme dryness and thinning hair. Of course, some of that would have come with menapause on its own so not sure how much of that is really the Arimidex.

Made it past the 5 year mark. I was a little surprised though that they didn't do any kind of scan to ensure I was really cancer free at 5 years. I guess they just go by you're being symptom free. My onc said they don't scan any more because they found the scans weren't changing survival rates. Hmmm...I don't know.

After 6 years I have gone from survivor back to patient. I was having pain in my right hip and leg for 3 months and after a flurry of scans found that the cancer was in my acetabulum (cup part of the hip). never occurred to me that this pain might be cancer. They don't tell you to watch out for things like that for fear of causing you to be paranoid about everything. However, not sure they shouldn't go a little further in saying "if you have symptoms that don't go away quickly..."

Starting radiation next week.