Mom Has Breast Cancer

I am so sorry for this, My father , grandma, and a dear friend had battled cancer and the turn out was not successful, but my boyfriend mother had breast cancer and had both breast removed and is doing great. She lost her hair and was real sick, so just be ready to be your mother's rock and you will do fine. I will pray for the whole family. Good luck

Hi M.-
I don't have advice or websites but I wanted to tell you that I am wishing the best for you and your mom. Good luck to you both.

I am so very sorry to hear that your mother is suffering from this. My mother's breast cancer was so long ago that I can't really remember too much about how the chemo affected her. She's been in remission now for 15 years! I send positive thoughts your way and wishes that your mother beats this! Take care.

-J.

No doubt you are in for a long hard road. Expect the unexpected. We took care of my grandmother while she had cancer. My sister and I took care of my mom while she had cancer and I also had a very good friend that had breast cancer. My friend had to have both breasts removed. It was tough for her, but it was the 3rd time her breast cancer had come back, so she didn't have any other choice. She was in the hospital for 3 days I believe. She did very well after her surgery. I do not know if you are in the Spartanburg area, but if you are and will be in the Cancer Center at Spartanburg Regional, the staff there is WONDERFUL! You will never meet better people. My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family through all of this. It is sure to be a challenge, but it will draw you closer as a family. Good luck!

Hey M.,
I am tuly sadden to hear of your mother's diagnosis. I will pray for her for healing & strength.
I don't have any websites for breast cancer, but I did want to offer encouragement. I am a 7 year survivor of NHL cancer. I am now 32 and live a full healthy life. The treatments are rough. I had 7 rounds of chemo, 5 weeks of radiation and 5 days of high dose chemo with a stem cell transplant. Those were hard times, but with the strength of the Lord and my family, I made it. You must draw near to you mom and help pull her through the hard times when she may want to give up. She will be nauseated, weak, and just plain listless. Try to get her to eat, give her boost drinks, feed her anything she'll eat even if it is cake for 3 days. Understand if she wants to be alone, but just remind her you are just a phone call away. If she has radiation, that will be every day. She'll go everyday to the dr's office run in and get about 5 minutes of radiation. She may have to do 8 weeks or so. That may burn her skin, but her dr will address any of those concerns. Cancer doctors have a passion for their patients. Bring up any of your concerns with them & never hesitate to let them know of the smallest things. Also the chemo will probably drop her white count. If it gets too low (they will do blodd work routinely) then she can't eat fresh fruits/veg, eat from a buffet and other things like that due to the risk of infection. Try to keep her from catching colds.

That is about all of my advice, but remeber that this too shall pass. This is just a test for a testimony. All of our strength if from the Lord.

Sincerely,
V.

I have copy & pasted a letter I wrote for Journey of Hope. I hope you read it and be encouraged by it. Please keep us posted on your mother's journey to survivorship.

Journey of Hope

As an active young woman (25 years old), I never would have imagined myself dealing with the big “C” word. Of course that would never happen to me, I thought. I am young, healthy and full of life. But what are these strange symptoms I am having? There is a small lump on my collar bone (5/00). We have done a ct scan (9/00), and there is nothing. Then a few months later I notice some blue veins on my chest (10/00), hmmm must have been there all along. Oh now a few months later, I notice my eye is suddenly drooping (11/00). The eye doctor said it must have always been that way. Geese, I have worn glasses since the age of six, you’d think I would have noticed this. Oh ok the doctors know what they are doing. Next I have extremely severe chest pains (11/00), but that resolves in about 2 hours. I never even left work or my desk at work. Lastly, my pinky and wring fingers are always numb, but we have checked everything out so it must just be me. After all, I have seen the doctor for my lump, another one for a second opinion on the lump, another one for my eye, and a ct scan.

Now finally I have the constant nagging in my spirit that something just isn’t right (1/01). I go to an ER doctor who upon initial examination notices that when I raise my arm over my head, there is no pulse in my wrist. My lab work turns out fine though. No levels raised or lowered. JUST FINE. Thank the Lord for this doctor who said to me, “we will leave no stone unturned.” He ordered another CT (from same place). Then I get that dreaded call at work. There is something on my neck and there is something on my lung. WHAT!!!!!!! He arranged for me to see a specialist and a surgeon. 01/25/01 I pick up my CT scans, and go to the specialist.

There I sat on that exam table, all but sweating. I will never forget this day. The doc came in and sat down right in front of me. Yes me who is healthy and 25. Then he said, these words…………”you have cancer”. We are arranging a bed for you at MUSC; you have to be admitted today because you don’t have long. My heart sank. My boyfriend (now husband) sat in the waiting room. I sit down beside him, and said with a crackling in my voice, this simple word “cancer”. He embraced me. Sitting there waiting for a bed at MUSC made minutes seem like days. I just had to get out of this building. I could not sit there and wait. This lady (angel) passing through the waiting room and touched my arm and said the Lord was with me. I remember this day like no other, even 6+ years later. We left before I went crazy in that room and the doctor’s office was to call us with the details.

At this point, I had not even told my father or three sisters that I was having any problems to begin with. I had a lot of phone calls to make and had to face my precious father that loved me dearly. How could I, my fathers’ heart and soul, tell him that word that would grieve him tremendously? He stood there so strong, so brave he knew there was something really wrong. Then, I spoke that word again. Then the phone calls to my 3 big sisters. Now by this time my room is ready and we all head to MUSC.

In the following weeks there were barrages of tests, biopsies, surgical biopsies etc. Each procedure was zapping the life right out of me. Every knock on that hospital door seemed to me that it was going to be my “sentence”. Finally, after three weeks in the hospital and 2 weeks at home, they had narrowed my type of cancer down to one of two. The treatment would be the same for each, so the specific type was not as important as starting treatment. They said it was Non Hodgkins Lymphoma Large B Cell.

I finally got a grip on myself and this supposed “sentence” turned into my fight to survive. I drew closer than ever to the Lord and he gave me a peace that did surpass ALL understanding. Fear had lost its grip on me. That ugly word, cancer that I hate to this day, was now just a word, and this was just a journey of growing spiritually and leaning on the Lord more than ever. This next year and a half was just a learning experience and gave me a testimony to share. There is no testimony without a test.

March 2001, I began my chemo treatment. I had cut my waist length hair short since I knew that I would loose my hair. It took probably about 2 weeks to start. Everyday was torture. When I awoke in the mornings, the first thing I would do is jump up and peek at my pillow to see if it had fallen out. Finally oh finally it just fell out in the shower on the day of my father’s funeral. Yes, now another test in the middle of this. Some say, just when I need my daddy the most. No, I needed him everyday of my 25 years just as much. Now I wanted to give up. I didn’t want to be without him. Then the realization hit me of how much he wanted me to be healed, that realization reminded me that my Lord and Savior wanted me healed even more.

My treatments of CHOP/Rituxan were every three weeks for eight treatments, total. Astonishingly, I only felt bad for that day and maybe the next. The Lord was with me every step of the way. In August of 2001, we began harvesting my stem cells. The stem cells where for transplantation after high dose chemotherapy. My body was not producing enough stem cells, so they gave a month to recover and we tried again. Once again, only a minuscule amount they were able to retrieve. However, we did have the bare minimum to go through with the high dose chemo and then the transplant. Our date was set. I was admitted to the hospital and did 5 days of this high dose chemotherapy. Then once my immune system hit rock bottom they gave my cells back. Within 3 weeks of the start of high dose chemo I was home! God is good! They stated that they had never had someone go home so fast. Over the next 2 months I planned my wedding and got married. 3 months following the marriage, I did 5 weeks of radiation.

Now, I am just over 5 years (31 years old) from end of treatment and doing great! Due to the toll the chemo took on my ovaries, I was unable to have children. Now, praise the Lord, I have beautiful twin boys through an egg donor and IVF. I carried these babies myself. They are truly a miracle. They were born 3 1/2 years after the end of my treatment. Now the after having them, the Lord has healed my ovaries, so that now I can have biological children. God is good! No doctor would have ever thought that my ovarian function would return, but they have. The doctors didn’t expect me to survive, but I DID.

My quality of life now is great! I give the Lord the glory for my awesome recovery and know that he wants to do the same for every cancer patient, as well as all of his children, no matter what the illness.

Cancer tried to take my life over, but the power of the Almighty is much more powerful. If you are newly diagnosed, I encourage you to stand strong and fight, fight, fight! There will be many hard days, but there will be even more wonderful ones in the years to come. I would encourage people to seek support from family, friends, churches, and in your own relationship with our Creator.

I am so thankful to have this opportunity to share with you, my journey of hope.

Blessings,

V.

Hi M.. First of all let me say that I hate to hear that your mom has to face that surgery and the dreaded word--"Cancer." I went through a masectomy and the checmo and radiation with my Mom. It is a lot to deal with. The chemo really does make people nauseated. It drains your body-when my mom had to go through it, she was so tired on her Chemo days and the day after. She went on Procritt shots to help bost her energy. She had drains in place after surgery for about two weeks. They had to be stripped, emptied and measured about twice a day. They wil show you how to do all of that. The only and best thing that I really know to say is to stay as strong as you can. She will look to you for strength and depend on you when she is low. You can email me at ____@____.com anytime and I will try my best to answer all of your questions. I will even give you my phone number if you need to call and talk to relieve your mind. It will be hard to go through, but if you and your Mom try to keep as positive as you can..you will get through it together.

I hope that your Mom does great with the surgery and I will keep here in my thoughts and prayers. Take Care.

-T. C.

Hi, I am a 31 year survivor of breast cancer. I wish I had someone who could have taken care of me.

Just be there for her and don't be afraid to talk about her cancer if she wants to. I was a blabbermouth but people didn't know how to respond. Let her know that not everyone will know she dosn't have a breast unless she tells. She is loved for who she is and not for her breast.

Things are better now then when I had cancer but the reaction is the same. She dosn't have to make you feel better, you are there for her.

I'm sorry to hear about your mother, I would suggest calling the local Amercian cancer society. they might have some resources on how to cope with breast cancer. I wish your mom the best in her recovery.

Facts about Breast Cancer
www.getBCfacts.com Sign up for Up-to-Date Info about

Breast Cancer Diagnosis & Treatment
Breast Cancer
www.Seek-Your-Options.com Find a Treatment Option & Resources for Metastatic Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer Resource
www.FightTheCancer.com Learn about Breast Cancer Tumors & Review Chemotherapy Options

May god be by your side in sickness and in health!
A. K.