having cancer three times

scarlette3
scarlette3 Member Posts: 4
edited March 2014 in Rare and Other Cancers #1
Hello my name is Kathleen and I have had cancer twice before, I now have breast cancer,
so that is three times. Why? I don't know, it seems to come back every seven years.
The first time Ihad cancer, it was a carcinoma on my appendix in the 1990's, very rare,
then again in 2003, I had small bowel cancer, also very rare, for two years,I was told
it was a hernia, which was BS, kept getting sicker and I knew something was wrong. I had no insurance at the time, so no one would touch me, I finally found a dr. at robert wood
hospital her in new jersey and te cancer center was right across the street. Well this
Dr. was a miracle to me,he did not care whether I had insurance or not, all he cared about
was geting me better. Well he did the whipple procedure on me, which is very difficult,
I wastold I was going to die, but i had faith I would not, well of course I am here,
and that doctor saved my life, but he says, just gave you more time. regardless he was
a god send. Now I find out i have breast cancer, which I found out last week, I also
knew something was wrong, I found this big lump in my breast, but it is near my sterum
and I went for my mammagram last week and as and biopsy an of course its cancer. I was
calm, believe it not. I guess because I have been there before. Now today I am going to
see the surgeon, to find out what is going to happpen and when. The dr. that did the
bioposy told me that th lump had to be there since my last mammo last year. I am not
going to say I am not scared, because I am. I have always had a good attitude about things
I alwas think positive. I am a very outgoing person. I guess I hate to go through chemo
and radition again and I am also afraid that tey will hae to take my brest off. that
scares me. What I don't understand is why three times, if god is trying me to see how strong I am, I alredy passed the test. On top of all of this, I also have Lupus and RA.
That I have been handling very well. i know I will get through this too. I know I hould
not ask why, but if anyone has any reason why,please write back.

Comments

  • walterta
    walterta Member Posts: 31
    #2
    Not Knowing
    Well God is certainly taking good care of you, that is why you are so strong and I admire that. That is the hardest part, the not knowing why things happen like this. I am going through my second occurance of appendix cancer, it happened right about at the 3 year mark for me. It is hard having a rare cancer, and knowing you did nothing to deserve this. I look at it as God has plans for me, maybe this is happening so that I can reach out and help others. I know it is hard but you have to look at the positive and know it is okay to have bad days, no one expects you to be positive 100%of the time. We are only human, just stay strong and know that God is there for you and so are all of us on this site. Lots of prayers and love!

    Tausha
  • sitchy57
    sitchy57 Member Posts: 27
    #3
    walterta said:

    Not Knowing
    Well God is certainly taking good care of you, that is why you are so strong and I admire that. That is the hardest part, the not knowing why things happen like this. I am going through my second occurance of appendix cancer, it happened right about at the 3 year mark for me. It is hard having a rare cancer, and knowing you did nothing to deserve this. I look at it as God has plans for me, maybe this is happening so that I can reach out and help others. I know it is hard but you have to look at the positive and know it is okay to have bad days, no one expects you to be positive 100%of the time. We are only human, just stay strong and know that God is there for you and so are all of us on this site. Lots of prayers and love!

    Tausha

    Apppendix cancer
    Hi Waltera, I also was diag. with rare appendix cancer, actually 2 kinds in the appendix. That was discovered when I had a hyst. to remove my uterus with uterine cancer and ovary with ovarian cancer. Yes as it turned out I had 3 different primary cancers. None of them had mets. to the other. Most people will not believe me that I had 3 primary cancers that were all caught in stage 1 but different grades. I would be interested to here about your 2 accurances of appendix cancer. Do you have the name of the cancer. I know that one of my appendix cancers were goblet cell carcinoid.Where did your 2nd accurance happen. My thoughts and prayers are with you, Sharon
  • Survivor73
    Survivor73 Member Posts: 135
    #4
    sitchy57 said:

    Apppendix cancer
    Hi Waltera, I also was diag. with rare appendix cancer, actually 2 kinds in the appendix. That was discovered when I had a hyst. to remove my uterus with uterine cancer and ovary with ovarian cancer. Yes as it turned out I had 3 different primary cancers. None of them had mets. to the other. Most people will not believe me that I had 3 primary cancers that were all caught in stage 1 but different grades. I would be interested to here about your 2 accurances of appendix cancer. Do you have the name of the cancer. I know that one of my appendix cancers were goblet cell carcinoid.Where did your 2nd accurance happen. My thoughts and prayers are with you, Sharon

    dealing with 2 cancers at the same time
    Hi There. I totally know what you mean when you say why me...

    I was diag with tyroid cancer in 2009, had my thyroid out that year.

    I have just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I was told 2 days prior to my lumpectomy surgery that my thyroid cancer is likely back.

    So I had the lumpectomy prior to being confirmed with breast cancer - the biopsy was only suspicious...because of that, they didn't look at my lymph nodes.
    I just got the date for the surgery to test my lymph nodes & don't you know it, it's the same day as my lymph node biopsy for the thyroid reoccurence.

    So, which one comes first?? Do I throw the dice and decide which one is worse?

    I totally don't get the why's...how can we get more than one cancer...isn't one enough??

    Sorry, can't answer your question, only ask the same...

    Lets hope we can kick this one the same as the rest...take care

    Hugs to you. :)
  • survivor9yrs
    survivor9yrs Member Posts: 57
    #5
    cancer 3 times..enough...
    i am so sorry to hear of this. once, is more than enough... i have had it twice... 10 yrs. ago, i had BC.. early stage 1.. i had lumpectomy and rad.. 8 1/2 yrs. later i had a angiosarcoma on my breast. caused by the rad... so ask your dr. about this cancer. it's rare, but it is happening more and more with breast conservation.. it is a much nastier cancer than BC.
    good luck
    keep your great spirit
    survivor9yrs
  • Gypsy1021
    Gypsy1021 Member Posts: 5
    #6
    Cancer 3 times in 3 years!
    Third time's chart.. right? Cervical cancer in 2008, breast cancer 2010, skin cancer 2011. But I've been lucky.. all 3 were caught early and had not mestatized.

    The treatments were brutal, but the first cancer was pretty easy because most of the decisions were already made for me. As I'd already had a hysterectomy years ago, surgery was not an option, so the only treatment offered was radiation. All I had to do was decide whether or not to have it and show up every day - they did all the work.

    Breast cancer, however, is a whole different animal, and I was much more involved in all the decision-making. It took me days to decide between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy. After much soul-searching and discussions with friends, family and my husband, I chose a mastectomy. When the pathology report came back, I realized that my decision was the right one because I not only had invasive ductal carcinoma, there was also a sneaky carcinoma-in-situ in another location. No chemo or radiation, but I have to take Anastrozole for the next 5 years.

    Two weeks ago I had an appointment with a dermatologist to look at a place on my forearm that wouldn't heal and was growing slowly larger..he dug very deep into my arm and said that it could either be a planter wart or cancer. The path report indicated that it was squamous cell carcinoma, but that he had excised the whole thing, including enough of a clean margin that I do not have to have any further treatment.

    I have major side effects from the radiation treatments, and the cancer med, but I am currently cancer-free!
  • Gypsy1021
    Gypsy1021 Member Posts: 5
    #7
    Gypsy1021 said:

    Cancer 3 times in 3 years!
    Third time's chart.. right? Cervical cancer in 2008, breast cancer 2010, skin cancer 2011. But I've been lucky.. all 3 were caught early and had not mestatized.

    The treatments were brutal, but the first cancer was pretty easy because most of the decisions were already made for me. As I'd already had a hysterectomy years ago, surgery was not an option, so the only treatment offered was radiation. All I had to do was decide whether or not to have it and show up every day - they did all the work.

    Breast cancer, however, is a whole different animal, and I was much more involved in all the decision-making. It took me days to decide between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy. After much soul-searching and discussions with friends, family and my husband, I chose a mastectomy. When the pathology report came back, I realized that my decision was the right one because I not only had invasive ductal carcinoma, there was also a sneaky carcinoma-in-situ in another location. No chemo or radiation, but I have to take Anastrozole for the next 5 years.

    Two weeks ago I had an appointment with a dermatologist to look at a place on my forearm that wouldn't heal and was growing slowly larger..he dug very deep into my arm and said that it could either be a planter wart or cancer. The path report indicated that it was squamous cell carcinoma, but that he had excised the whole thing, including enough of a clean margin that I do not have to have any further treatment.

    I have major side effects from the radiation treatments, and the cancer med, but I am currently cancer-free!

    Make that...
    Make that third time's charm! lol

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