New to the boards, DX at 40 years old in December 2008, chemo DONE, ready to get strong and healthy

RTR22

I have been reading a lot of your inspiring stories throughout my journey since December. Thank you all for sharing!

I was diagnosed right before Christmas in 2008 - triple negative, 3 nodes positive. Bilateral mastectomy with tissue expanders. I will have implant surgery in the fall after I enjoy my summer!

I have been married for 15 years and have 2 little boys, 3 years old and 20 months old. The hardest part of every day is finding a way to deal with the fact that I am may not be here to raise my boys. Although, it will continue to be my biggest kick in the butt every day to take care of myself.

I just finished chemo on Thursday, dose dense, 4 treatments of AC every 2 weeks followed by 4 treatments of Taxol every 2 weeks. I feel very fortunate that my side effects were not that bad. Yeah, I lost my hair, but the nauseau, mouth sores, bone pain, sleeplessness, etc. were all well managed by my doctor. If there is one piece of advice I could offer to someone going through this, is to call your doctor IMMEDIATELY upon any side effect - there are many good drugs out there to help you manage through.

So, now I am going to give myself a week or 2 to rest and manage through the side effects of this last cycle. Then, my focus will be to get as strong and healthy as I possibly can!

I would appreciate any websites you may have found that focus on exercising and eating healthy after breast cancer.

I say a prayer for all of you!

CR1954

Welcome RTR.......
Welcome to the board, although I'm sorry for your dx.

Yay to you for finishing chemo! A very big deal!

Yep, those kiddos are certainly incentive to try & do the right things for yourself. My two grandkids were what I focused on all through my treatments. It worked! Every time I felt like saying enough is enough, I thought about them. And I knew that I would do anything to be here for them.

I don't know of any websites, but I'm sure that others here will have some suggestions.

Hugs,
CR

Akiss4me

Welcome....
so glad you found us I am new to the site as well and can tell you this has become my life line. You definitly came to the right place.
I am meeting "again" with my surgeon tomorrow to decide on lumpectomy or masectomy (bi) so that gives you an idea where I am at on my journey. Been through LOTS of testing, biopsy, etc. Now I will make my descision and move forward....
Glad you brought up this topic because I would like to know too. I am 47, I have never eaten right (except once a day 'cause husband does all the cooking & he eats very healthy), I never exercise, I smoked for 35 years (just quit 2 weeks ago & doing fine without them!), and drank like a fish in my younger years!! None of these bad habits ever effected the way I felt or my looks (I have often been mistaken for my daughters sister!).
Now I have this to face and have decided it is time to take care of me. To put 100% into getting me healthy all the way around.
The quitting smoking was a no brainer, but what now?
I will be following your post to see what others have to say....again, welcome and come back often Pammy

tasha_111

Akiss4me said:

Welcome....
so glad you found us I am new to the site as well and can tell you this has become my life line. You definitly came to the right place.
I am meeting "again" with my surgeon tomorrow to decide on lumpectomy or masectomy (bi) so that gives you an idea where I am at on my journey. Been through LOTS of testing, biopsy, etc. Now I will make my descision and move forward....
Glad you brought up this topic because I would like to know too. I am 47, I have never eaten right (except once a day 'cause husband does all the cooking & he eats very healthy), I never exercise, I smoked for 35 years (just quit 2 weeks ago & doing fine without them!), and drank like a fish in my younger years!! None of these bad habits ever effected the way I felt or my looks (I have often been mistaken for my daughters sister!).
Now I have this to face and have decided it is time to take care of me. To put 100% into getting me healthy all the way around.
The quitting smoking was a no brainer, but what now?
I will be following your post to see what others have to say....again, welcome and come back often Pammy

RTR
Hi and welcome. Glad you stumbled upon us. Congrats on completing the worst of it, well done. I don't know of any websites that would be of use to you. I just wanted to say Hi. Jxxxxxx

cats_toy

Welcome RTR22

Sounds like you managed the chemo pretty well, so you will manage the rest of your life the same I am sure. I had the same rounds of chemo as you, but since I had a lumpectomy, I also did 7 weeks of regular radiation and one week of boosters. You sound like a very strong determined person (as we all here are), so believe the best!
Sorry I have no websites to share except this one with it's amazing group of people who will give any advise they are able to help with your questions!
Cat

ladybug22

sorry you had to come here
sorry you had to come here but there are lots of great people on here. good health is on the way

Christmas Girl

Welcome, RTR22!
Glad the board has been helpful for you. While also sorry for the reason you're here. Heartfelt congratulations for completion of your chemo! Live for today, and look forward to the future. Those two young sons of yours will be your hopeful inspiration, I'm sure. My simple advice regarding exercise is to start slowly, do what is tolerable without taxing yourself. Gradually build up your stamina. Rest when you feel the need. Many BC survivors like yoga or pilates. A really good diet "after BC" - as you put it - probably depends at least a bit on the specifics of your diagnosis, particularly if you're interested in what's best for reducing risk of recurrence.

This site - the American Cancer Society, cancer.org - beyond the CSN/BC board may be a good start for you. Try the search bar from the "home" page.

Best wishes to you.

Kind regards, Susan

Kat11

Akiss4me said:

Welcome....
so glad you found us I am new to the site as well and can tell you this has become my life line. You definitly came to the right place.
I am meeting "again" with my surgeon tomorrow to decide on lumpectomy or masectomy (bi) so that gives you an idea where I am at on my journey. Been through LOTS of testing, biopsy, etc. Now I will make my descision and move forward....
Glad you brought up this topic because I would like to know too. I am 47, I have never eaten right (except once a day 'cause husband does all the cooking & he eats very healthy), I never exercise, I smoked for 35 years (just quit 2 weeks ago & doing fine without them!), and drank like a fish in my younger years!! None of these bad habits ever effected the way I felt or my looks (I have often been mistaken for my daughters sister!).
Now I have this to face and have decided it is time to take care of me. To put 100% into getting me healthy all the way around.
The quitting smoking was a no brainer, but what now?
I will be following your post to see what others have to say....again, welcome and come back often Pammy

Pammy, I am just one step in
Pammy, I am just one step in front of you, Tomorrow I do the dye in the nodes, and Wednesday is surgery. It's great you quit smoking. I quit 20 yrs ago now. It's not easy to do, just hang in there. Chewing on straws helps a bit. You can't gain any weight from straws. I know making the decision Mastectomy/lumpectomy is a hard one. Just do the research and read the threads here, and ask the questions and it will help you do whats right for you. I'm not sure myself yet if I will ever know if I have made the right decision. All I can do is hope that I did.
Kathy

Jeanne D

Hi RTR
Welcome to you and so sorry that you are here because of bc. But, you will find so many wonderful, kind and full of it ( i mean information, ofcourse lol )bc survivors that will help you in anyway that we can. A couple of websites are cancer.org and cancer.gov which is that National Cancer Institute. The cancer.gov even has some recipes for you to try and some cooking tips. I have available to me, but, haven't used them yet, a nutritionist at my cancer center. You might check into where you went to see if they have a nutritionist for you. I really should, now that you have brought this up. Stay healthy and take care!

phoenixrising

Congratulations for
Congratulations for finishing your chemo! I have heard that more frequent but less intense chemo regimes are easier on the system and more effective. Ours were every 3 weeks and I asked my onc why we didn't do it more often and he said it was 'logistics'. (people traveling to and from the cancer centre) So glad you were able to do it.

From what I've read premenopausal and triple neg breast cancers have less recurrence when they reduce the fat in their diet. Exercise is up there for all of us and of course the usual 6-8 (or is it 8-10) servings of fruit and veggies a day. I don't have any specific websites that I can give you but Susan mentioned the acs has info concerning this so that might be a good place to start.

Best of luck to you on your road to health
jan

Akiss4me

Kat11 said:

Pammy, I am just one step in
Pammy, I am just one step in front of you, Tomorrow I do the dye in the nodes, and Wednesday is surgery. It's great you quit smoking. I quit 20 yrs ago now. It's not easy to do, just hang in there. Chewing on straws helps a bit. You can't gain any weight from straws. I know making the decision Mastectomy/lumpectomy is a hard one. Just do the research and read the threads here, and ask the questions and it will help you do whats right for you. I'm not sure myself yet if I will ever know if I have made the right decision. All I can do is hope that I did.
Kathy

Trust me...you did!!
Good luck tomorrow (well probably "today" by the time you read this). Yes, it is an agonizing decision (everyone fears change & the unknown) but deep down I believe we do what we feel in our hearts at any given time. I will be praying for you that the dye procedure goes as smooth as possible for you. Keep us posted...:) Pammy