New Diagnosis - Treatment Options

you will probably be facing some sort of surgery to see if it is in your lymph nodes. Then you will probably have to do chemo and possibly radiation. There are many treatment options for you on breast lumpectomy vs. masectomy. It used to be that women were encouraged to have a masectomy. Now the studies have shown that women are happier long term having a lumpectomy and chemo and radiation. The choice is yours. Don't rush into it. Do your research and weigh your options. If your tumor is estrogen + (this will be determined at surgery when they take the tumor out) you will have the option of taking a pill long term to decreased your chances of the cancer returning. You have a long road ahead of you. Breast cancer is treatable. You need to remember that. Your mind can send you astray and way off track. You need to surround yourself with positive people to be your support group. You have started in the right place. This website is awesome.
My sister is 39. She was diagnosed in August. She has one chemo treatment left. If you need somebody to e mail with she would be glad to. She has had a hard time finding people her own age.

my e mail address is copnurseand2kids@aol.com
Best of luck to you........Cyndi

I was diagnosed with invasive ductal cancer in May 2005. It was 2.2 cm. ER/PR + & HER2+ with lymph node involvement. I managed to just have a lumpectomy. The surgeon did have to go in two times to do it. Didn't get enough of a margin the first time. I am happy with the lumpectomy. I was real small (about a B cup) and the doctor was not sure with the size of the tumor and the fact that we had to go in twice, if I would be happy. But all in all it doesn't look near as bad as everything I saw on website earlier. I didn't really want to endure the pain of doing reconstructive surgery and I wasn't sure I would be happy being lopsided. So for me it has worked. I did the lumpectomy first, then chemo, then resurgery to get the margin and I am now working on the radiation and just started taking Arimedex (a pill for ER/PR +). I was 48 when I was diagnosed and in good health. I managed to keep functioning through out the process at least working a couple of days a week even on the worst weeks. It was hard but I found for me continuing to work kept things on a more normal basis. For some people who don't start out in really good health, I am sure working would have been too much. Also my work was real understanding... so if I got too tired after 6 hours I left. I have an office job and could take my laptop home to do other things when I was more rested and even found on days that I didn't work, that signing on and keeping up with work was good for me. But everyone is different. I hope you will be able to work out treatment options that will work out for you.

Email me on the site if I can answer any more questions. I know for me the time period before I had a firm diagnose and treatment pathforward were the hardest... becuase it seemed like it was there in my body and we weren't doing anything to fix it. Take Care... God Bless.

Hi Zahailey, I did have chemo both before (to shrink tumor) and after surgery (to prevent return of tumor). I dont think it is all the uncommon, especally where the tumor is considered to be large