Self-discovery through Triple Negative Cancer

Today is my two year anniversary from my triple negative breast cancer diagnosis and one year from the end of treatment. I am so grateful that I am here and able to write this blog. The hardship, that has been the last two years, has made me so much stronger.  It has not been all rainbows and butterflies since fighting the terrible disease. The after effects of chemotherapy have left me with long term issues such as weak bones, osteoarthritis, neuropathy and plantar fasciitis in my feet, lack of fitness and the inability to lose weight and then the mental side of things which is all to do with the fear of the disease coming back.  On top of that, the day I was told that my margins were clear from my lumpectomy was the day my mum went in to have a mass looked at in her pancreas which turned out to be pancreatic cancer which is terminal. The timing of this was ironic as I couldn’t celebrate the feeling of surviving this horrible disease when mum was at the beginning of her cance...

It has been over a year of fighting this horrible cancer. What a year it has been.  I was diagnosed on the 27th January 2022 with Triple Negative Breast Cancer after turning 40 and having a routine mammogram. I had no signs or symptoms but was just being precautionary. So I was in a bit of shock when the news was broken to me. I was 40 and couldn’t believe I had the most aggressive type of breast cancer.  The next six months was the hardest six months I had experienced. It started with dose dense red devil which was the harshest treatment to experience. It took my hair, energy, and zest for life. The fatigue was the hardest but I managed to push through each day. Scans at the end of the 4 dose dense treatments showed that this drug had shrunk my cancer significantly which was a motivator to keep going.  The next stage was dose dense Taxol. I was meant to have 12 doses but because I had managed the dose dense regime with the red devil drug they decided to go dose dense wit...

  Second part of this triple negative cancer journey involved having a lumpectomy to remove the remainder of the cancer. It had shrunk from 2.7cm to 0.5cm by the end of chemotherapy. Originally I was having a double mastectomy, but due to poor timing my plans changed to fit in with my surgical team. So next step was to have a lumpectomy to remove cancer and surrounding healthy tissue along with the removal of sentinel nodes. The sentinel node biopsy is a used to determine whether the cancer has spread beyond a primary tumour into the lymphatic system. The cancer is also tested to see if it is still active or if it is pathologically cancer free (PCR).  I arrived at radiology at 8am in the morning to undergo the first part of this procedure. They needed to put radioactivity into my lymph channels. This was the most painful part of any procedure I have had to date with breast cancer. The lovely nurse (who I knew) placed the needle directly into the areola and it felt like a bee s...

  When diagnosed with cancer all you focus on is getting through it the best you can and fighting it into remission. Before I began the fight I was relatively healthy and had no signs or symptoms of even having cancer. It is such a big learning curve when going through the journey of cancer. I didn’t realise the extent of damage that the chemotherapy has on your mind and body. There is such a huge array of side effects from chemotherapy that can be short and long lasting.  I managed to get through the rough AC Dose dense drugs reasonably unscathed. Then I went onto paclitaxel and things took an unwanted turn as I experienced the side effect of Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN).  So what is CIPN?  Cancer Council of Australia (2020) informs that Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy is damage to the peripheral nerves. These are the nerves located away from the centre of the body, such as in the hands and feet. Unlike other cells in the body, nerve ...

My first experience with Taxol dose dense treatment follows two months of AC dose dense treatment and was certainly something to write about. Obviously everyone’s experience is different and I can only reflect on my experience with the drug.  Dose dense basically means that I receive the chemotherapy drugs with less time between treatments than standard chemotherapy which allows the drugs to interrupt the rapid growth phase of the tumour cells.  There has been a fair bit of research completed on the benefits of dose dense and one article in particular grabbed my attention. It is called ‘Dose Dense-Intensive Chemotherapy Improves Survival in Early Stage Breast Cancer.’ (Cancerconnect, 2020).  A couple of stats within this article state that: Overall survival was improved by nearly 30% among the women treated with dose-dense chemotherapy. At 10 years, survival for women with hormone-negative breast cancer (cancer that is not stimulated to grow from exposure to female hormon...

  Half way You have to celebrate the small wins and the big wins. I have completed four rounds of the nasty red devil and survived. I had an ultrasound to see how the cancer has responded to the first four rounds and I can happily say the cancer has shrunk. Still waiting for confirmation from my oncologist as Easter holidays have impacted that, but the lovely lady who did my ultrasound informed me that the cancer has shrunk 2cm and is now sitting at 0.7cms. This was something worth celebrating which I did with my friends and family.  I had my follow-up appointment with my oncologist and after reviewing how I managed the side effects of the first drug he has decided to do dose dense treatment with my next drug. This means I will have more condensed treatment less frequently. So instead of 12 rounds weekly, it will be 4 rounds fortnightly. Hence finishing my chemo treatment over four months instead of the original six months. Pretty happy about that. Positives of this is only fo...

  One of the major side effects of Chemotherapy treatment is fatigue. Initially, I thought a bit of fatigue will be ok. A few extra naps on the couch won’t hurt. That won’t be a major side effect for me. Self-discovery through triple negative cancer has shown me otherwise. How do I explain fatigue? Fatigue is not a simple tiredness and with a rest you feel better. It does not resemble a hangover or a night of insomnia. It is not a simple physical reaction to the chemotherapy.  This is my explanation of fatigue… Fatigue is an all encompassing black cloud that engulfs you on Day 6 and 7 of chemotherapy drawing every last molecule of energy out of your body so that you are simply left with a human frame lying horizontally on something soft. You are unable to move from the position of horizontal because there is nothing that is willing to work to hold your body upright. A simple hand under my head allows me to at least hold my head up to take a look around. My brain is working in ...

Today I lost my hair, but gained inner strength knowing that chemo is fighting bloody hard to fight this cancer inside of me. The chemo attacks rapid cell growth which includes hair and skin cells. So knowing that the chemo is making my hair fall out means knowing that it is attacking the triple negative cancer in my breast.  I didn’t know what to expect when they said you will lose your hair. Do I just wake up with no hair, does it come out in clumps?? So I have journaled the process to show you what you can expect if you have chemo and lose your hair.  This was me before chemo, blonde curly hair. I started chemo 19 days ago so I managed to keep my hair for 19 days. It started to fall out slowly at first at around day 6 and then each day it significantly got more and more strands of hair coming out. On day 9 my head felt tender like it was sunburnt and was lacking nutrients, feeling like straw so I decided to give myself a little hair cut to freshen it back up somewhat. ...

How can I have Triple Negative Breast Cancer when I am a triple positive person? Just the term triple negative sounds depressing.  Shortly after being diagnosed with breast cancer, I had a call from my surgeon to inform me that I have what is called a ‘Triple Negative Breast Cancer,’ which is an aggressive cancer and that I would be needing chemotherapy before surgery.  So what is Triple Negative Breast Cancer?  Triple Negative Breast Cancer is negative to: Oestrogen receptor progesterone receptor Protein HER2 This means that the cancer does not use oestrogen, progesterone or HER2 to grow. Therefore, the drugs used to treat these types of breast cancer are not effective for Triple Negative Breast Cancer. The main treatment for this type of cancer is chemotherapy. I will be having 16 rounds of Chemotherapy starting next Tuesday. Breast Cancer Network Australia state that chemotherapy is the only systemic (treating the whole body) treatment for fighting this cancer. The mai...

This is the first entry of my breast cancer journey, so let’s start right at the beginning with my diagnosis.  In October 2021, I turned the big 40 and celebrated all of the amazing things in my life with my family and friends. Part of turning 40 meant that I needed to be proactive and get my health checked. I went and had a skin check and had a general health check and all was great. My next health check was a mammogram. A close friend of mine had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and it was because of her that I finally booked in to having my first mammogram. On the 12th of January I went and had my first ever mammogram and then continued on with my life without even a second thought. On the 19th of January, I was at work and I received a phone call from Breast Clinic informing me that my mammogram had come back with a cloudy patch on my right breast that looked different to the rest of my mammogram results and as it is my first mammogram and they had nothing to compare ...