Thank you everyone for being so kind and supportive.

[LiberalLoner]

My oncotype test came back and I will not have to go through chemo, which is a major relief to me.

Looks like it will be just radiation and endocrine therapy.

So I have a lot to be thankful for as thanksgiving approaches.

I have been going through a bit of mourning for my old pre-cancer self and body but I know I will be happy with my new breasts once the scars are not quite so gruesome and once the swelling has subsided. I think on this cancer journey we all have moments where we need to let the sadness out and mourn, and then carry on.

Thank you all for being here and being you.

[Silent Type]

1. Excellent news, hope the trend of good news continues.

[LiberalLoner]

19. Thank you so much! ❤️

[MLAA]

2. Wonderful! Happy thanksgiving indeed! Sending hugs,

[LiberalLoner]

20. Thank you so much! ❤️🤗

[niyad]

3. Hugggggs Very good news indeed. Remember that your DU family

continues to be here for you. Lean as hard as you need.

[LiberalLoner]

21. Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️

[CaptainTruth]

4. I'm glad you won't have to have chemo.

Wishing you the best with your treatment.

[LiberalLoner]

22. Thank you so much! ❤️🤗

[peppertree]

5. Great to hear!

Consider trying Essiac tea. Very de-toxifying (yet mild and pleasant).

All the Best!

[LiberalLoner]

23. Thank you so much! ❤️ I will look that up!

[Deuxcents]

6. Attitude is part of the healing and you have it!

I’m sure it’s brought you this far and my best wishes to the finish line. ((hugs))

[LiberalLoner]

24. Thank you so much! ❤️ I've been trying to take it one step at a time, one procedure at a time, one day at a time.

Otherwise it seems too daunting and frightening. I tell myself I just need to do this one thing and I don’t have to think about the other things.

[Deuxcents]

38. A very good friend's sister is recovering from

Triple-negative breast cancer and she has said many times what you say..one day at a time. I’ve known both of them for over 40 years and she is doing fine now..check ups are good but she had chemo and radiation so her journey took some time. I hug her extra tight when I see her 🤗

[LiberalLoner]

41. Oh wow that's a scary one but if you beat it for five years, it won't come back. The kind I have isn't so scary but

It’s very sneaky and there’s always that risk.

My oncotype report says if I do the endocrine therapy my risk of distant recurrence (the fatal stuff) is only 3-4% at nine years. Why nine years as a measurement? Heck if I know. But hey here’s to nine more years, anyway.

The chemo seems so awful compared to radiation or even surgery so I was dreading it. I hate being sick to my stomach and the idea of losing my fingernails and toenails as well as all my hair seemed kind of disturbing.

Bless you for hugging her extra tight 🤗🤗🤗❤️❤️❤️

Hope she never has a recurrence. Yeah, between surgery, chemo, radiation, that’s most of a year filled with misery. But there’s no other choice, not really.

[cilla4progress]

7. Welcome news!

Blessings to you on your journey.

Happy Thanksgiving indeed! ❤️

[LiberalLoner]

25. Thank you so much! ❤️

[Lonestarblue]

8. Good news that you do not have to endure chemo.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and beyond. I have a friend who has gone through a truly horrendous year with cancer but has emerged with good tests now. So here’s wishing you those same good tests.

[LiberalLoner]

26. Thank you so much! ❤️ I hope so much your friend will be okay now. A lot of the cancer boards I've been

Reading, I see people who are fighting cancer saying “fuck cancer” and I thought, how wonderful and cathartic to say that. So now I say that too. Fuck cancer.

[Duncanpup]

9. Excellent

[LiberalLoner]

27. Thanks! ❤️

[SWBTATTReg]

10. Best wishes to you and your family on your Journey to healing. NT

[LiberalLoner]

28. Thank you! ❤️ I think it's been harder on my husband than me. And I can't guarantee him that I will beat this cancer

Because none of us can know for sure. Just doing the treatments and hoping.

[Skittles]

11. there's always someone here on DU

[LiberalLoner]

29. Thank you so much ❤️ I'm feeling far too needy these days tbh.

[Skittles]

48. never!

EVERYONE needs help sometimes.....yes INDEED

[MontanaMama]

12. You have been on my mind.

What a road this has been! I’m happy for your good news. Cancer indeed changes you. Mourn when you need to and celebrate when you can. Happy Thanksgiving. ❤️

[LiberalLoner]

30. Thank you so much! ❤️ it's really reminded me of my mortality. It's made me see my breasts as traitors, which

Might sound strange, but that’s how I feel about it, they betrayed me and I am angry with them. And now they look ugly with fresh scars and swelling, frankenboobs. So I don’t much like them at the moment. But I’m sure I will come to terms with all of it, with what happened and the appearance of them and the risk of recurrence.

I did buy a nice holiday dress, some kind of faux stretchy green velvet, maxi length, and some cute boots. In defiance of the cancer. No matter how I feel, no matter where I am in the treatment, I am going to go out with friends for a nice holiday meal and I am going to wear my cute new dress and boots and celebrate.

Because life is short, might as well put on a nice outfit and celebrate with friends.

[marble falls]

13. They've been integral to my living with cancer and it's treatment, too.

[LiberalLoner]

32. Hugs to you 🤗🤗🤗and best wishes on your journey and wishes for no recurrences ever. Eff cancer!❤️

[appalachiablue]

14. Good news, all the best and Happy Thanksgiving!

[LiberalLoner]

33. Thank you so much! ❤️ same to you!

[LoisB]

15. Sounds like good news to me.

Strength for your journey - we are here to help you "carry on". Hugs.

[LiberalLoner]

34. Thank you so much! ❤️ one step at a time. So many have walked this path before me, including my mother.

I’m thinking there is a song that might be useful to me right about now if I can handle hearing it.

Just trying to carry on. We have no choice…

[LoisB]

37. I saw this somewhere, goes something like this:

Getting knocked down is part of life,
Getting back up is living.

[LiberalLoner]

42. I love it! ❤️❤️❤️

[Goddessartist]

16. I'm so glad

to see you here!

So glad no chemo!!!

I'm so grateful for you!

Lots of love!

[LiberalLoner]

35. Hi dear friend! I'm so grateful for you and hope you are well! Life is not easy with these bodies that give us trouble.

I think a lot these days about the stories I was told as a child about how my body will have no aches or pains or sickness in heaven and I can’t help but think, hey, sounds cool, can I get that body now instead of having to wait?

[Solly Mack]

17. I'm glad you're being spared Chemo.

Feel how you feel. Anger, sadness, grief, all part of the experience.

[LiberalLoner]

36. Thank you so much. I'm trying to keep a positive mental attitude about the cancer treatments but I have times

When I struggle. It’s pretty normal I think.

❤️❤️❤️

[ancianita]

18. So thankful for your winning.

Why winning? Well, I've a close friend of ten years who had the same op as you but a more virulent cancer, and has gone through years of chemo and radiation. She never gave up (smoked lots of weed to help her sleep and eat) and is now in remission, with eyelashes and hair finally growing back. By witnessing her hard fight through these past years, I can only imagine how you feel. Maybe it's less like winning, and more like being part of a special club of spiritual strength, and now, longer life.

Long may you run, LiberalLoner. Have peaceful, happy holidays ahead !

[LiberalLoner]

39. Thank you ❤️ I am so sorry your friend has been through so much and I hope she will be okay now.

Her mountain she had to climb is much steeper than my hill and I do need to count my blessings.

I told my husband, hey, all the women in my family get breast cancer, but they all beat it. Trying to ease his worry some. He tries to hide his worries and sadness from me, and I do the same with him. We try to be strong soldiers in front of one another. We met as soldiers in the same unit. We still behave as those soldiers, with the same values.

Thank you for the long may you run. I appreciate that, and you. ❤️

Sometimes I have a hard time facing my doctors after surgery because I know they have seen me naked and vulnerable, with all my many faults. I feel overwhelming shame when I see them, and the feelings of shame trigger a tsunami of self-hatred because I detest so much letting anyone see me naked. It’s a hard internal struggle I have, and I want to hide but that’s not what is best for me. Other people don’t mind being seen naked so much, but for me, it’s really hard.

[ancianita]

46. Glad to hear that you and your husband served your country. Glad, too,

to know that you'll soldier through this together. We're lucky to have service members here, and you're both appreciated. I'm glad he's stayed by your side through this. My friend's husband was depressed about his wife's body but he knew none of it was about him; that's when I learned how difficult it is for husbands, who step up to love the you that is not your body.
This naked thing is totally understandable. Maybe (?) try to think of it as temporary. Maybe consider even telling your doctors how you feel; you might be surprised at how they respond, maybe hear some pretty positive things about yourself. They know they're in the business of healing the whole person. (I told something similar to my doctor once before a yearly gynecological exam ( I was in my 50's) and I was surprised and relieved when he said, well, given how good your health's been, let's forget it, then, if you feel that way. So we never bothered with it again. Good guy, that one.)

[LiberalLoner]

52. Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️🤗🤗🤗

[MOMFUDSKI]

31. Great news!

You are loved as part of the DU family.

[LiberalLoner]

40. Thank you so much ❤️ it's hard for me to see myself as worthy of love.

[TNNurse]

43. As an almost 12 year survivor,

I am happy to hear you do not need chemo. Physically, it was the hardest part. Surgery was bad, radiation was tough and Estrogen blocking therapy was tough, but chemo was scary awful.

You will continue to mourn your former body. Please be sure you get evaluated for lymphedema, surgery and radiation are the reason for mine.

Take care of yourself and please check back in.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Alice Beth

[LiberalLoner]

45. Thank you so much ❤️ and I hope so much you never have a recurrence 🤗 I've actually already

Been to physical therapy, my doctor has been right on top of things and no lymphedema but this swelling in the left breast is sure taking it’s sweet time to resolve. I’m doing the lymphatic massages but I guess it’s just going to take more time.

Five weeks tomorrow so maybe I don’t need to panic too much yet about the swelling, maybe it will resolve in a few more weeks. It’s already much better than it was three weeks ago…at two weeks past surgery I had a block of concrete as a breast and I seriously wondered if the blood supply could function in such a grossly swollen piece of tissue. Now it’s feeling like regular flesh again, although still heavier and more swollen than I would like. So I’m telling myself not to worry just yet, let my body have a few more weeks to heal.

I’m sorry you had to go through chemo. Of everything I’ve read up on, that seemed the scariest. So I was relieved when the test showed less than a one percent benefit from chemo. No way they will recommend chemo with that low a benefit because the risks outweigh it. I mean I will wait to hear what my medical oncologist has to say, but there’s no way I could see the doctor recommending chemo.

I hope you never have to go through anything that awful ever again.

I hope you have a good Thanksgiving! I’m glad you beat the cancer. 🤗

[LiberalLoner]

44. Lots of love to you all and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate ❤️❤️❤️

[KatK]

47. So glad to hear the good news! You've got this! n/t

[LiberalLoner]

50. Thank you ❤️

[stage left]

49. So glad for your good news.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[LiberalLoner]

51. Thank you! ❤️ you too!