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Fear of radiation after lumpectomy

Breast Cancer | Last Active: Mar 9 5:46pm | Replies (129)

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@auntieoakley

I am sorry to hear that your mom went through that and it came back anyway. I am sure you miss her. It is very hard to see someone we love hurting and declining. We all have to make the best decision we can based the information we have at the time. I am sure your mom tried to do this as well. I started my journey 17 years ago and I can tell you that the available information has grown exponentially since then. Sadly, science still cannot always predict who will have it return and when or who will die. There are statistical probabilities but no guarantees. I can say that radiation did not really affect my quality of life that drastically. It did give some some very severe fatigue, but compared to the chemo I took first, it really was a walk in the park. Tamoxifen kind of had some constant gifts of hot flashes and a general aging that I had not expected, but nothing too awful. I know in online conversations, we usually hear from all the people who had awful reactions but that really isn’t the norm. Please consider everything and make the best decision you can for yourself. Only you can know what is best for you.

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Replies to "I am sorry to hear that your mom went through that and it came back anyway...."

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind thoughts and It is good to hear that some people don't have the bad side effects.

I was wondering if you had any long term side effects from either the radiation or the Tamoxifen? My mom's breast looked almost normal after the lumpectomy, but a long term effect after the radiation is that it started to shrink until it almost was not there and looked like a botched mastectomy and the nipple disappeared (inverted?). It was very painful, even to have the water in the shower touch it. (So we had a hard time getting her to bathe!) She had many other physical and mental side effects including confusion and loss of memory, severe hot flashes, something she called the "squiggleies" which would present like restless leg syndrome but worse in her spine and abdomen, leg cramps, insomnia etc. - just to name a few. I am definitely going to see the radiology oncologist and listen to all options, I'm just really scared!