luan
Jul 11, 20192 min
Some new followers (hello! & thanx for the shout-out @mybestbreastforward 😘) has made me realise I’ve never done one of these intro’ thingies.
I’ve also been a bit sad today, so it seemed like a good time to remember how far I’ve come.
My name is Luan; originally from the UK, I moved to Sydney 6 years ago.
I was diagnosed with invasive pleomorphic lobular carcinoma in my right breast in Nov 2017 (for those who do cancer-speak: grade 3, ER/PR+, HER2-, Ki67 23%).
I had no symptoms and had only gone for a mammogram because I kept being unwell and decided to get a few health check-ups (mammograms are free for over 40s in Australia!). I was 46 and wouldn’t have been called for one for another 4 years.
The cancer was multi-centric and multi-focal (in more than one quadrant of the breast, and in more than one area within those quadrants).
I’ve had the cancer treatment trilogy: neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (FEC-D) from Dec 2017 to March 2018, followed by a skin-sparing mastectomy in April 2018, topped off with 25 radiotherapy beams June through July. I was then put on the hormone therapy, Tamoxifen.
I had a DIEP reconstruction in May this year and thought it’d be a good idea to micro-blog #100DaysDIEP so that I could see how far I’d progressed (see, I do try for a theme).
I started posting 7 days before surgery, with the op being day zero, and now I’ve no fucking idea what number day I’m on. But I know it’s not a hundred yet, so I’ll keep on trucking (© @thecancercomedy ).
And that’s me! .
Initially I only told a handful of people about my diagnosis, and didn’t come out until I did the rads. Because I cold-capped during chemo I kept a scraggly bit of hair that meant when I wore a hat it didn’t look like I was in treatment (too hot for wigs in the Aussie summer!).
I had an ID photo done this time last year that I’ve just come across again. It’s one of those where you can’t smile, which is why I look so bloody miserable. You can see the taggle of hair tucked behind my ears, post-treatment puffiness and eye-bags, drawn in brows n lashes. #throwbackthursday .
See what I did there: look how far I’ve fucking come!