hi i am not sure if i am even posting in the right place, but i am freaking out. i am 1* and my dad died when i was 3. its just been me and my mom my whole life. she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was givin 3 years to live. shes on her 2nd year and the cancer has spread to her bone. she has been on chemo for a while now and her cancer numbers have gone WAAYYY DOWN which is awesome. weve all been so excited. just the other day while i was at sschool she was at work and her whole right side went numb and she couldnt write or use her hand. she was slurring her words terribly. she immediatly went to the hospital and had an MRI. we found out that the cancer has spread from the bone to the brain. we are not sure of anything right now. all the doctors said was there was a lesion on her brain. (a tumor). we find everything out in 2 days. i am so scared. when i think of brain cancer i think a death sentence for sure. i am also wondering, the doctor said a "brain lesion" is this less threatening than if he woulda said "brain tumor" i dont know what to do i CANNOT lose my mom...anyone with anything possitive to tell me, such as survivor stories or about her cancer please help.
jessie

I am so sorry that you're having to go thru this. You have certainly had your share of tragedy for one so young. I don't have an answer for you but just wanted you to know that your Mom AND you are in my prayers. Good luck and let us hear from you.

Jessie,
Because of something called the "blood/brain barrier", chemo often does not affect any metastases to the brain. Frequently, when a brain lesion is found, they will do radiation to that area to get rid of that particular metastasis, and this is often very effective.

As for survivor stories...let me tell you about my mom. She was diagnosed in 1985 with 3rd stage breast cancer. Although she was nearly constantly on chemo and/or radiation therapy, she lived another 8 1/2 years and was only really sick the last 3 months of her life. She worked full-time and only missed one day of work in 8 years!

After she died, her oncologist told me that when she was initially diagnosed, none of the doctors expected her to live more than a year, if that!

So please don't either you or your mother take the "3 years to live" as gospel...it's only an average statistic and, let's face it...for something to be "averaged", you have to have things that are both lower and higher. No reason to think your Mom can't be in the "higher" group!

As one doctor said to my mom..."breast cancer is sometimes a chronic illness that can be managed for many, many years."

I wish you and your mother the best of luck in dealing with this frightening illness.

Ruth