The doctor wasn't able to interpret them fully, but it looks as if I am entitled to wear my pink ribbon. "Right breast looks suggestive of cancer". I'm still waiting for the breast MRI appointment date, but I have an appointment with the oncoplastic surgeon on Thursday, and sleeping tablets prescribed.
Previous thread: healthunlocked.com/share-br......
Hello,I'm sorry to hear it's what you've been fearing. You'll feel a lot better once they are able to speak definitively of the lumps. It's so difficult to even figure out how you feel about it when you don't exactly know what "it" is. And once you have a plan of action and you feel like you have some control over things, that will help, too. There are so many advances in treating breast cancer, and often more than one way to treat it. If you have a good medical team, it makes a big difference. There's a lot of info that will be coming your way. I made sure I had one or two friends with me for meetings and we all took notes, and then had a glass of wine while we compared our notes and recorded questions for the next meeting. I firmly believe that keeping a good attitude and a sense of humor is important because they give you inner strength as well. Keep posting. There are wonderful people here, who share their stories, make suggestions, and provide very uplifting support.
I wish you the very best,
Arlene
Thank you so much. Yes I’m very lucky with my support team but unfortunately I’m not allowed to bring anyone tomorrow because of the Covid restrictions. They’re going to try and let me bring my husband in but at the moment it’s a No.
Oh no Ari! I was hoping it would be nothing. This is certainly not a club I wish on anyone. You will be ok!! Take it one day at a time. Cry if you need to. In the beginning it will feel like you are trapped in this dark cave and you can’t see the light but you will. You will and you get through this!! Prayers and hugs for you🙏🏽🙏🏽
It’s a funny thing. I feel far better knowing the worst, than not knowing the best. Not knowing but suspecting is just awful.
Yes I cried yesterday, for the first time, mostly from pure frustration.
Thank you my dear. I’ll know more tomorrow when I see the consultant. 👍🏻
How did your MRI go? If I remember correctly you were scheduled for Thursday? I hope it went ok🙏🏽
Aw thank you for remembering. It went pretty well. Had a blow out on the cannula while I was lying with my face down a hole and my boobs dangling through the gap, like a cow. Blood everywhere and quite a lot of giggling. It was funnier afterwards!
The contrast dye gave me a corking 3-day migraine but I was much better in time to go back to work today. 😊 Sometimes you have to laugh!
I don’t get the results till 11/2, along with the lymph nodes biopsy results. That is when I meet my newest surgeon. The original one saw me once, then suddenly noticed that she was 7 months pregnant and was therefore required to self isolate and couldn’t operate on me. I’m slightly confused about the continuity there. I mean, she knew. It’s not as if she woke up one morning, looked down and went ’blimey, what’s that bump?’ Why was she even taking on new patients? So they needed to find me another one.
I’m sorry to hear about your breast surgeon. I do believe things happen for a reason. The first breast surgeon I met with, the one who gave me the news about my breast cancer was not the surgeon who operated on me. I decided on going with the breast surgeon who operated on my Mom. I’m glad I did because in less than a year I get a mail saying that the original breast surgeon was leaving the hospital abs that her patients were being transferred to someone else.
A out your mri, ugh I remember that mri. I was crying. The radiologist and nurse both hugged me and told me I was going to be ok. They were such angels and the patience they displayed 🙏🏽🙌🏼👏🏼
The things we have to go through so they can pin point where this damn cancer is!
I’ m glad you are feeling better👍🏼🤗🤗
Thank you. My husband says exactly the same thing. Everything happens for a reason. We sometimes never find out what it was, other times we do. I'm glad it was a good thing for you. 👍
Such a perfect response. I was diagnosed Dec 22. I wanted to see an oncologist before I made my decision. I had IDC of papillary cancer. I have major phobias of radiation and chemo due to experiences with loved ones. Radiation won out Nd I had a lumpectomy Jan 6. It was all clean margins with no lymph node involvement. I better. HR+, Pr+, HER2-, IDC. The size was under 1 cm. I finally see an oncologist on the 29th. I was in such a darkness I began to have panic attacks. My GP put me on medication. The day of surgery I had to have radio active material injected under my nipple to help the surgeon find the lymph node. Barbaric too say the least. Now that I am here, I guess I feel beter at least until I see an oncologist.
I'm so sorry, I missed your response. That's incredibly fast work - just over 2 weeks from diagnosis to surgery. I'm nearly at 4 weeks and have another week and a half before the next appointment, let alone treatment. I have 2 cancers, both oestrogen & progesterone receptor+ and the bigger one is HER2+. They're 2.1cm & 1.5cm, grade 2, stage unknown.
It doesn't sound as if they gave you anaesthetic for that injection {shudder}. The contrast dye was painful enough going in intravenously... I'm so thankful they got it all! Hugs to you.
Can they set up some type of video or phone conferencing so that someone can listen in? Will they let you record the visit? Small recorders are very inexpensive. I used one to record my appointment with multiple "team" members at my Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Clinic visit at the beginning of my treatment; was helpful to share with my sister retired nurse. She had helped me develop questions for each "arm" of the team (surgeon, oncologist, radiation, OT) and she helped me develop more questions based on the info she gleaned from listening to the discussions with each health care provider.
I’ll gather together all the technology my husband has available - or as much as I can fit in the car! He’s a bit of an Inspector Gadget!
Wow that sounds great! Also even if someone is there with you it's hard to process everything right then and sometimes people 'hear" different things. It might be easier to step back and re=examine/re-think after the visit; don't know how you felt but for me it was a little surreal and my mind was not as clear as usual.
100%. When I had the biopsies I spent nearly 2 hours lying there having local anaesthetic, needle biopsies, needle aspiration and titanium markers put in without being allowed to ask anything. Blood, gel, soreness, faintness, shivering, exhaustion. It’s not as if you can jot questions down to ask later!
At the end of all that I got dressed for the 146th time, was told what would be happening next, and finally was asked if I had any questions. I was feeling v woozy by then but I asked what she had found. She said that didn’t matter.
My mind went blank. She had broken my mental flowchart and my brain was suddenly unable to go any further. I could build more questions based on her answer but not on nothing. Then she said “it’s a lot to take in” - which it wasn’t because she hadn’t told me anything! I just stared at her like an idiot, then said I’d think of hundreds on the way home. She said write them down and ask at the next appt 2 weeks later. She should have added “if you haven’t been sectioned before then”.
All that was to agree with you that I need someone with me!
So sorry to hear how you were treated. How are you now?
Thank you for checking up on me!
I’m currently waiting for the results of lymph node biopsy #3 taken on Tuesday (2 wks), but I have an appointment with the new surgeon on Tuesday 23rd.
Airis I think that you are doing well under difficult covid resulting situations. To be expected to be able to process information alone is an impossible expectation. I am wondering if the Doctor will have a followup phone call with your husband, or use a speaker phone during the interview.. Even if you cannot have another person with you this time, you can request a followup phone call or medical-like zoom session. My Doctor did one recently with my husband and I and it was most helpful. All of us cannot process immediately .. And oh how I comprehend those frustration tears.. Even us wonder women get frustrated especially initially with waiting for diagnosis .. Once we move into the action phase, we seem to get our feet on the ground again.. Will be thinking of you..
Thank you for keeping us posted.
In your corner.
You're so kind. I'm sorry I'm replying so late - I missed this whole thread somehow. I'm thinking more clearly now.
We were allowed to bring my husband in, thank goodness. Got the diagnosis (2 cancers in R breast 2.1cm & 1.5cm, both progesterone & oestrogen receptor+, the bigger one HER2+) but needed a second lymph node biopsy.
Long story short, 5 days later when I still hadn't got my next appointment through, my cancer nurse said I needed a new surgeon because that one was pregnant and wouldn't be operating on me. Finally my next appointment is with the new surgeon on Th 11/2 for breast MRI and lymph node biopsy results and The Plan, hopefully.
Time is dragging...
Of course time is dragging.... I remember those days waiting for the plan to be in place and getting on with the process and then the positive maintaining and healing from surgery and treatment. It was good to read that your husband could come in with you.. As you know you are in the overwhelming time before the treatment plan is determined and begun..I wish I could circle you with enough solidarity and community to lower the anxiety levels..
This is a difficult journey but one that some of us have found doable with the community we found/created among others on the journey.. Sending care
Thank you. I’m coping OK. We’re trying to get lots done in preparation for going into isolation then shielding. 😊
Hope you are managing ok during isolation then shielding.. just thinking of you
Thanks Lovely. We’re still waiting for the appointment. It isn’t till this Thursday 11/2. 4 days to go. We’re keeping v busy which is helping.
How are you? X
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