Hi Eastmum...So sorry you are here.
I was diagnosed in April 2015 with ILC in my right breast. I like you, had mammograms and checks yearly, and even had one done 9 months earlier and nothing had shown up, so it was a shock when I was diagnosed with what they thought was a 1.8cm mass. Originally they thought it was on both sides with me too, but it turned out only to be on the right side only, (biopsy confirmed this). I had a lumpectomy and a sentinel node biopsy where they found small amounts in two lymph nodes and that the tumour was actually 2.8cm. I was then advised to have chemo and radiation. I am now on Letrozole which is an aromatase inhibitor which stops oestrogen from forming in my body as my cancer and in fact most ILC is oestrogen and progesterone positive, mostly stage 2, and mostly HER2 negative. I have only heard of a very few people who are HER 2 positive.
I can't remember if I had a cough or aches and pains before my scans. Probably I did, but I do remember feeling fear and shock about it all and as a result every thing starts to "feel" wrong... and I stopped trusting my body, but so far all my aches and pains, (I get really bad sciatica since diagnosis and back aches), have shown up on MRI's as bugling discs or pulled muscles. At one stage I had trouble filling my lungs and it turned out to be simply anxiety. So far so good !
I too had all the body scans, after my diagnosis. Arthritis and all sorts of things show up on the scan, but are not mistaken for cancer. ILC is a slow growing cancer, well usually —— its just a bugger to see as its sheets of cells all spread out. I think I probably had been growing it for about 7 years, but it took that long to really show on an ultrasound. I have yearly MRI's now, (which are not covered by medicare or health insurance), along with mammograms and ultrasound as thats the best way to really see it clearly.
I tried to take it one test at a time. Get through one, get the results, don't think too far ahead.
Please feel free to contact me at any time if you need to ask more questions.
Love and hugs.
