The phone number for the BCNA helpline is 1800 500 258.
Helpline hours are 9am to 5pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
and
9am to 9pm on Tuesday and Thursday.
Calls to the helpline are free of charge when made from a landline and charged at standard rates when made from a mobile phone.
Could really use some inspiration from a positive experience
Hi amazing people - I'm new to this site and forum and so appreciative of all the information on here and the generosity of so many incredible people who have shared their stories.
I'm right at the beginning of things - just been diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma in both sides - ER/PR +ve, HER2 -ve - looks like I've probably had this for a year even though I've always had regular, comprehensive mammograms and ultrasounds. Very thorough investigations (2 mammograms, 2 ultrasonds + MRI) on large palpable mass and some architectural distortion 12 months ago still came up as nothing to worry about (suspected scar tissue from breast reduction 30 years ago) but further changes and architectural distortion got much worse over the year so off I went for repeat scans and this time it was obviously breast cancer. Lymph nodes look clear on ultrasound (no guarantees I know) and suspected low grade, stage 1 or 2 but again - won't know until they get in there.
Haven't even had a proper post-biopsy consult with my Breast Surgeon yet because he's away until the end of the month but I'm about to go for staging scans - CT on chest, abdo, pelvis and full bone scan - and these freak me out so much more than the Breast Cancer diagnosis - is that weird?
Are there any stats out there on how many people have metastasized breast cancer right from the start? Do things like osteo-arthritis, old fractures, other inflammations show up as suspected secondaries? LIke, can you get a 'false positive' for mets? Or does Breast Cancer mets look very unique on these scans?
Right now all I can think of is the persistent cough I've had for a few months, the niggling pain in my lower back, headache and knee pain! I'm also quite overweight so that must contribute to some of those aches and pains. I've prepared myself for anything they will tell me (if you can ever really be prepared) but I'm trying hard not to 'write the chapter before it's happened' - as a very wise friend recently told me.
I don't want to give myself any false hope and I know I have to be prepared that there's always a chance they'll find mets but I'm obsessing over it a bit too much and I would really find some inspiration and it would help to get through the next few days if anyone out there might have also had aches, pains, coughs etc and ended up with clear staging scans at the start ??
Thanks again to all the 'warriors' out there. I hope that one day when I'm on the flip side of all of this, then I can also be of help and inspiration to someone :)
Eastmum
I'm right at the beginning of things - just been diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma in both sides - ER/PR +ve, HER2 -ve - looks like I've probably had this for a year even though I've always had regular, comprehensive mammograms and ultrasounds. Very thorough investigations (2 mammograms, 2 ultrasonds + MRI) on large palpable mass and some architectural distortion 12 months ago still came up as nothing to worry about (suspected scar tissue from breast reduction 30 years ago) but further changes and architectural distortion got much worse over the year so off I went for repeat scans and this time it was obviously breast cancer. Lymph nodes look clear on ultrasound (no guarantees I know) and suspected low grade, stage 1 or 2 but again - won't know until they get in there.
Haven't even had a proper post-biopsy consult with my Breast Surgeon yet because he's away until the end of the month but I'm about to go for staging scans - CT on chest, abdo, pelvis and full bone scan - and these freak me out so much more than the Breast Cancer diagnosis - is that weird?
Are there any stats out there on how many people have metastasized breast cancer right from the start? Do things like osteo-arthritis, old fractures, other inflammations show up as suspected secondaries? LIke, can you get a 'false positive' for mets? Or does Breast Cancer mets look very unique on these scans?
Right now all I can think of is the persistent cough I've had for a few months, the niggling pain in my lower back, headache and knee pain! I'm also quite overweight so that must contribute to some of those aches and pains. I've prepared myself for anything they will tell me (if you can ever really be prepared) but I'm trying hard not to 'write the chapter before it's happened' - as a very wise friend recently told me.
I don't want to give myself any false hope and I know I have to be prepared that there's always a chance they'll find mets but I'm obsessing over it a bit too much and I would really find some inspiration and it would help to get through the next few days if anyone out there might have also had aches, pains, coughs etc and ended up with clear staging scans at the start ??
Thanks again to all the 'warriors' out there. I hope that one day when I'm on the flip side of all of this, then I can also be of help and inspiration to someone :)
Eastmum
