Newly diagnosed .. Glad I've found a safe place

Hi Arpie, 
I hope you had good results today, fingers crossed for you. All the best with your hubby, looks like he keeps you on your toes!
Been talking to the  care nurse and shes made another appt for me with the surgeon. I'm hoping he will put in a tissue exspander to speed the recon process up. Going cross eyed reading all the info I can on recon. Who would have thought I'd be a kidney expert now training to be a breast cancer expert lol!

Gosh - shame that you weren't advised of the dense breast tissue & need for an ultrasound!  Had you had many previous mammograms before this one, that found the lumps?  Yes, most of us are now very vocal about telling everyone to  get checked at 40+ or as soon as a lump or different shape/pain etc is spotted - including male breast cancer as well - telling the boys to be vigilant too!

The waiting really sucks - waiting for the scans, for the results, waiting to see the surgeon etc ..... try & keep as busy as you can as it keeps your mind busy as well (our minds can go ballistic with all this overload of information & general fear ....)  I went fishing most days in between initial detection & the scans, the between the scans & the results - I was out communing with nature - it worked for me.  

We have some WONDERFUL members in WA @Hils  .... 2 that spring to mind are @JJ70 who is a fantastic lobbyist for ALL things BC and has a Facebook page called Can do at 40 https://www.facebook.com/Can40Do45/ and also @"Annie C" from up in the Kimberley region who goes to Perth for her checkups - and is a lovely lady - we met up in Darwin a few months ago & had a hoot together with her hubby Ian.

LOL  Never a dull moment with my hubby - he left his 'jigsaw puzzle light' on all night last night & also checked something in the back yard before going back to bed & then left the back door wide open!   

I am lobular as well, which is considered one of the trickier ones to find, even if you don't have dense breast tissue as it is hidden in amongst the 'grapes' that are the lobules behind the nipple! I was lucky to just have a lumpectomy, radiation and hormone tablets (and dodged the chemo bullet.)   Some people don't have side effects from the hormone meds - so fingers crossed you will be one of them!!  I was post menopausal, so was already 'depleted' of many hormones!  LOL

It may surprise you - depending on the level of surgery that you will require - that it doesn't knock you around as much as you 'think' it will.  I know I was!  I even floated thru 4 weeks of radiation quite well (except for hubby falling off his bike & breaking a couple of ribs & HIM becoming the patient instead of me!  LOL)  

Good on you for getting back to your craft group & finding some immediate support amongst it's members. You'll be able to raise many questions & issues with them (and us) and also get tips - that will  help smooth out the bumpy road.  I was the same with my uke group - I dreaded telling them, as I run the group - and like you - about 6 said 'Me Too!'  They've become my greatest supporters.

I hope to get my 2 year results today ...... all the best with your hubby - I hope he gets the call soon & that his 2nd transplant 'takes better' than the first one xxx  I have a buddy in Tassie who had a transplant last year & he has a new lease of life - and another in NSW who's about to start dialysis.

take care, all the best xx

It's amazing how many women out there have had bc that you might not have been aware of.  I've had a few at work come up to me quietly and tell me they've been through it.  Lobular is a sneaky one and can be very hard to see on a mammogram or ultrasound.  Don't stress too much about treatment at this stage - you'll find out in due course.  There are many factors which influence the type of treatment that will be suggested.  For me, it was the lot but for others it hasn't been.

Hi Arpie, 
Thanks for your interesting informative reply.
I'm from WA and no one advised me to have an ultrasound although I have heard that it is a better way to detect anything. But hay... it only happens to other women! Silly me , I should have listened. I tell everyone now to go have an ultrasound even if it costs you. (Young ones too). No one should have to go through this knowing it could have been found earlier.
We should all lobby for earlier screening and ultrasounds, theres too many slipping through their system as it is now. 
I've been told that my cancer is lobular, so I will need hormone treatment, not sure what that is going to do to me.
Sorry to hear your husband is so sick.  I had to laugh about the lemon tree, hopefully it is tough and will survive, and that your husband didn't hurt himself and had a good workout!🍋🏋️‍♂️
I'm worried how we will cope if Jim gets a kidney transplant as I wont be well enough to look after him. It will be his second one so I know what to exspect.😐 
I havent been to my craft group since I found out and so decided to go today. It was the best thing I could have done. I'm  fairly new to the group but they are all so freindly. I couldnt believe it when we got talking.....there were about 6 out of aprox 20 women that had had breast cancer in various forms! So now my craft group is like a support group!
Fingers and toes crossed for my scans on Friday. Thanks for your good wishes. ☺ xx

Great that the bone scans are clear @Hils!   

Do you know what type of BC it is yet?  Lobular, Ductal etc?  

Where abouts are you - Town/Region - then members can point you towards specific support groups in your area.  You can add it to your profile.

Definitely don't blame yourself re the HRT or any other reason for 'getting it' - I've always reckoned we've all got cancer 'in us' and it takes a particular 'event' to kick start the uncontrollable cell reproduction (like a knock, a broken limb, or a range of medical conditions - possibly even a reaction from drugs we've taken, or food we've eaten that has been sprayed by herbicides.)  They really don't know why any of us get any of the cancers - other than smoking definitely influencing lung cancer.

Oh no - the 'dense breast tissue' issue again!  :(    I am currently at loggerheads with BreastScreen NSW as I have been demanding that they advise their clients if they have dense breast tissue - as they can see it on the screen then & there.  Not telling them that their mammograms are 'compromised' often results in the tumours being found much later, much bigger & possibly nastier than if detected earlier by ultrasound.  I've recently received a letter from them asking me NOT to post on their Facebook page as I frequently mention the need of ultrasounds - as well as pushing the 'Free from 40' aspect, as they continually keep advertising 50-74!!    I've been advised to contact  [email protected] as the best way to direct my concerns to BreastScreen Australia at the Department of Health - so will be doing so.

I come from a family with absolutely no cancer history - and I also have dense breast tissue - my tumours were found 2 years ago by my GP just 4 months after a totally CLEAR mammogram.  So this year, I asked BSNSW to review my mammogram prior to the detection to see (if in hindsight) they could detect the tumours - and they gleefully told me that I didn't have cancer!  I couldn't believe it!  They copped a real blast from me regarding the wording of their reply to my review request!!

Breast Screen WA actually advise their clients with dense breast tissue that they need to have an ultrasound as well as (even instead of) a mammogram, as dense breast tissue shows as 'white/occult' on the mammogram - as does the tumour.  So 'white on white' = non detectable!  :(  

I am a carer too - my husband had most of his stomach removed due to cancer in 2010 and now also has dementia, diabetes and is an anaphylactic!  Never a dull day!  Yesterday he trimmed our orange tree almost back to the trunk  :( 

Take care & all the best with your appointments xx

@Hils,

It's a common thing to try and find a "reason" that it happened to you.  What you did to yourself to get it so to speak.  All the scientists and medico's still don't know so please don't beat your self up.  There is no room for guilt in this little trip.  This thing does not discriminate.  I work in a hospital on the surgical ward.  I have seen everything from a 16 yo old girl to a 92 year old man deal with breast cancer.
You did nothing wrong lovely.

Thanks Annie C, I  hope your doing ok now. Saw that you live in the Kimberley, been there a couple of times, its an amazing place!

@Hils
Please don't beat yourself up over HRT. 
My older sister was on HRT for over 10 years.
She is 12 years older than I. 

When I asked my GP for HRT some 15 years ago , she was definitely on the NO side. This was at the time when the link between HRT and Breast Cancer was all over the media and so I did not take HRT.

Guess what?

No Breast Cancer for my sister who had many years on HRT, but I was the lucky one. How ironic was that? My cancer was also hormone receptive.

I guess what I am trying to reassure you with is that none of us really knows, not even the medical profession. 

Thankyou to you all for your kind comments. 
Well my bone scan was clear so some good news to celebrate! 
My cancer is 7cm stage 2, and the surgeon thinks it was there for 2 to three years....I nearly fell off my seat! So much for regular mamograms, two years is too long to wait! It may not have shown up as they said I have dense tissue probably due to HRT. I feel like I have done this to myself because I was on HRT. The cancer is also hormone receptive 😐. So it was recommended I had a full mastectomy and full lymph node removal. I wanted a recon at the same time but he kind of talked me out of that until all was finished...chemo and radiotherapy.  Still not happy with that but I suppose I'll get used to it. I feel like I didnt have enough info on recon then and the appointment was rushed. I'm thinking of ringing the breast care nurse to see if I can have a talk with her. I dont have the mri till next friday and the op is planned for the11th of the11th......wont forget that date!

Welcome to the club @Hils, also sorry you're here...but please know what a life support it is and how wonderful the sisterhood on here is! 

Im relatively new, diagnosed in July after a routine mammo too. 
lt'd be a cyst everyone said :#. So a couple of biopsies and cans later here I am. 
The waiting bit really hard, once you have a plan and get more info, (from this page is safest and best, ) it's easier to deal with. 
Hang in there. I find it best to just take one wave at a time. Sending hugs. X