Diagnosed Today
Hi all, I'm new here. I'm 48. I had my last Mammogram in November 2022, and was due for my next December 7th....however.... I went to the GP in November after feeling a breast lump for 10 days which I was hoping was hormonal. It didn't go away so I got it checked. GP didn't seem concerned but she appreciated that I was and ordered mammogram & ultrasound. Appointment was in 2 weeks. On Wednesday 4/12 I had the scans, the mammogram lady went quiet, later with the sonographer I said 'I'm just not sure if it's in my head or if I'm being hyper-vigilant' He said 'I'd say you're being the right amount of vigilant', then told me he would go and get the Dr who would need to check me. The Dr started telling me that I'll need a biopsy and that the statistics in Australia in particular are very successful for treating breast cancer. He went on to say that he'll get his report to my GP straight away and if we decide to use them for biopsy they'll get me in straight away and to contact my GP. So I drove home and on my way I stopped at the GP, the receptionist could not get me in till the next day to see the GP. I left in tears and went home. I decided to do some work and 2hrs later I got a call to say the GP wanted to see me immediately. I drove back and saw the GP who gave me a referral for urgent biopsy. I went straight to the local ultrasound place to see if they could book me an appointment at their sister site, that I attended earlier that day. They said they'd need to speak to their Dr and would call me. Within an hour they called me, and said their Dr would come to my local clinic and do the biopsies there for me the very next day, saving me the 45minute drive. Thursday 5/12 I had the biopsies of my breast and lymph node done. That was pretty smooth sailing and the Dr said he didn't want me waiting a week at the other clinic so came up here especially for me. All the staff were SO lovely and I'm eternally grateful for their care and concern - however the urgency is absolutely scared the crap out of me š«£ Today 10/12 I got my biopsy results and am officially diagnosed with Breast Cancer. No idea what most of it means but basically š» Invasive Carcinoma NST; and š Metastatic Adenocarcinoma š ER/PR Positive š HER2 Positive (Amplified) An hour after j left the GP, the local Cancer Centre phoned me, so I have: Medical Oncologist Appt: next Monday Radiology Oncologist Appt: next Thursday I don't understand what NST means, and it wasn't staged on pathology...is that usual? I haven't told my children, and am hoping to hold off till after sons' birthday and grandsons first Christmas. One thing I have to say is that I am SO incredibly grateful for the swiftness of care I've received and am receiving. It's a crappy club to be a part of š but I look forward to 'meeting' you all xx
My ALND was a bust..
Hi everyone, this is my first time posting. I discovered my lump in late May while breastfeeding my bub, and am now two weeks post surgery for hormone positive breast cancer. Not the clogged duct I had originally assumed it was. Itās been an awful shock, as I know everyone will understand. So, I have just had a lumpectomy, a LICAP reconstruction on the boob, and level 2 axillary clearance. Iām looking for advice from those who have had an axillary lymph node dissection. I just had my post-op and it was a real mixed bag. Breast cancer out with clear margins (great) BUT seven nodes removed and ā¦ none cancerous. While that sounds like great news the problem is that they had biopsied one suspicious node prior to surgery and it had come back positive. So it appears that this positive node was missed. Iām now headed for a second surgery. My question is - for those of you who have undergone ALND- is it normal that they didnāt mark my positive node in any way so they knew where it was during the biopsy or prior to surgery? The doctors are saying they will mark it for the second surgery with magseed and it seems completely ridiculous to me that this wasnāt done initially, when my breast tumor (which was palpable so very obvious) was marked during biopsy. It just seems very slap dash to presume you donāt need to mark as youāre taking everything out anyway. I am wondering whether not marking or targeting when a clearance is planned is just normal procedure and I should just roll with this situation, or whether my hospital or perhaps the surgeon has not done something they probably should have ie mark the cancerous node. I have an appointment on Friday with the surgeon, and I feel knowing others experiences prior to that conversation will give me some peace of mind, or perhaps the gumption to at least push for a second biopsy alongside the magseed. I want to be really sure this time that they are targeting and marking the right node before I go for another surgery. Any shared experiences or thoughts from those who have walked this road ahead of me is appreciated. You are all so brave. This whole situation is very frightening.
Here's to all the test's we have to have - a wee jingle I made up - cause well we have to find some
So as some of you may know I'm still going through my second round of breast cancer, and still under going all these tests that my medical have put me though, today I chose to go through my I-Med radiology app to look over how many different producers I've been booked for, and gone through, and I came up with this wee jingle I could turn this into a new version of a Christmas song : you know the one āOn the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me ā Well in here goes this wee tune "On my second cancer diagnosis my medical team gave to me " 4 cannulaās into the veins for all the contrast dies 3 breast ultrasounds 3 biopsy ( one double, one triple, then a single ) 3 mammograms 2 MRIās 1 PET Scan 1 MRI guided biopsy 1 genetic test for family history And still no surgery Now tell me you just didnāt sing that tune in your head hopefully that put a smile on your dial , as we try to stay positive and support one another this October, breast cancer awareness month Happy Saturday every one hopefully my medical team will soon know when they want to do the surgery ???
Newly diagnosed
Hello I'm newly diagnosed as of last week,I see my surgeon this coming Tuesday. My head is still spinning with my diagnosis.Ive started to write down questions for my surgeon but its so hard to no where to start with it all . Any suggestions of information I may need would be greatly appreciated.. Sending love to all š
Biopsies and MG
Hello my friendly support friends, itās me again! sorry, this maybe a silly question and itās actually standard procedure I will be having biopsies on 02 Aug. itās going to be core biopsies (both breasts). My breast care nurse tells me after the core biopsies, they will be doing MG ( same day). I thought the breasts would be sore after biopsies and it wouldnāt be fun to be put through the photocopy machine? Is this ānormalā? p.s. I had US and MG done on 14 July already.
Change in Needle Core Biopsy Site
Hi All, I had a needle core biopsy 9 days ago. Havenāt had much discomfort but my breast is a bit achy this morning and the lump is bigger. Iām hoping this is normal. I made the mistake of googling and opened up a Pandoraās box of nightmares! š¬ Anyone with similar symptoms? Thanks xxxWaiting for results
Hi all....happy I found this place to share and learn :) Sooo....I had the re-call after mammogram. No lump as such, just little white area on mammogram. Visit to Breast Clinic for more mammograms and ultrasound. Results showed suspicious 7mm papillery lesion so had 7 core needle biopsies taken. No actual cancerous cells in core biopsies, but as there was also mucin? fluid found with extravasation, which apparently can also be in cancerous lesions, they wanted to take out whole area to be sure. Had surgical biopsy done last Friday, go back for final results on the 31st October. Resting up off work this week and although sore as expected, getting easier each day. Thank goodness I have Netflix! Finding this the hardest part, waiting....wondering which rabbit hole, if any, Iāll be going down next :/On the roller coaster
Hi everyone. Waiting for my biopsy results. Left breast with one huge 6cm and few smaller ones. Ultrasound showed no lymph nodes affected. So as Iām trying to prepare. I am in NT and would like to know about your breast surgeons etc. Iām thinking of travelling interstate for the surgery. My reason is our public hospital made a huge error with my colleague. The path results showed she had reoccurring bc and they booked her in for mastectomy. Only to find out 2 weeks later there was no bc and she did not need the mastectomy and their pathology made the mistake. So having said that you can imagine my gut is saying no, no to the hospital and all itās bc staff. If youāre comfortable to share your experience and surgeon info etc, is really appreciate that. Putting it blunt, I donāt have control of the lumps but at least I can have control of choosing the hospital and surgeon. Thanks. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Active Treatment Over ā waiting for 1 year check up
My name is Karyn and was 45 years old at time of diagnosis (now 46) in February 2018. It was a full on, high octane, hurry up and wait time of about 6 months until I was declared in remission in September 2018. I donāt think Iāll quite believe it until March when I have my first mammogram and ultrasound. Iāve read other stories here at BCNA and my heart breaks for everyone who has been given this diagnosis. Iāve read about women having to put holidays on hold and cancelling exciting events. The irony of my story? I had to put elective surgery on hold to have an urgent lumpectomy. Can you imagine? I was diagnosed during a routine annual mammogram. My GP insisted that I should start having exams at 40 years instead of waiting until 50. Actually, the mammogram didnāt find the tumour, neither did the specialist during the physical exam. I certainly hadnāt noticed it. It was the ultrasound that found the little aggressive Grade 3 invasive carcinoma. Iāve had a history of cysts so I was lying there, daydreaming and finally thought, this ultrasound tech is taking a long time and a lot of pictures. Still didnāt register ā I assumed another cyst. The specialist reviewed the ultrasound and I was zoomed straight back into the room for a core biopsy. She said, itās 100% not a cyst, 99% likely something bad but whatever it is, youāll need surgery to remove it. She phoned less than 24 hours later to tell me, yes, itās cancer and go to my GP for further referrals. I was surprised but not particularly shocked even though no one in my family has ever had cancer of any kind. But I do have a list of other physical and mental health issues a mile long so adding cancer to the mix was kind of like āwhenā will it happen, not āifā it was happen. The same day I got the phone call, I also had a regular appointment with my endocrinologist. When I told him about the BC, he said, we need to get you on insulin injections as well as your current oral meds to keep your diabetes under control while you go through treatment. I think I was more depressed about the injections ā knowing that Iāll be doing that for the rest of my life now. At least some cancers are curable. I went through the public system for the lumpectomy and 20 doses of radiation. I started in the public system for the medical oncologist but I wasnāt happy so Iām now seeing a med/onc privately. It was thought that chemo would not bring me much benefit ā maybe 1% over 10 years from 96% to 97% survival rate if I had lumpectomy and rads. There was no evidence of cancer outside the tumour and nothing in the sentinel node. Given I have such low tolerance to medications and so many other co-morbidities, I live alone with no one to help me and knowing that Iād suffer dreadfully from side effects, with full knowledge I made the decision to not have chemo. I can live with that decision without regret. The lumpectomy was in March 2018, radiation May/June and in July I had a huge operation ā hysterectomy, oophorectomy and bladder sling sheath(20 years of incontinence issues). The hysterectomy and bladder sling sheath were the elective surgeries I had planned for March but had to be put on hold. My cancer is 80% ER+ve so when the doctors found out I was planning a hysterectomy anyway, they recommended I should have everything removed, hence the inclusion of the oophorectomy. The pain of that operation still haunts me ā huge open abdominal wound and days of agony because they couldnāt get my medication right. Recovery took a long, long time. It also meant that I was able to start on letrozole straight away and avoid the tamoxifen. Itās been about 4 months on letrozole and I think due to the cumulative effect, the side effects are hitting me now. The med/onc said this could happen. Some women feel the side effects straight away, others it can take up 6 months to come on. Iām prone to a lot of inflammatory conditions (diabetes, tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, bursitis, dermatitis, epicondylitis, IBS) plus joint and muscular issues. So itās no surprise that now my wrists, elbows and hands are really hurting. I stopped working in March and returned on a graduated work program in October. Iāll be back on full hours in 2 weeks. My manager and co-workers have been very supportive and will do what they can to make things easier. My family, on the other hand, have offered physical support (e.g. cooking, laundry for a few days after the 2 surgeries) but pretty much no emotional support. My mother came with me to an initial appointment with the surgeon. Her only question was, should Karynās sister have a mammogram too? Way to support my illness, Mum! My main issue at the moment (besides the joint pain) is the scanxiety for March. I have PTSD (unrelated to the cancer) so I already have issues with anxiety, depression, emotional regulation disorder. This is just another ingredient to add to the mix. Anyway, thatās probably enough from me for now. My hope for everyone is that today is just slightly more bearable than yesterday with a little hope that tomorrow may bring something better.
