Diagnosed with early Dcis grade 3

Hi

I was diagnosed at 51 with a grade 2 tumour 15mm and grade 3 DCIS 54mm  in one breast and to be honest, I think the emotions are the same no matter how old we are!

First things first - don't use Google.  Stick to trusted sites - Macmillan, Cancer Research UK and Breast Cancer care.  Here's a link to DCIS on Macmillan's site.

Secondly, you feel what you feel - positive, scared, selfish - whatever... what you feel is what you feel and I think most of us will have been through all these emotions.  I'm just over 2 years since diagnosis and just every now and again the same fears rear their head, but mostly now I can actually (apart from the huge scare I have as I had an 80mm lumpectomy) even forget about having had cancer.

Grade 3 DCIS means it is faster growing, but as you rightly say early stages as it hasn't turned into a 'life threatening cancer'.  So that is the VERY good news for you.  However, you will be having treatment and that is possibly going to be similar to those with tumours, so it is understandably an extremely distressing and frightening time for you. 

Despite having a tumour and DCIS I didn't have a CT scan (except for radiotherapy), so maybe this is a new procedure to help pin point it better in your breast?  DCIS doesn't have the obvious outline that a tumour does, so it might be better for your surgeon to be able to ascertain the edges.  They will try to get a 1cm edge around the DCIS to ensure that it's all gone (called a margin around the DCIS) for a lumpectomy.  Even though it's faster growing, the sizing I was given from screening to diagnosis to operation didn't change, so don't go worrying about it spreading- it just wouldn't grow that quickly.  I've a sneaking suspicion that mine was diagnosed a couple of years after it had started and even then the tumour hadn't spread to my lymph nodes. 

I can remember my other half carrying on as normal and chatting about everyday things and I was just thinking "do you think I give a s**t? ... I have cancer!"  I even started sorting everything in my house out - the local charity shops got loads of stuff as it helped to organise my house as if I was organising my mind by doing this.  And yet, throughout even though I was outwardly 100% positive, the 'dark thoughts' didn't stop trying to creep in.

Other people don't really know how to react to the diagnosis and I've learned that the best way I dealt with it was to think of it as 'any other illness'.  If I stopped thinking of it as cancer, then it made it so much easier to deal with.   I had a major road accident at 17 and in comparison to the 2 years of recovery from that, then the BC was a walk in the park for me - and that's how I finally dealt with my diagnosis.  Sometimes I wanted to talk about it, other times ignore it - so family won't know what is right to say and when and as you say at the moment they are changing the subject so as not to upset you by reminding you about it (although I know you will be thinking about it constantly!).  The main thing is to get your own head around it and try and realise that they have found it BEFORE its turned into cancer.

There is the main breast cancer group which would be a good one for you to join as there's many more ladies in this group and if you have any other questions that don't specifically relate to your age, then you may want to ask here - or just have a read of the posts etc.

The main thing to reiterate for you is that it is good news that you have been 'caught' at extremely early stages and this is fabulous news for you (not taking anything away from the fact that I know it's still petrifying for you), but just to reassure you as much as possible that it isn't life threatening.

Kindest wishes,

Hi

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis. All the emotions you've described are perfectly normal and reasonable under the circumstances. I was diagnosed with DCIS back in February, to say I was scared would be an understatement - I was absolutely stunned and terrified. In fact, I'd never even heard of DCIS before I was diagnosed with it! 

I've found it to be a bumpy ride emotionally, so try not to judge yourself for the emotions - feeling a whole range of so-called 'negative' emotions (anger, grief, sadness, fear etc) is completely, 100% understandable and normal. Even though these emotions can feel very uncomfortable, we need them: without fear, we wouldn't get treatment, without anger, we wouldn't feel motivated, without sadness, we wouldn't feel compassion for ourselves at this difficult time etc.

I also want to back up what Lesley said - please stop googling, there's so much inaccurate and confusing (and scary) information out there about DCIS. If you need advice I recommend speaking to your breast care nurse or phoning the Macmillan or Breast Cancer Care helplines (both staffed by amazing people). Macmillan can also let you know what support is available in your local area. 

One of the worst parts of a cancer diagnosis is the waiting - all the uncertainty is exhausting and leaves lots of space for our imaginations to run wild. Try to focus on what you know for certain: you've have a diagnosis of grade 3 DCIS, it's been caught early, treatments for DCIS are highly effective and you are going to receive the treatments you need.

Like I said, I was diagnosed with DCIS in February and here I am, 4 months later - I'm cancer free and healing nicely. I still cry a little bit most days, but I also smile and laugh a lot too. I'm moving forwards and getting my life back and you will too.

Take care x Sending you big hugs xx