My good friend has this week been diagnosed with Breast cancer and has also been recalled tomorrow for a cervical smear re-test. She’s not wanted to tell me any detail of the breast cancer diagnosis or prognosis and says she’s processing it at the moment and taking it a day at a time. Can’t imagine what she’s going through…. I just message her regularly to say ‘I’m here for you if you feel you want to talk and that I’ll always be here etc.’ She’s spoken to her work counsellor, so thankfully is getting some support. She’ll know how totally devastated I am, even though I don’t know the prognosis. Should I ask her for more details to get her to talk or just wait until she’s ready to talk? What else can I do for her? Thank you.
Hello Support my friend.
Thank you for reaching out here, you are very welcome,
I am sorry to hear that your good friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer and that currently is processing this without giving you further information, it certainly can be difficult when first made aware of a new diagnosis of how to process it and who to tell, and I wonder whether your good friend, is holding back from telling you more because she does not want you to worry? Although you have mentioned that she will also know that you will be totally devastated by this news, so, I wondered if you had taken a moment to read THIS , it is link to understanding breast cancer better, we all hear the words but often do not know treatment or symptoms or what grading means when a person with a diagnosis advises us of the grade they have been advised.
I wonder if you were to read this, and give yourself some more knowledge of breast cancer you could then approach your good friend, and explain how devastated you was to hear her news, that you have respected her wishes to allow her to process this for a while and during that time you have done some research of your own, let her know you want to be there for her as much as possible and maybe then ask her, what has she been advised by the oncologist so far, do they have a treatment plan in mind?
I hope that in time you will be able to get your friend to open up to you.
Good Luck.
Lowe'
