Breast cancer diagnosis

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Hi Everyone,

Last week I was told I have breast cancer and that’s it’s triple negative. It’s quite close to my chest wall so I’ve had an mri and ct scan and am due to get the results of those on Monday. But I have been told it will be chemo treatment. I am so scared.
I’m struggling to understand it all, my lymph nodes aren’t swollen which I’m told is a positive, I’m staying off google as I don’t want to scare myself even more but I was wondering how everyone else coped with the waiting stage?

latchbrook 1 day ago

Hi Tinkerbell6215 and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.

I’m Anne, one of the Community Champions here on the Online Community and I was diagnosed with TNBC in April 2022 so understand how scary waiting for treatment can be. I had a lumpectomy followed by chemo and radiotherapy. Whilst chemotherapy isn't the nicest thing in the world it also wasn't half as bad as I was expecting.

The online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you join the main breast cancer and also the dedicated triple negative breast cancer group which are great places to ask questions, share experiences and get support.

To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.

It would be great if you could put something about your diagnosis and proposed treatment into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.

"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"

Freckles91 10 hours ago

Hi Tinkerbell6215 , reading your story feels so familiar fo mine, triple negative stage 2a, no signs it's in my lymph nodes and got my mri/ct on Tuesday. Ct was positive in that it didn't show it spread but mri showed a third lump near my chest wall (I already have a 24mm and 5mm one in another part of my breast). I was about to start egg retrieval jags as I don't have children (I'm 34 in march) but with this new tumour popping up I'm really worried about it spreading more and actually leaning towards abandoning which breaks my heart. Are you doing an egg retrieval or not? I'm getting chemo too and as scary as it is I'm actually really wanting it to start ASAP now that things keep changing. It's a 2 week wait where I am though to book the chemo, if I do the egg retrieval it'll be 3 weeks as its already been 2 weeks since I was first diagnosed and i already met the ivf doctors. What grade is your cancer? I'm grade 3 which makes me worry as that means there more active.

Tinkerbell6215 9 hours ago in reply to Freckles91

Hi Freckles91, I’m so sorry you’re going through this also. Mines grade 3 as well, I have 2 kids and don’t plan to have any more so am keen to get the treatment started. Mines 51mm and am really hoping there’s no others. I don’t think I could handle it.

Freckles91 7 hours ago in reply to Tinkerbell6215

Thank you! Have they not told you when you'll likely start chemotherapy? I understand MRI may slightly change things but i would have thought they'd already have it booked in and then change if mri does change things.

It's good you don't need to freeze your eggs though so you can get the ball rolling quicker.

Waiting stage is horrible, I was totally stressed waiting for my scans to happen and then I tried to just not think about it - easier said than done. I was lucky in that the doctor phoned me the day after the Ct to tell me the results. My ct and mri were on the Tuesday just passed. Mri showed that extra lump and then I already had an ultrasound booked in on Friday where they confirmed it wasn't a cyst. I just wish they would do an ultrasound weekly to keep an eye on it but they say they can't do that.