Hi guys. Sorry for the long one. I'm completely new here, but I feel like I really need to talk to someone (other than my amazing partner).
So my mum had a breast cancer 8 yrs ago (lobular cancer), luckily with quick surgery and radiotheraphy, she won her battle and she's all good. I just turned 38 last month, and I just found a lump in my right breast 2 days ago. I've seen gp yesterday and she reffed me to breast clinic. My right breast is hurting for some time now (dont know how long tbh but must be months now), but only when I'm laying down on my right side or press it, so I wasn't really thinking much of it. Around 2-3 years ago I also had some discharge from my breast -but again I ignored it as I was breastfeeding 2 years earlier, so I know it can happened, and I never noticed any discharge after that ...till now. Yesterday after my appointment I actually check my breast again (purely for discharge) and when pressed, bit of discharge appear (it's rather clear with slightly yellowy tint to it). Now I have to wait for breast clinic to contact me (up to 2 weeks) and I'm freaking out tbh. I'm extremaly tired for months -which I was told is likely side effect of my IBS, but now I wonder if thats the case. Loosing a lot of hair for quite a while (which I was thinking may be just lack of vitamins, despite me having reasonably healthy diet). My question is how to not go mental while waiting? I can't stop thinking 'what if'? I suffer with anxiety as it is, although I was doing better till the point when I stopped anxiety meds beginning of this year and I was ok without it most of the time. I'm trying to keep myself busy, but my mind is just not thinking about anything else for longer than 10-15mins. My reasonable side is telling me it's surely nothing -just some cyst or something, but next minute other side of me is imagining how I'm gonna tell my friends and family about cancer etc. I know its stupid but I cant help it. One minute I'm laughing it off with my dark sense of humour, next I have tears in my eyes and pain in my chest struggling to breath due to anxiety (I will be having my anxiety meds again tonight as requested prescription this morning). I supposed my question is what helped you guys while waiting for appointment/diagnosis cuz atm I'm not doing too great? Thank you in advance xx
Hi paulina 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 breast cancer 3 years ago. Waiting for tests and then results can be hard but I found keeping myself occupied was the best thing to distract myself from the 'what ifs'.
The online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you join the breast cancer group as you'll then connect directly with others who have the same type of cancer as you, and where you can ask questions, share your experiences and give and receive 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 symptoms and tests to date 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"
