I went to Docs on Tuesday, - lump and painful underarms, got appointment through (via text) for this Tuesday. Letter arrived yesterday'(fast track beast service) I am petrified. Minds working overtime. Anyone had this?
I would imagine that almost everyone on this site has had a similar experience.
However, they routinely send you to the fast track breast clinic if there is a new lump and you're over 30, so it is not quite as scary as you think.
Most lumps (I think something like 80 or 90%) turn out to be benign and they can usually tell you what they are thinking on the day.
The great thing about the breast clinic is that it is a one-stop shop, so you may have examination, mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy all in the one appointment and day, depending on how many of those they want to do.
They cannot diagnose cancer without the results of the biopsy, but they can give you a good indication of what they are thinking.
Cysts show up differently from other lumps so easy to tell those, and cancer can have a different shape to other benign lumps, but they will not know for sure without biopsy. Sometimes, you don't need a biopsy (if it's a cyst for example) as they can see it's not cancer. But even if you have a biopsy, it doesn't mean they definitely think it's cancer, they may just want to be absolutely sure it's not.
I was told on the day that it was likely I had cancer from what they had seen on the scans and my family history.
Thank you for your reassurance. There is no family history of breast cancer, but the demons in my head are there. The top ones do feel very 'cyst like' (of which there is family history)!
