Waiting for breast clinic appointment

Hi

A very warm welcome to the online community though sorry you have this worry and needed to find us.

I can understand your worry about Covid - if it helps, when I went for my yearly mammogram in November, my hospital was dealing with social distancing very well - chairs were spaced out, patients asked not to attend too early for appointments - even more hand sanitiser than usual. I felt well protected.

I'll tell you a little about what to expect, but first want to reassure you with a couple of things. The vast majority of referrals to breast clinics turn out to be something other than cancer. If - and it really is a very big if - it does turn out to be cancer, then please be assured that breast cancer is very treatable and outcomes are excellent. There are lots of us on this forum who have been through treatment a few years ago and are getting on with life.

Usually, the procedure is to have a manual exam first - much the same as your GP but with a breast consultant. The next step is a mammogram. If you haven't had one before, it's basically an x-ray of your breasts. They have to flatten them a bit to get a good picture of them and they take images at a couple of different angles. After that you may have an ultrasound - you are semi-reclined and they run a small device over your breasts. the way it was explained to me is that the x-ray shows the size and shape of what's there but the ultrasound shows what type of tissue it is to some degree. If they see tissue which is not normal breast tissue or easily recognisable (like a cyst, for example) they might take a biopsy. They'll give you a local anaesthetic and use a needle to take some samples of the tissue. It doesn't hurt, but the noise might make you jump if they don't warn you. You can go through all of these stages and the results can still come back as negative - meaning it's not cancerous.

If they think it is cancerous, they might tell you that or suggest it straight away, but often they are more vague and they will also try to gauge your willingness to know. 

Best to stay away from Dr Google and stick to informative sites like Macmillan, Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Now. The internet can be great but is a bit sensationalist - there's no value in stories of people who went to the breast clinic and everything was fine - that's why you can't find them. I've been using this site for nearly 5 years and I can assure you we have lots of people visit us in your situation and we are able to cheer for them when everything turns out OK and we wave them goodbye with big smiles.

We will all be hoping that your appointment goes well on Friday and that you'll no longer need us. In the meantime, chat to us here as much as you want - we are a large group  and very friendly and we'll try to answer any questions you have.

Let us know how it goes

R

Hi Poppy,

I have just been diagnosed for second time. I was 37 first time ann now 45. On my first appointment, I had a mammogram, followed by a biopsy. I didn't get cinfirmed results straightaway some doctors are reluctant as they like to know what it actually is before they tell the patient. I was slightly pushy in the sense I told them that they deal with this stuff day in and day out so must have an idea. Although didnt confirm i was told that will discuss treatment plan the following week.

Only advise that I can give is stay away from Google. It is great for some things but not for this. This group is amazing and very helpful. I found a lot of the stuff on Google was American sites and they do things differently.

I was running round like a lunatic yesterday after being told I needed to have chemo again and was given the advice on here to Breathe....it did help.

If you can go for a walk, get so.e fresh air it will help x x x

Thank you Ronstar for taking the time to reply to me. I actually burst into tears as I think I’d been holding emotions in and just having someone who understands the emotions is such a relief! 

Hi Delh, thank you that’s really helpful information and I’m so sorry to hear you are going through this but your words have already helped me immensely! I’m 43 and it’s all just a bit overwhelming right now. I will take your advice for sure, time to breathe and keep busy! X