Worried about missed diagnosis

Hi Robin47 welcome to the forum. The time waiting for results is the pits and can cause no end of anxieties but you are not alone in that if that's any help? The NHS holidays can throw timescales off a bit and it may be that this is what has happened for you but  they will be calling you back and they will be able to tell you what the biopsies have shown up.

It sounds like they have taken a mammogram and this has shown up 2 areas of concern. Was one of those areas biopsied in the area you are concerned about or not?  If you are concerned that they may have missed something then you should most certainly raise it with them and check that this area has been included in any scans or mammogram .

Hi

Thank you for reply. I am not sure where the areas of concern were. The original lump I went to get checked was a cyst but the mammogram showed up these two areas. The said they would only biospy the larger one which weirdly I cant really feel. I think the smaller area was by my nipple because they lingered there with ultrasound. I have had a burning sensation there which led to me feeling around and now I can feel the lump there. It didn't occur to me at the time because I was in shock to ask why they did not biopsy smaller lump. Surely they could be two different things! Thank you for advice if results come back clear I will mention my concerns about other lump. Do you know who I would raise concerns too?

It is so stressful waiting....waiting and worrying. My advice to to keep on following up....you need to be persistent. Try not to overthink the delay in timing.....I am sure it’s not because ‘you are different’ things just take time....and, to be honest, a day or two will make very little difference to the outcome. Most of us have had challenges along the way. Try to distract yourself if you can.....

In addition, make sure you are keeping an open dialogue with your doctor......my mental health took quite a hit at the beginning of my journey, try to be kind to yourself and, if needed, talk to your doctor about medication. It helped me.

My story is in my profile and, if you need to chat offline, message me.

It is tough, but you are tougher!

Thank you so much, today has been a difficult day but everyone's kind words and advice has really helped.

HiRobin47 you are at the hardest and most stressful stage of all this but it will slowly get better.  I had cysts show up very clearly when the radiologists was examining the area of concern and he was very sure they were benign cysts and just as he was about to give me the all clear he noticed another area which he wasn’t happy with and that’s the area that was biopsied and came back cancerous.  So I imagine that the areas that were not biopsied for you were like mine, they were areas that they felt confident were benign.  

I would definitely still voice your concerns about the area you are worried about just to be safe especially given it doesn’t feel normal to you.  Do bear in mind that knowing it’s there and being in the high state of anxiety you are in could be causing you to imagine pains and sensations that you wouldn’t normally feel so try not to worry too much as chances are high that it isn’t anything to worry about or they would have biopsied that area too.

Your biopsy could come back normal as most of them do but if not remember that breast cancer is very treatable these days  so chances are very good that all will be fine.  I was diagnosed Dec 2020 and I’m all done with treatment now - just taking tamoxifen once a day to help prevent it re occurring.  

Wishing you all the best with your results.

Waiting for results is the worst part of all. It is terrifying.

I was very lucky in that my breast cancer nurse told me exactly what was coming up next and when it would happen.

They told me I likely had cancer on the day I went to the clinic to investigate the lump, and I was then told I'd get the results of biopsy the following thursday after the MDT meeting.

They have always been exactly on time for me in terms of days and next appointment.

It is so stressful waiting for results and if you don't know when you will get them, that is even worse.

Could you call them and ask when you will get the results? They know what an agonising wait it is, I am sure they would be able to help. 

Hi thank you for reply. I rang them on thursday. My results were meant to be discussed on friday 26th but apparently they had not read the scans yet so wasnt discussed. There is a backlog so not sure what is happening. The secretary was quite scary and not very helpful!!

Phoned the clinic to chase today only to find my biospy results are not back from the lab yet. This means another week of waiting. Been 3 weeks already. Told short staffed and bank holiday will have had impact. Feeling broken the stress is so bad.

Hi Robin47, there is no point in me saying to try not to worry because I've been there and it is impossible. There is nothing you can do but wait it out and it is absolutely one of the worst feelings out there. All I can offer is to say there are so many that have been in the same boat as you. It is really disappointing they are not giving you a timescale for the results. As I said, they had already told me that they thought mine was cancer from what they could see on the scans, but they cannot confirm without biopsy results. Did they assign you a breast cancer nurse to talk to?