Newly diagnosed and new here.

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Hello-all..

I’m a single parent, have elderly parents who I try to support, I work full time in a demanding career and I'm waiting for a month for either breast conserving surgery or mastectomy. I am ‘likely’ to need radiotherapy and ‘possibly’ chemo (dependent on further eats) as well as definitely hormone treatment. 

I have been diagnosed with multi-focal breast cancer- and needing further testing by Vaccum Assisted Biopsy.on one of the three lesions.

I’ve had to stop taking HRT so now I have those symptoms as well as waves of panic and nauseating fear. The three core biopsies caused massive bruising and some pain- much more than ‘a couple of paracetamol’ could alleviate. So will the VAB be even worse?

Any advice and support on how to cope with the wait and uncertainty will be very much appreciated. 

  • Hi  and welcome to the online community

    I can't help with whether VAB will be worse than your previous biopsies as I, thankfully, didn't get pain from either type. Hopefully you'll be fine but perhaps you could mention to the person who does the biopsy before they start how badly you were affected last time and they'll be able to sort out some pain relief for you.

    As for how to cope with the waiting and uncertainty, I found that if I filled as much of my time as possible doing things I enjoyed, ie hobbies, meeting friends, etc then I had less time to think about the 'what ifs'. Also, something I still try to live by is that no amount of worrying will change the outcome but it will ruin the present....easier said than done sometimes, but I do try.

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