Waiting fir results

Hi , a warm welcome to the community, sorry you find yourself here but it’s the best place for support and shared experiences. Firstly, I think we’ve all found the waiting for appointments and results to be tortuous and feels never ending. There’s really no easy way to get through these periods but do keep coming here to ask questions or just to rant and rave. 
You are completely justified in feeling angry towards your GP, so I think you need to allow yourself to feel it, but then try to ‘park it’ as it’s probably not helpful to keep returning to it. But don’t deny your anger, she was wrong to delay. Congratulate yourself for being right and strong by insisting you needed to be seen. You have already made the first step towards recovery by having the biopsy. 
Re the additional pains you are feeling, many people do report this during the waiting period, obviously I can’t reassure you that it’s nothing but it does seem to be quite common, and then mysteriously disappears once a treatment plan is in place! In my case I developed stomach cramps and was convinced it had spread, until I realised I’d been eating lots of coconut products in a health drive. They’re full of saturated fat and as soon as I made the connection, and moderated my intake, the cramps vanished! Also my biopsied breast hurt a lot afterwards, I had to wear a crop top at night to support it and I’m not big boobed by any measure. 
Somehow you will get through this horrible waiting time, and on Wednesday you’ll get some answers and a plan for the elimination of the beast! Do also remember that breast cancer is very treatable nowadays, there are lots of us rattling around this site at different stages of treatment, some many many years down the line. 
Wishing you well and sending love and gentle hugs, HFxxxx

Hi . Welcome.  It's so tough waiting for results but good on you pushing your GP and if I was in your position I would write a letter of complaint to practice manager.  Set it out as timeline and GP response and how you wish the practice to learn from this and not be too quick to judge on age of patient .  Yes many lumps are benign but they should all be checked as should any concerns about changes on breast as I had no lump. 

The waiting for results & treatment plan the worse but the wheels are in motion and you feel calmer once they tell you how they are going treat your cancer.  The prognosis for breast cancer is fantastic as research has been heavily funded and it's constantly improving .

This site is amazing .  You can ask any question they pops in your head !  No stupid or too embarrassing questions out there !  If you've thought of it so have others .  You will get mixed responses from family & friends !  Many try it dismiss it as 'you'll be fine' as they don't know what else to say but IF you do have cancer you might find yourself being allowed to acknowledge that being told you have cancer is life changing .  Yes you are going to survive this but you may need a period of adjustment.  Posters on this site will walk this journey remotely with you.  You are not alone .  

if they struggling to sleep check out awake thread.  It's for insomniacs!  No set topic just chat xx

Hi

Sending you good luck and best wishes for your biopsy results. IF you do have cancer, this forum will be here for you. I'm really sorry to hear that you find yourself in this situation and well done you for persisting with your GP despite being given the brush off. It is probably not at the top of your priority list right now, but as has been suggested, in your position I would probably put in a complaint to the practice manager. There is no way that the GP can tell if a lump is cancerous or not just by physical examination and regardless of your age, I would have thought that should have been referred on the urgent 2 week timescale. You've done your bit and flagged this up to your doctor, the wheels are now in motion and if it is confirmed then things should start moving pretty quickly for you and you will feel better when you have a treatment plan in place. I know its easier said than done but try to distract yourself with other things until your results appointment. I can understand you feeling more aches and pains in this interim period, as your mind goes into overdrive. Google usually makes my anxiety a lot worse so would recommend trying to stay away from it. Whatever the results are, there are a lot of treatments and expertise available for dealing with breast cancer. Hang in there. Sending a virtual hug. x 

Thank you for the kind messages they really helped. I have been diagnosed with lobular breast cancer grade 2. Stage is unknown yet but I have quite a large tumour. 

I will probably need a double mastectomy due to the increase risk of it developing in the other breast. I may need chemo before the surgery to try and shrink it as its 4.6cm and possibly attached to my pectoral muscle. No signs it's on the lymph nodes. 

Everyone keeps asking me how I am, I've not cried yet and I just feel numb. Don't know what to tell them. I actually feel better now i know for certain the unknown was driving me mad. 

Thank you for your support x

  It's a funny feeling isn't it but having a treatment plan helps so much as you now know it's treatable.  You will have highs and low points throughout this but you will get through it.  

Have they offered you reconstruction. There a plenty of ladies on this thread who've gone through reconstruction so if you have questions it maybe worth starting up a thread about it.

Remember no such thing as a trivial or silly question xxx

I'm sorry to hear your news and that your suspicions were confirmed. I can empathise with not knowing how to feel, it's such a big piece of news and its hard to know what to say to people. I actually didn't tell many people for a long time because I found it too hard to have that conversation again and again. Do whatever feels best for you. I remember also feeling a strange sense of relief when I knew for certain. As you say, the knowing - but not knowing - was unbearable. At least now you can get on with the first bit of the treatment plan. I know there are some ladies on the forum who have had lobular breast cancer and hopefully they will be in touch. Well done again for bringing this to the attention of your GP. This forum will be here to help you along with your treatment, there's a wealth of knowledge because we have all had different experiences. Stay strong if you can. It might seem like a mountain you have to climb but you've already done the first bit, and finding the tumour was the first step on your road to recovery. Sending virtual hugs to you. xx

Hi ,

Sorry to find you here but it is a great source of help and support from others who have been in your situation. I was told early on not to go on mr google as the info there is often very misleading and out of date. As others have said I would recommend that you contact your gp practice manager to alert them to the delay you had in being referred for assessment.But now you are on your way and fairly soon a full treatment plan will be in place for you.

Friends and family will be unsure what to say to you after they have said they are sorry to hear of your diagnosis! Keep in touch with them as you wish and give them the information that you are willing to share - they may not want to hear about the colour of your bruising following the biopsy! I don't mean to be flippant when I say that but have found that some of my friends don't want the details while others are more interested.Play it by ear as they say.

I wish you well with all your treatments and hope that you feel able to ask questions ,seek support and rant on here as needed.Take a look at some of the other threads on here and maybe even join in the "fun" on some of them. Be kind to yourself and given time you will cope with the shock and realise that cancer is very treatable these days. Sending big hugs xxxKwissy

I know a bit of how you feel. I was sent for a early mammogram on 24th June due to family history (I’m 50 in October) having got a set of results from genetic testing in February saying no changes and no elevated risk. I got a call back next day and was diagnosed 10 days later after biopsies with grade 2 lobular breast cancer. We’re now waiting for an MRI and then a follow up appointment to tell us what’s next. It’s really scary and I’m having pain in the area and shoulder I wasn’t before. I do think some of it is down to stress. The waiting is the worst as you fill the blanks with everything else. There are days where it’s not so bad and others where it gets a bit overwhelming. 

I’m trying to hang in and keep in in perspective but it’s not easy. You’re really not alone with this and feeling like you’re going mad is exactly how I feel. 

Hang in there. Hopefully we get clarity soon but it is really hard. Xx

Burge23 and , just wanted to say hi. I’m also a member of the ‘lob mob’ and a little bit further along the treatment path. Was diagnosed in March this year with a grade two lobular in my left breast. I can absolutely appreciate how you are feeling right now!  Stress and anxiety do really peculiar stuff to your body and I think from the time I was told it was a lobular and there was a chance that it could also be in the other breast, I started feeling all sorts of odd pains in both breasts. Lobular is a sneaky little cancer and can grow bi-laterally, hence the need for MRI.  Oddly enough, on the day of the MRI, I felt strangely calmer. I guess it was because I knew I would be that much closer to a definitive treatment pathway. I was still a bit nervous when I turned up for the appointment but the MRI team couldn’t have been nicer and really did their best to relax me as I went in to the scanner. The scan of both boobs took about 40 minutes in total. No discomfort, even when the contrast dye was squirted in  -  all you feel is  a fleeting slight warmth going through  your body.  The surgeon phoned me a couple of days later to say that the cancer was definitely just in the one breast only and so he intended to do a lumpectomy on that boob & remove the sentinel node  but would leave the healthy boob alone. Following on from  the op, I had five days of radiotherapy and am taking a daily Anastrozole tablet (an aromatase inhibitor)for at least the next five years. Lobular cancer is a very oestrogen driven cancer and this pill helps to reduce the oestrogen levels in your body. You may be prescribed Tamoxifem or Letrozole at some point during your treatment , rather than Anastrozole, and these  also help with the oestrogen. I also have a six monthly infusion of Zometa, which helps my bones to deal with the loss of oestrogen within my body and on-going appointments with the surgeon and oncologist.

However, your team will work out the best treatment pathway for you as an individual and that may be a little different from mine, but I thought I’d share my own experience with you!

Big hugs, Zeto xx

Hi Zeto,

Thanks! It’s really good to have an idea of what might be ahead. I have my MRI on 4th August and have a meeting in the 10th to find out the plan. Like you they are telling me it’s growing bi-laterally which is why I couldn’t feel anything. When I left the room after the original mammogram I’d seen the screen and saw what looked like a lightning strike and sort of thought “Oh what’s that?” as I walked out. I got the call back the next morning, did the inevitable googling and found I had a slight dimple at the top of my left breast, where the lightning strike had been on the screen, which only showed if I pushed the breast upwards. In every other way they tell you to move to check it didn’t show. I stopped my HRT patches that day so when I got the diagnosis and they told me to stop taking it I could at least say I already had. I don’t know if that’s contributing to the aches, pains and sleep too - most likely! 

The ultrasound showed two areas slightly apart. One is 4mm and the other 2.4cm so when I met the surgeon at the first meeting he was talking about removing about a 4cm area but possibly having to reduce the size of the other breast at the same time. They couldn’t see anything in the lymph nodes but I’ll find out everything for definite on the 10th.

The whole thing is a rollercoaster and emotions seem to swing really quickly without much warning or reason but I think you’re right it’s just the wait for clarity. The other bit that keeps hitting me is that I’m not 50 until October and had an early screen because of family history. They did the screening in our area in February apparently so without the screen it would have been 3 years before I would have been seen and with it being lobular the situation could have been very different. It brings huge waves of “Thank God they’ve found it” and just overwhelming relief but that they is followed by a equally strong reaction to the possibility that could have been the case without the scan. Luckily my family are being amazing and we’re just taking it one day at a time.

Hearing your experience is a real relief and plugs some of the scary gaps.

Thank you!

Burge