24mm jumped to 42mm grade 2 to grade 3 clear nodes to positive nodes and more margin needed. GREAT!

Going through breast cancer treatment Surgery
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Sorry I am venting…

 

I am absolutely heart broken and angry…Im angry because I was told my lump was 24mm (approx) based on Ultrasound and mammograms. 

Had it removed and my follow up today and its jumped to 42mm!! Almost double! And the few people I have spoken to say thats unheard of and I should ask for an explanation. So I asked and was told

 

“ultrasound and mammogram give us a guide and we measure the mass seen on the screen but we did tell you then we wont know the exact size or grade until the pathologist had seen it” So…yes I expected some size increase but not twice as big?

 

Its gone up to grade 3 from grade 2 ( I expected that ) and they need me to go back under to get more margins to the side of my breast and under it (its not growing to the chest wall or muscle which is good news) and if more margins are needed I will need a mastectomy.

 

And if that wasn’t bad enough …the needle biopsy they did on one larger lymph node when I had the mammogram came back normal but the one removed in surgery is positive.

 

AND I have to wait FOUR WEEKS for the surgery to clear all my nodes and take more margin… 

 

No postive “This is very treatable” talking this time around. Lots of sad worried faces as i sat there in shock for a second time (First time at the mammogram when I was told it was prob cancer) then I got myself together and felt at 24mm it was Okay…and after all my lymph node needle test came back normal so I had no reason to think that would change so drastically… 

So ALL of that change in several weeks and they want me to wait 4 weeks before they get the margins out and pull all my nodes out?? The margin may have grown another 3mm in 4 weeks! 

I feel like I have a death sentence hanging over me. I didnt before. I was confident for some STUPID reason. 

 

 

 

 

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 Hi liz1969 - I’m so sorry you’ve had a second shock so I’m sending you a big hug to start with. You have come to the right place to vent. You may well want to shout at me/my message - but before you read it, please know that my intention is to give you an alternative more positive way of looking at this (rather than a death sentence) and not in any way to upset you.

 

I’m not medical and these are just my thoughts. From reading your message I’m wondering if your lump maybe hasn’t doubled since you had your ultrasound/mammogram, but was already 42mm at that time? The reply you got did say that they couldn’t give you an accurate size until the pathologist had seen it. I don’t know how accurate ultrasounds/mammograms are, I wasn’t given a size until after surgery (or not one that I remember). I do think that if your team thought that your lump is growing very fast that they would have arranged further surgery faster. They will have been able to see from testing the lump what sort of beast they are dealing with.

 

I’m sure you will find the wait to get clear margins and have the nodes removed will seem a long time - so please stay on here and let everyone help you get through this.

Hugs, Evie xx