Hello everyone!
I have been lurking, and observing, since I had the results of my biopsey(sp?) and was told that,Yes, the lump was malignant and I would need treatment. I have been scheduled for surgery at the end of the month - but it just doesn’t seem real; this is happening to someone else; I’m like an onlooker, detatched etc. I suppose this is what they call being in denial.
Joining this site is perhaps a first step to accepting all this is true.
I would just like to say a positive comment on mammograms,(I have been reading a lot of negative ones.)
I have no external symtoms at all, no sign of a lump,(even the hospital staff present when I was having the biopsey done could feel nothing - but it is there on the x-ray) and feel perfectly healthy.
If it was not for the routine mammogram I would stil be undiagnosed,
so I am a big believer in the system. It worked for me!
Hello HiThere and welcome to the Breast Cancer Care discussion forums. You’ve come to the right place for some good support from your fellow forum users who have a wealth of knowledge and experience between them.
While you are waiting for replies I have put for you below links to some of BCC’s publications which you may find helpful. Also available to you free of charge is the BCC helpline if you need to talk to someone independent and in confidence. Lines are open Monday to Friday 9-5 and Saturday 9-2, 0808 800 6000.
Resource pack:
Your operation and recovery:
Take care,
Jo, Facilitator
Hello HiThere,
You will get loads of support here and i would say what you are feeling is what i felt at the beginning. It didn’t seem real, in fact somtimes it still doesn’t feel real to me. It’s a big shock to the system.
So glad you have had a positive experience with your diagnosis, mammograms do a good job.
I think that is one of the suprising things for me too, i felt fine also and was surprised to be diagnosed. It is very hard to get your head around in the beginning but just try to take one day at a time. And if you can take someone with you to your appointments as it’s hard to remember everything they tell you. I hope you have many people around you who will support you. Things do get easier in a way once you start treatment. It’s a process that you will get through.
Have you got a date for your surgery?
I really wish you all the best, sending you a big hug.xxx And if you need anything just ask.
Lots of love
Jayne xxx
Hello,
I’m glad too you have had a good experience from mammograms, its reassuring. I felt just like you when I was diagnosed last November, in shock, felt too well to have cancer and just as you say like it was happening to someone else. I am a nurse and it felt like it was one of my patients not me! Still felt like that at times during my treatment (mastectomy, chemo and radiotherapy). I think it takes a long time to come to terms with whats happened, I feel like I’m still going through that process.
So take each day as it comes, what you are feeling is completely normal. You will feel better once you have a treatment plan,
Take care,
Janey xx
Hi Hi There!
I was in just your situation this time 2 years ago. I too was picked up on a routine scanning and was
a-symptomatic- no lump,no breast changes, no nothing. I think that is partly why you are feeling numb about the whole BC business a the moment - it is just such a shock. I think nearly everyone you meet will have come to a diagnosis by a different route from you- they will all have had suspicious symptoms and either have contacted their GP or at least half expected a call-back after their mammo.
I guess we are all different in our reactions. I knew I should have felt grateful for being picked up but we are not always rational in our emotional responses. My screening was done in a mobile unit in a Tesco Car-park and as a committed Tescopolist , that just confirmed all my anti-Tesco feelings- completely ridiculous I know but it helped ME to blame Tesco!
When I was recalled and later found to be Grade 3, of course I know logically that I should have been grateful- but all I could see was this juggernaut disrupting my happy, healthy life- and I just felt really fed up and angry- and these 'negative" emotions were actually what carried me through the surgery, chemotherapy and rads …that’s what kept me going!
Although I always attended regularly for mammos and in my case, this has perhaps saved or prolonged my life, I remain ambivalent about routine screening & think that it is a very blunt instrument -leading to a huge amount of unpleasant over-treatment for DCIS that would never have become invasive.
Good luck with your surgery; you will definitely feel better once you have started treatment - it is like being on a conveyor belt- - but at least you will be moving forward; just waiting IS hard…