On meeting friends last October I heard that a mutual friend was just about to have her 2nd round of chemo for BC. I had been suspicious of a ‘shadow’ on my breast for some months but had not previously been able to feel anything. Determined to have a good prod in the bath that evening I found the offending blighter!
Dx: Invasive lobular 1.5mm Grade 2, had WLE, 0/4 nodes, er/pr positive, 4 x EC, rads and am now on Tamoxifen for 5 years.
I had been expecting to find more of a lump/half grape shape but mine was more of a thickening which had been difficult to find earlier. Glad it was caught early - I received my first Mammogram screening appointment when I was half way through treatment!
Thinking of you all, Julie - good luck with the chemo on Friday
lol Chris
Hi Girls,
Mine was found last jan by mammogram, having been part of a study. It was offered to me after my mother and sister were diagnosed. the genetics department said I was moderate risk. So glad I did sign up. My mum went on to have a second one and in the meantime an aunt and 2 cousins have also been dx.
Mine was very small, not aggressive and quickly dealt with. I’ve been told its not a typical family type and the gene test came back negative. However I think theres increasing research into non BrCa family cancers, or at least I hope so, as this comprises the larger group.
I would hope for a better screening process nationwide to include yearly mams. mine was detected at 47 so if I waited for the current system to kick in, I’d be dead!
Nicky x
Hi,
I have always had slightly lumpy boobs.
I had found two breast lumps that turned out to be nothings: One just before I got pregnant with my lovely son and one in Feb 2009 post breast feeding. So when lump no 3 appeared in January of this year I ignored it. I was about to turn 40 then and I was convinced that anything suspicious would have been picked up by the 2009 mammogram. I ignored it even when my nipple stopped springing back when getting undressed in the summer.
In September ,when I was having a routine smear the practice nurse asked me about breast self examination. I told her I had found a lump but that I was sure it couldn’t be suspicious because of the previous mammogram. She told me that I needed to get it checked and that if I hadn’t made a GP appointment she would be ringing me up until I did.
I made that appointment and here I am: 8x2x5 com mass Invasive +DCIS with FNA lymph node carcinoma.
Looking at my boobs now- it is so obvious something was wrong. I think the changes were so gradual that I got used to them being different from each other. I feel angry with myself as I might have escaped chemo and the mx and axc that is looming when the chemo finishes. But I am so grateful the nurse asked me. I could have left it even longer if she hadn’t.
It is really cathartic to share this. Thank you AlexG for starting this thread.
Sue x
Coming back from visiting a relative in hospital I had stabbing breast pains which only lasted a few seconds. When I got home I laid on the sofa watching TV and had the same stabbing pains. Went to feel the area and there was a lump. I’d always checked myself and couldn’t understand how the lump had appeared and gone unnoticed.
I found the lump myself. I had a history of lumpy breasts and had had two or three benign lumps and when I went to my GP she said she thought it felt like another benign one, but referred me our local hospital. I still hadn’t heard from them after a week so I phoned and was told I wasn’t considered urgent and was on a 12-week waiting list! I phoned a private hospital that day and was seen two days later - I’m not particularly well off but I knew I would just worry if I didn’t get it done. Lucky I did - had a mammogram and doc said he was concerned about it and asked if I wanted to switch to his clinic at an NHS hospital, which I did. They did a biopsy within days and when I went for the results a couple of days later the bcn told me I had “a wee cancer”! I had the lump removed and an SNB. It turned out to be multi-focal (more than one lump)with unclear margins and 1 positive node, so had to have mx, chemo, rads and am now on Tamoxifen. Private appointment cost £300 but well worth it - although, of course, it shouldn’t have to be like that.
I had a routine mammogram my 3rd and got a call back am having surgery next week lumpectomy and some lymph gland removal then have another wait to find out if I need further treatment but am so pleased they found it.
I found the lump myself. Nothing had shown on my regular mammogram done 18 months previously. In fact, when they subsequently did a mammogram at the hospital, the lump was nowhere in sight!!!
It did show on a scan. I am due my first follow-up mammo in February; and I have already told the consultant I want a scan not a mammo. The response was not helpful…an argument is looming next year!!!
Age 41 never even given BC a thought, I developed a dimple on the underside of my breast which you could only really see when I lifted my arm up. Turned out to be a 75mm lobular and I could not feel any lump or thickening even when shown where it was!!!
This is all very scary, never thought i would have bc just thought it would be a cyst like i had in 1998, so glad my oh was with me on that 1st app, good luck evey1 xx
Routine mammo, my fifth, clear as a bell in the middle of the image - they even showed me the previous mammo result from 3 years previous as a comparison. I couldn’t see it or feel it and ultrasound scan didn’t show it. Had two biopsies as the first one missed it and then wire guided WLE for 6mm invasive ductal carcinoma, er+, SNB was clear.
3 months tamoxifen now on arimidex. I got the tattoos and appointments lined up for RADs and then decided not to have them.
mine was picked up on my first routine mammogram, i am 52.no symptems or lumps got recalled to the breast clinic. they showed me what was concerning them, and it looked like 5 little grains of rice.they described this as calcification, ? never herd of it …had another mammogram, and 9 core biopseys, had to wait a week for results, was told i had cell changes and DCIS was mentioned, cell changes.?? i asked if it was breast cancer and was told it was , but it was classed as pre cancer, i needed further core biopseys to check that it was just DCIS.i had the second c/b done under ultrasound . 4 days wait for the results. and i now had invasive breast cancer, had a wire guided wide section and a sentinal node biopsey. results took 2 weeks, good news and bad… good news sentinal node pluss 3 other nodes all clear… thank god, but one of the margins was not clear. further surgery was needed there was DCIS in this tissue but i was now clear, 17 radiotherapys and taking aromasin for 5 years … thank god for mammogams,