Hi girls.
I’m new here, 41, and a little scared, and I’m hoping someone can shed light on my situation. I found a single prominent lump 3 weeks ago in my left breast that felt quite sore, so I had it checked out by the GP the next day. She did a physical examination of both breasts and referred me to the breast clinic for a thorough checkup.
I had the usual mammogram and ultrasound and the left breast showed up as having not one but three benign cysts in the end, much to my relief as you can imagine. I then had a brief physical examination followed by my oncologist leaving the room to check the mammogram results again and calling me through for a quick chat. She had a magnifying glass against the x-ray and pointed out a cluster of fine microcalcification in the upper outer quadrant of my right UNaffected breast; I had no idea what this was, and non-plussed, took her up on her offer to immediately do a biopsy, I figured it was better than making another appointment and waiting. The biopsy was horrendous. I only have small breasts and it was tricky trying to get samples of the tissue whilst being clamped lying down on my left side (it was impossible for them to do it with me sitting). My oncologist checked all 6 samples via x-ray and was satisfied she’d got enough microcalcs to get checked out. 4 hours later, on my way out and feeling a bit worried, I asked to be copied in on all letters of communication between my oncologist to my GP then went home, sore but not too bruised.
The week wait was the worst thing ever. 2 days in I received the oncologist’s copy letter to my GP’s surgery informing them that ‘physical examination confirmed dense breast tissue in the upper, outer quadrant with a slightly denser area more inferolaterally. Mammography showed a dense parenchymal pattern with low density rounded opacities in the inner left breast which were found to be cysts on ultrasound and a small cluster of very fine microcalcification in the upper, outer quadrant of the right breast which was indeterminate in nature and was biopsied’. I did a lot of research on the Internet after that.
Results day finally came round and this morning I was seen by a surgeon. She informed me that they had found ‘evidence of abnormal cell activity but needed to do a wire-localisation surgery in 3 weeks’ time and I’d get the results in 5!'. She assured me I do not have cancer but that it may be pre-invasive cancer. I am to have a small 6mm area removed under general and it’ll take a day to do. From there she thinks they’ll be able to determine what I have, if anything. I left there more nervous and confused than when I went in. My questions are:
- How come after 6 biopsies they couldn’t determine whether there is any cancer (pre or whatever) when the microcalcs were caught up in the sample tissue?
- Why not just repeat the original biopsy procedure as opposed to doing the larger tissue removal in 3 weeks’ time?
- How can they be sure they’ll get better info from a tiny 6mm lump removal if they couldn’t via 6 samples, what’s the difference?
- Is it possible the right UO breast tissue is so dense that it’s hiding something like a lesion and that’s why the biopsy results proved to be indeterminate and they need to dig deeper so to speak?
I know everyone’s unique, and that I should just sit back, be patient and wait 5 weeks, but can anyone tell me if their experience was similar and what the outcome was. I know what could possible be in store as I’ve read up on all the potential outcomes, I’d just like to make sense of all this and prepare myself a bit better, mentally speaking. I wanted a definitive yes or no result today and it’s so frustrating, 5 weeks seems like lightyears away…
Thanks.