I have been told that 95% I have breast cancer, I am going to the hospital on Monday for all results to be in…I don’t know what to think/say/do…can someone help me?
Hi wintersocks
You poor thing, I really feel for you!
Waiting is purgatory, I know what I was like and I still have another wait looming… It does get easier for me, with time, one simply still has to live.
The helpline is closed now, and your appointment is on Monday, but you can call them if you need reassurance. I am presuming all tests have been done???
I found that writing out my worries here, helped and the support of other women who are in the waiting room helped…
Hi Sommer43
Thank-you for taking the time to reply. yes, waiting is difficult and I guess you have done a lot more than me…and I know that must have been so tough for you…
This is the start for me and I feel is so hard for me to navigate my way through…for example I think I recall the docs saying i need a mastectomy I mean how do you trust them to make the right decision for you? I haven’t the strength to research myself…but docs have made the wrong decision before with other stuff.
I’m having a real problem trusting…How did you other people do that?
Thanks
WS
Hi Wintersocks (love the name)
Just to wish you luck on Monday whatever the outcome. You will have a lot of support on this site and you should have access to specialist nurses at the hospital who can talk you through the diagnosis. Try and make a list of any questions you want to ask at your appointment and don’t think that anything is too silly to ask. I had mastectomy Oct 2011 after being recalled following a mammogram so it was a shock, but you get through it one step at a time. Sometimes the not knowing is worse x
Hi Wintersocks,
I agree with turquoise, make a list of questions to ask at your appointment…
It is tough, the waiting, you are in no no land, we can’t take it to any final point can we? It is just there, when we wake up, when we go to sleep, when we eat lunch. This might sound incredibly daft, but the most telling time for me, was when a programme on the TV would be advertised, for over a week away and I would think “I will have had my appointment by then” Crazy what one’s mind can do, I can understand people who tip over the edge and lose it…
I did the research, although the internet route, one has to choose one’s reading carefully… For me to process what was happening to me, (the first time ever this has happened to me) I had to do the research, and I read plenty of published medical papers, so that I could be furnished with the facts, it helped me to understand that even though everybody’s bodies are different, just picking up the terms was enough to get me the attention from my consultant, that I knew what was happening to me and I couldn’t be fobbed off with words I didn’t understand.
I have had so many run ins with the NHS I am dizzy over my mother’s care, trusting is a hard thing to do as it is down to money at the end of the day… But somehow, to trust the consultant, I had to do my research… I had to ask lots of questions, for my peace of mind and even though my story is not an easy one for me, it has paid off in that I have got what I wanted, my lump being removed, I don’t want it in me, and I explained that to her!
Just the fact I have had so many biopsies, that my consultant has not instilled much confidence in me, that I am agreeing to her slicing me open to remove the “right lump” her words, didn’t do much for my trust levels, but I have to trust her, she is the trained one, I am not! It is either that, or go through more worry trying to gain a second opinion and at this time, I am prepared to wait for the histology on the lump they’re removing and have the second one investigated…
The girls here will help you to ask questions. The ones I asked were:
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What is the birad rating?
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What are my options for removal?
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What will be the follow up on removal?
As I have a mass “in keeping with a fibroadenoma” with a “Probably benign” reading, I want it out, with out hesitation. Leaving it is not an option for me and I got that at my results appointment. SHe did not hesitate in getting her diary out with a date. I wasn’t offerend that, it was because I asked for it to be removed.
Until this experience, I didn’t know that “Probably benign” is a medical term used for a reading. Without the research I did, it would have worried me sick!
Best of luck