Hi KChest
Without wishing to sound patronising, well done for taking action. Your initial situation sounds a bit like mine - I spotted two small freckles on my areola. GP could only find what she thought was scar tissue from a fibroadenoma removed a long time before but she referred me anyway. I had 5 different diagnoses from that to post-surgery. I too had two lumps (one of each type), one buried between the ribs, and was old enough to just say take the damned thing away please.
Bearing that in mind, I don’t think anyone could say to you that it will be fine, there will be no node involvement. A sentinel node biopsy might provide the answer but, even then, you wouldn’t know the extent of the spread till after surgery. But think about what the lymph nodes are there for - to capture and contain nasty cells. So if there is some node involvement, it means they are doing a good job. It doesn’t mean the disease has spread elsewhere in the body. You will have an MRI, a CT scan and bone scan at some stage and you’ll know if it’s spread or not. Usually ‘or not’. Between now and treatment time, the risk of spread to the lymph nodes can’t be high or your consultant would have you straight on chemo (for instance, if you had the triple negative form of bc which is very aggressive and hard to treat). Since they are in no rush, presumably your bc is hormone-receptive, which will be good news.
We rarely think to ask the questions we want answered. In pre-Covid days, it was normal practice to take a partner or friend to take notes about what you’re told (it will go in one ear and out the other, no matter how hard you concentrate). Ask if you can have someone with you (probably yes for a consultation and no for a treatment) and have a list of questions written down. But be very sure about how much you want or need to know and how much you can handle. Unfortunately once you’ve heard something you didn’t wish to hear, it can’t be unheard. So work out if you are the forensic patient who needs to know everything, peruse every report, view every scan image in order to feel in control of treatment, or if you’re the ostrich patient who just wants to get through it all with only the minimal information - or are you somewhere between? I was an ostrich, by the way. It suited me fine.
You will find this whole experience involves a lot of waiting. If you’re wise, you will use that time well, focusing on building up your fitness and resilience for whatever treatment pathway is decided on. Don’t Google. It feeds our anxiety, is usually way out of date and certainly isn’t tailored to your unique cancer. Worse, it doesn’t give a toss about emotions. It is incapable. Practise relaxation, meditation, mindfulness, anything that will be of use IF you have to undergo one of the tougher or longer treatments. Above all, be patient and kind to yourself. If you feel crap, lie down. If you feel angry, warn those around you and don’t push it down. If you lose appetite, go for snacks, a handful of something every couple of hours, rather than regular meals.
I think in the early stages, most of us picture these nasty little cells running rampant but actually most forms of breast cancer develop slowly so you’re probably not at risk. If you learn that one of your tumours is triple negative, the picture may change, it may not. When I bemoaned the fact that my TNBC went undiagnosed for 18 months because of Covid, lack of GP support and the sheer unlikelihood of developing a secondary tumour in the eye socket/behind the nose, my oncologist said it wouldn’t have made any difference to the treatment I’m having or its effectiveness - and I’m doing rather well.
Sadly there are no guarantees in this. Each breast cancer is unique. It’s not just different types, different locations, it’s also different mutations, genes, DNA (how much more unique can you get?)… But now is not the time to learn those things. Stick with things you are comfortable with, keep your feet firmly on the ground and don’t think about the bad stuff for now. It might never happen - but what misery you will have experienced for nothing! Wishing you all the best,
Jan x
