Hi there to everyone. I am new to this forum. I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, grade 2/3 on 5/4/11. I have been reading other posts and have realised that most people think that this is the worst time, waiting for surgery and treatment to start. I am having wide excision and Sentinel node biopsy on 4th May, and following that, probably radiotherapy. I am so emotional,angry and feel so lonely at times. I have fantastic support from friends and family but they dont know really how I feel. It overwhelms me at times and every morning when I wake up it hits me again.I am trying to keep busy and stay positive but would love to talk to somone who is at a similar stage to me or has recently had similar treatment to what I will be having.I am at a point in my life where everything was so good, but now I feel it is threatened. I hope I havent rabbitted on too much! Elaine
Hi Lainie and welcome to he BCC forums
I am sure your fellow users will be along soon with support for you, in addition here’s the link to the BCC resource pack which has been designed for those newly diagnosed:
Our helpliners can also offer you further support and information on 0808 800 6000, the lines are open weekdays 9-5 and Sat 9-2 (closed BH Monday)
Take care
Lucy
Hi Lainie,
Rabbit all you like you are entitled to…
Welcome, but sorry you have a reason to post on here. Waiting is the worst bit, once you have a treatment plan is does get easier.
I am 34 and was diagnosed in Dec with a Grade 3 invasive ductal carnicoma, I had a WLE with clear margins and a sentinal node biopsy, one of the nodes contained micromets of cancer therefore I had to have a full clearance of nodes which resulted in 2/22 nodes contained micromets. The operation was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Your doing the right thing by keeping busy and once you get a treatment plan it does get easier, try not to google as I made that mistake and scared myself witless, alot of the information online (apart from this site and other well known cancer sites) are out of date, treatment for breast cancer has improved so much over the years.
Sending (((hugs))) to you, and im sure othersa will be along soon to offer support, keep posting on here as this site really helped me when I was diagnosed
Best wishes and Take care
Donna xx
hi lainie,sorry u found the forums but ur in good company! the waiting is awful but it really does improve.i had wle and snb on 4th april(grade 2 invasive ductal 1.5mm.)had clear margins and no node involvment.my treatment plan is 5 yrs tamoxifen and due to start radiotherapy in nxt couple of weeks.once u know what lies ahead u start to look at things a lot more clearly.keep posting and ask any questions u like.someone will always have an answer and be able to reassure u. wishing u lots of love and luck, alex xxx
Hi Lainie
So sorry you had to join us here 
You will get support on here and Yes you are at a very difficult time at the moment and for me it was the hardest time, but you have found this site now and took the first step and posted, and on here you can say what you want, say how you feel and it doesn’t matter, it’s what it’s for and we understand what you’re going through. You will begin to feel better once you have a plan and you’re ‘in the system’ so to speak.
I know you’ll hear it loads of times, but one day at a time really does help and just try to focus on that day. My motto through all this has been ‘a smile a day’ and if you have good family and friends around you then tell them you need to smile, or need a hug. Another thing I did to take my mind off it was play games on the pc, simple ones that didn’t need a lot of thought, but just enough to stop the mind wandering. I know it isn’t easy but you will get through.
And you will be able to smile again; I did as did a lot more of us on here. You only need to read some of the crazy threads and post to realise that a sense of humour can help you through.
Wishing you all the best Dee x
Thanks so much to all who replied to my post! I am so pleased to hear from people in my situation. I was diagnosed on my 58th birthday ( certainly a birthday i will never forget!)and just the day before, my daughter had rung me to say that she is pregnant with our 1st grandchild. I have never experienced such a mixture of emotions. We have waited a long time for such news, and my diagnosis arriving at the same time has made me an emotional wreck. I have always thought that i am a strong and independant person but having bc has brought out a very different side to me. I am sure that talking to others in the same situation is going to help and I cant wait for 4th May, the day of my op, to arrive, so that I can start to fight this disease. Can anyone tell me what the breast looks like after wide excision. Thanks and best wishes to you all. Elaine
Hi Laine
I had the wide local excision (with the wire thing) and one lymph node removed. This was on the 6th April and the swelling is still going down but today for the first time I wore one of my normal bras, as opposed to the support bras I bought. Initially I was told there would be two small incisions, one for the cancer lump, one for the lymph node, but the surgeon did one sort of straight up. ( Whatever, guess he knew best) I have a fairly long scar on the top of my breast stretching back towards my shoulder/armpit, but out of sight from where anyone would normally see it. Even if I had a swimming costume on (unless you go for very low cut jobs) And it is a very thin scar. I guess where it is depends on where they had to remove the lump from. Mine was on the top of the breast above the nipple. The surgeon said he used a bit of skin to fill in the bit he removed, and there is little tuck mark, like where someone tied off a stitch.
Anyway, its not really something that is going to bother me compared to what others have to endure.
PS I know exactly how you feel about the mornings. Every morning I woke up before the operation I thought I had had a dream! And it wasn’t really happening.