Hello! I am 42 and was diagnosed with a grade 1 ductal tumour on 29 March, which is rubbish, but I feel quite lucky with my results so far. There is a strong family history, and my diagnosis was a year after my elder sister was diagnosed. I was put on the early screening programme after my sisters diagnosis. I went to see the breast nurse who said ‘everything felt normal’. I then got a dreaded recall after the mammogram.
I have had a lymph node biopsy, thankfully all clear. The ultrasound showed that the tumour was 42 mm, so if that was the case I had decided to have a mastectomy because a lot of boob would be taken away. I had an mri scan to confirm the size, the results came back that it was 22mm, but there was another area to the side of it, the mri people thought it looked benign, so I got sent for another ultrasound, but the ‘blob’ was nowhere to be found. It is within the 1cm margin so would be removed anyway. Because it is smaller than thought I can now have a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy, which I am having on 22 May.
So although it is pants having the diagnosis, with my family history I have always thought ‘when’ not ‘if’, and everything is as good as it could be, and I feel I have been ‘let off’ relatively lightly.