Had a results meeting last thursday with a surgeon who confirmed right breast IBC - with spread to lymph nodes, metastases in ribs, query nodule in lung but all major organs clear - as diagnosis and said I would have chemo but would be unlikely to have a mastectomy. She emphasised that chemo was to begin immediately with no delay. The clear outtake was that this was a terminal diagnosis. My husband and sister were with me and heard the same black implied message.
We then were sent to see an oncologist who queried the rib metastases and said it would require a bone scan to confirm and that if the cancer had not metastasised, my cancer was stage 2. If metastasised, stage 4. She said I was to start chemo with a couple of weeks or so -“no rush, you need time to get your head round this”. When I said I understood that IBC was always stage 3+ and that speed of treatment commencement was vital, she said it might be cancer with an inflammatory element and that 2 weeks+ delay in starting chemo would make no difference. She seemed very positive that this was treatable. Do not now know who to believe or what to think. I feel the cancer is progressing fast and am terrified of it running unchecked round my body before chemo starts. My first both noticeable external physical symtoms of increasing redness and swelling in my breast only started less than 4weeks ago. Now half my breast is a painful angry red. I feel like I have been plucked out of my lovely normal life and thrown into a new terror-filled dimension.
All thoughts from you who have been through this diagnosis and treatment (esp speed of commencement) very very welcome.