Just found this forum as I’m wide awake at 1 a.m. worrying about my forthcoming appointment for a mammogram. I’m a 42 year old single mother. I found a large solid round lump on the left side of my left breast; in addition to this my left one is now appearing larger than the right, and it is misshapen. My GP referred me to the breast clinic (appt this thurs) and like others on here, I can’t stop worrying. Does this sound like breast cancer or does it sound like it could possibly be a cyst or something like that? If it is breast cancer can I just have them chopped off and (hopefully) be done with it, if it hasn’t already spread? My child completely and wholly relies on me, and me not being around in the future is not an option for this reason. Thank you for reading this. Sorry if I sound ignorant.
Hello Julie, you have no need to apologise. You do not sound ignorant, just very worried and frightened as we all have been before we knew what, if anything we were facing. You have done the right thing in going to your GP and I’ m glad you have your appointment at the breast clinic. I can’t tell you if you have cancer or not - I’m not a medical person - but most women who have appointments at the breast clinic have something other than cancer going on. Even if it does turn out to be cancer please be reassured that the treatments on offer today are brilliant and the majority of us do very well - I had my operation 18 months ago and am fit and well with no evidence of disease. At the moment you are all at sea as you don’t know what you may face and everything is out of your control so feeling terrified is completely normal. Please be reassured that once you know what is going on, and what is going to be done about it you will feel much better. Please don’t start googling your symptoms, you’ll only scare yourself silly and get inaccurate information. Thursday isn’t too far away, in the mean time keep yourself as busy as you can, to keep your mind off your worries and try and have some treats. BCC have an excellent booklet about your appointment at the breast clinic which you can download from this site. Stay on this site, have a rant, cry or whatever, we don’t mind; and do let us know how you get on. Sending you (((hugs))) and best wishes for Thursday, Pat x
Welcome to the BCC forums where the support will continue from your fellow users and our helpliners are on hand with practical and emotional support for you on 0808 800 6000, you can call between 9-5 weekdays and 10-2 Saturdays
Here’s a link to the ‘Worried’ section of the site where you will find the booklet kindly mentioned by Trisha:
the place you are in is by far the worst, not knowing what you are dealing with and your mind going into overdrive, phantom aches and pains, and the constant stress and worry, I wont try and tell you not to worry, that would be impossible.
If you look at old threads you will see many lumps are not cancer. But everyone still goes through the unbelievable stress, made even worse when you have young children.
until you get answers your mind will be in overdrive. Even if you get a bad result it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. There is a lot of help out there and for the emotional stuff there is always us here. We have all been there.
Don’t think any questions are ignorant or stupid. I knew next to nothing about breast cancer, I was amazed to discover there are so many different kinds, but until I found out my type I just freaked myself out looking things up that were not at all relevant to my treatment.
I hope you get the all clear but until then the worry is hard to deal with.
Thanks to you all for your kind and encouraging messages. How lovely that you make the effort to write and reassure me when you don’t know me. I appreciate it so much. Pat I am so glad you have made a full recovery, and Keeks I really hope you have now too. Thanks for the information Lucy. I will stop googling and just get on with things! I’m feeling a lot more positive now after my little blip. The kindness of strangers is the most cheering thought of all!
