HI ClaireBee,

I am sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Have you been told what type of breast cancer you have? Now that this has been discovered, you will find that they will start treatment quite quickly. Waiting for scan results is always an anxious time and nearly all of us find our emotions all over the place at this stage. We also find that our imaginations go into overdrive and take us to all sorts of dark places. 

You are in the right hands now, so try to just go with the flow. Don't look at the bigger picture. Just take things day by day. Place your trust in your care team and, you will be fine. I have had 2 bouts of breast cancer in the past 12 years and, I still lead a busy and fulfilling life. You will have a challenging few months of treatment and, you should then get your life back again. Thank goodness for mammograms, which pick cancer up even before we notice it ourselves.

The best way to deal with this wait is to keep yourslf preoccupied with a pastime or some of the many jobs that need to be done. I sincerely hope that all goes well for you. Please keep in touch and let us know how you get on. We are always here for you.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

Hi Jolamine,

Thank you so much for your words. It's intermediate  DCIS. I actually went back to work for two days - currently in low stress job so thought it would be distraction- but today I just couldn't cope and came home early. I've managed to get some medication for the intense anxiety I'm feeling, which should last me over the weekend. I think I'll just have to take next week off work. Ended up telling the manager as I was clearly upset but seems supportive.

One of my adult offspring is on antidepressants and really needs me so don't know how they will cope with the news when I can't keep it together myself. What an awful mess.

Why does it sound like people are saying once you have cancer then you always have it? Surely if you get cured then you don't have it. And everyone has a chance of getting it surely.

Claire x

Hi ClaireBee,

I am glad to hear that your GP has prescribed something for your anxiety and, that this is helping. Intermediate DCIS is perfectly treatable. There is no truth to the fact that once you have cancer, you will always have it. Once you have surgery the cancer should be removed completely. You are then likely to have some form of treatment to stop it from recurring. The more aggressive forms  may recur, but there is no guarantee that this will happen.

It is good news that it hasn't spread to your lymph nodes. It would be unlikely to spread any further before you start fighting it, but is even less likely to spread when it is not in your nodes.One in two people get breast cancer nowadays, so not that many of us are lucky enough not to have a brush with it at some stage.

It will be difficult to break the news to your offspring, but you will find that the more positive you can be when doing so, the better it will be accepted.

Don't forget that we are always here for you.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

Hi,

I won't know for sure about the lymph nodes until after surgery but the ultrasound looks clear. I do feel better already from what you've said though. Thank you.

C.

Hi ClaireBee

I was diagnosed with high grade DCIS in 2918. I took comfort from knowing that DCIS is contained within the Ducts and therefore cannot spread. Your MRI will be to ensure there is no evasive cancer behind the DCIS but if there was it would be tiny and the treatment for DCIS and small invasive cancer is the same.

My high grade DCIS was in both breasts, 6.5cm in one and 7.3 cm in the other. I had wide area incisions with healthy margins and radiotherapy plus hormone therapy.

Try not to worry, four years on I'm going fine and so will you.

Hi again Claire

There have been some great replies and support here already ,but I just thought I'd try and explain a little more about DCIS and your queries about once having cancer you always have it.

DCIS(ductal carcinoma in situ) is a different type of breast cancer to other breast cancers which most people are aware of, like an invasive breast cancer. The 'in situ' part of DCIS means that it has not broken through the duct wall, remains only within the duct and has only just started to form cancer cells in the area. Although there is always  a possibility after surgery that they may find some invasive cells, from your biopsy at the moment, it is staying only within the duct wall.

Intermediate means how quickly the cells are dividing - there are 3 grades -  low grade, intermediate and high grade, with many breast cancers being high grade. This means then that in your case , from the biopsy result , you don't have a high grade invasive cancer. There is more about DCIS here 

 Although cancers have the ability to come back after treatment, many do not, and the further time away after treatment, the less chance it has of returning. DCIS  does not have any invasive cells, is far less likely to come back , and your biopsy also has shown it isn't a high grade. Do give us a call if you need to on the number in a previous post-

all the best

Wanda

Hi again Claire

There have been some great replies and support here already ,but I just thought I'd try and explain a little more about DCIS and your queries about once having cancer you always have it.

DCIS(ductal carcinoma in situ) is a different type of breast cancer to other breast cancers which most people are aware of, like an invasive breast cancer. The 'in situ' part of DCIS means that it has not broken through the duct wall, remains only within the duct and has only just started to form cancer cells in the area. Although there is always  a possibility after surgery that they may find some invasive cells, from your biopsy at the moment, it is staying only within the duct wall.

Intermediate means how quickly the cells are dividing - there are 3 grades -  low grade, intermediate and high grade, with many breast cancers being high grade. This means then that in your case , from the biopsy result , you don't have a high grade invasive cancer. There is more about DCIS here 

 Although cancers have the ability to come back after treatment, many do not, and the further time away after treatment, the less chance it has of returning. DCIS  does not have any invasive cells, is far less likely to come back , and your biopsy also has shown it isn't a high grade. Do give us a call if you need to on the number in a previous post-

all the best

Wanda

Hi Wanda

Thank you.

I don't know if this is different but I can see I have " grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma with intermediate grade  DCIS at least 2cm. ER 8/8, HER2 awaited."

I don't know if I said that before. I think I may have missed it as I'm all over the place. I guess that that's worse than just the DCIS...

C.

Hi again

Grade 2 still means it's intermediate and invasive ductal means that it's what most people would say they have when it's breast cancer. It's not unusual to have both invasive and DCIS and this doesn't make it worse having both.ER 8/8 means that it's fully hormone sensitive ,meaning that hormone tablets are prescribed for the next 5 years or in some cases, 10 yrs. This can be seen as reassuring, as it means that a treatment can continue to be working for you after your surgery.

It will take a while to get your head round things so try and not fret about the details if you can and just now look ahead to the surgery . Do remember that many many  people with breast cancer do very well.

Hold your nerve, keep busy if you can and focus on making a good post op recovery.

All the very best

Wanda