I'm so sorry to read this Jo! I'm new to all this too! I was feeling much the same as you, before my first surgery and although my diagnosis and surgery afterwards was within a few weeks it certainly did stress me out! Try to stay calm with maybe reading a novel or something, anything to just take your mind away from this *** reality for a while. That's all I could do. My older sister has been through several different cancers inc breast C twice/womb and bladder C since the age of 38. She is now 64 and still growing old disgracefully! 

I had a lumpectomy on the 10th of Sept 2025 and 1 lymph node out at that time. It was all healing well with no real pain (just a bit of soreness under my arm at the time) unfortunately they found a small cancer lump in that node (only 5mm) that was not felt on physical examination and I had them all removed on 1st Oct. I'm now waiting to see it it's gone any further!