Hello

I am really sorry you find yourself here.

My first biopsy came back clear but they missed the tumour, the second confirmed the diagnosis of cancer. My team knew it was cancer without the biopsy confirming it. 

Thickened or enlarged lymph nodes would suggest an abnormality and she might not be able to feel them. I couldn't feel mine they appeared on a chance scan. 

The type.of cancer depends on how quick it spreads. Some cancers are slow and class as grade 1. Some cancers are fed by hormones or a protein and some are fed by none. Mine is triple negative which is grade 3 because it grows very quickly, and it is not fed by hormones or protein and mine grew to quite the problem in the space of 3 weeks but it is incredibly rare.

It's awful waiting but the best advice I can give you is to write down everything you want to ask:

Type 

Grade

Lymph nodes involvement

Treatment plan  - could be chemo then surgery then radiotherapy or surgery then chemo then radiotherapy

If surgery what surgery? Lumpectomy or mastectomy?

Your mum will need loads of TLC right now, breast cancer treatments havee improved so much, surgery and chemo are totally doable and much less scary than you think. Forums like this will give you loads of tips and advice, but until that diagnosis, go and do as much normal as you possibly can. Once you are in the washing machine cycle that is cancer treatment its a permanent spin. I wish I'd done a lot more when I was well and hadn't been diagnosed instead of spending that fortnight worrying about what was to come. Because if its coming it is coming anyway and there is nothing you can do to stop it.  So go and plan some happy things to make some good times.to sustain her. 

Hey, 

Thankyou so much for your reply, and I’m sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I really appreciate you sharing your experience, unfortunately it sounds very similar to my mums in the sense of how fast it has grown. Her lump went from the size of a marble to the size of a small lemon within about 6 weeks, and the thickening of the lymph nodes is clear on the scan and this all came about less than 2 months ago.  I’m just hoping and praying for the best and doing everything I can to support her and keeping her happy and positive. I’m planning on doing some things with her this week like taking her to see a film and I brought her some flowers yesterday which she loved. We go on walks daily too where we can talk about loads of stuff and that really helps in keeping her up and avoids the ruminating when waiting for biopsy results. Thankyou for your wisdom, and I truly hope you have the best possible outcome with your treatment. :) 

Hey J, 

thankyou for your response. And yes it’s very hard but important to just get through the wait as positively as you can. I pray your mums results come back clear - please update me on the outcome :)