Here for the first time. 38F.
About 2ish weeks ago, I found what felt like a thickened area of my breast. I was at a point in my cycle where boobs do things like that, so I waited until a few days after my period to ring the GP when it hadn't gone down. Saw GP on Friday, he was upfront that there's about a 4cm lump (!!!), and in his experience it's suspicious. He ran me through the list of benign lumps, and why it doesn't seem to be those. Very briefly discussed the kinds of cancer treatment there are. Said he hopes he's wrong, but my overwhelming sense from the appointment was that I'm bracing for bad news. Of course, I'm now waiting for my breast clinic appointment.
Googling has actually comforted me somewhat: knowing what to expect at the breast clinic and if it is cancer, what that all means, what might happen logistically. What's freaking me out is that I've had on and off hip pain for years (since my teens), and it's acting up now. It's a kind of discomfort where I feel the need to 'pop' my hip a lot, and some low level pain, nothing that's ever bothered me that much though. It's the kind of thing that happens when I exercise either too much or too little, and usually lasts a week or two before going away.
BUT, I foolishly googled "breast cancer hip pain" and now distractingly anxious that I have metastatic breast cancer, when it hasn't even been confirmed if my newfound lump is cancer or not.
I know, of course, that no one here can tell me one way or another, but maybe some of you have experience with the waiting for diagnosis, and the fears like this that can haunt. I realise that if it is cancer, I'll have a lot of this kind of waiting, and wonder how on earth I can learn to handle it well, maybe even gracefully? Even if it were some kind of super terminal cancer, I'd feel a bit silly spending the final whatever-amount-of-time I had worrying about the technicalities of exactly how bad a diagnosis could be.
Any advice welcome. Thanks everyone :,)
