New here.. waiting for biopsy results

Hi ek25, yes, it does sound like we are on the same path. My surgeon also mentioned the possibility of radiation treatment before I had my surgery.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, what she found was a very small (3mm) area of DCIS, intermediate grade, in one location only. She got margins of 2mm and I am going to have radiation treatments, but she said that in my case Tamoxifen wouldn't make a significant difference to my chances of recurrence.

It is shocking and scary to 'beat the odds' in this way, but once you've had a chance to get used to the idea, and ask questions, and realize that the treatment for DCIS is very effective, you will feel more settled. So far the hardest thing for me has been making decisions about who to tell, and when. I haven't told my daughters, sisters or mom and I still can't decide if or when to share this news.

I hope you have lots of emotional support and are able to come to terms with your diagnosis. Keep asking questions and as everyone here will tell you, with DCIS there is no great urgency to make treatment decisions right away, so you have time to do the research that will help inform those decisions.

I wish you all the best - take care of yourself.

Hello girls,

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We had a lot of family time, very enjoyable. Has GREAT news at work on Thursday - I applied for a classroom set of 25 iPads & I got them. Very exciting for my students!



Also found out Thursday that insurance denied my MRI. However, this was because they want mammo & us to be inconclusive first. Got a letter in the mail Sat stating that those tests did not show any problems. Calling dr tomorrow to get copies of reports. Since my lump did not show on these tests, we can now press for MRI. FRUSTRATING! I find it very sad that insurance companies decide on what a patient needs rather than drs.



I will push for MRI, though. I cannot wait like this for 6 months & recheck. I might feel differently if the mass could be seen & examined visually, but we know virtually nothing except that it is there. I just feel that we need to know more.



Hope you all have a good start to your week & that appointments & procedures go well.

Hi!  I'm 46 years old.  I've been reading the boards for the last several days and am so glad I found this forum.  I had a biopsy yesterday morning and the radiologist will be calling me today between 4pm and 5pm with the results.  I'm terrified!  I had pain in my right breast over the summer with a lump and had a mammogram.  My doctor at the time wouldn't order a diagnostic and the mammogram came back with a Birad 2.  At that point my doctor said everything is fine and see you in a year.  I was still concerned and since my Oct 2011 mammogram I've had 2 thermogographies performed (the 1st in Nov 2011 and the 2nd in mid-March 2011).  The thermographer was adamant both times that there is no cancer and I'm fibrous; however, she said that the lump on my right breast was huge and hard.  My gut feeling told me to get it checked out right away.  I found a new doctor who saw me (in a larger city about an 1 1/2 hours from my home) and immedicately made my appt for me for this past Tuesday for a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound.  After the tests, the radiologist said that my lump had grown since October by 1 inch and had the characteristics of malignancy.  My world just collapsed.  She said we need to get you biopsied and she would do it that moment for me if I could.  I wasn't able to since I had to pick up our 6 and 4 year old boys but went in yesterday.  During the biopsy (ultrasound guided core biopsy) the Radiologist checked my lymph nodes and said they are fine.  Anyway, my doctor contacted me before my biopsy and scheduled me to come in to see her this Friday because she wants to go over the results she has in her hands and get me scheduled with a breast surgeon right away.  (She is so great and even wants me to bring our 2 boys with me if that's how she can get me in that day).  She feels (and I agree) that we need the lump removed because of its size and the fact that it grew.  It just seems like everything is moving so quickly (which I'm thankful for).  I can't sleep more than a few hours a night, have bouts of crying spells and it's so hard to keep everything together with our boys home on Easter vacation.  They keep asking me if I'm o.k. after my big shots yesterday, and it makes me want to break down again because I love them so much and we waited so long to adopt them.  I just want to watch them grow up and be the best mom that I can for them. My husband is so terrific but so lost because he doesn't know how to help me feel better but holding my hand for me helps me more than I can tell him.  This will probably be one of the longest days for me.

Great news Nightnurse! Hoping surgery goes well!



Sparky, that sucks! I sure hope you get rescheduled soon. How awful to keep waiting.



I'm still waiting too. After more than a week, finally got the reports from mammo & us. Mammo shows dense breasts. Us showed mild duct ectasia & 3mm cyst. The lump is larger than that. Recommended to repeat mammo in 6 months (why? It showed nothing). Dr has sent paperwork yesterday to insurance to hopefully approve MRI, as lump doesn't seem to be showing up. Really hope we won't have to fight any more on this : (

Nightnurse, wow, once you get a diagnosis they really get going.  I can't believe how fast it's going for you.  You sound like you're coping well.  I, too, will be thinking about you.  Take care.

I'm getting down to the wire.  Surgery is Wed the 25th.  Tomorrow night is my last night at work before I'm off for almost 4 weeks.  I will be moving to a new type of nursing when I come back so that I won't be working with so much infectious stuff while doing chemo.  I am just relieved to have some time off.  Has anyone out there shaved their head before they even started chemo?  I'm thinking about doing that. 

Nightnurse, the don't give up attitude is great.  Fight, fight, fight.  You are a wonderful person and you deserve to be here and be healthy!  Remember that!  I'm glad things are moving for you.  I don't read the other threads much, but what I've seen is that people seem to do better once things are going.  Not great all the time, but better than right after the news.  Surgery on the 25th is great, and I'm glad you got the time off you needed and will be working in a different ward.  And this board has so many great women on it, at all stages in their path, and so willing to share and be there for each other.  And they know so much.  They've done their research and have the experience. 

Where I live, there is also a group that pairs real people together and that was great for me.  I enjoy the boards, but phone calls and visits were another facet for me and they helped as well. 

You are right about being forever changed by this experience.  I have had health scares before, but then I've always been a bit of a hypochondriac.  20 years ago when I had a lump I went out of my mind, had my Mom come to the doctor with me, and when I got there the lump  was gone.  Another time I convinced myself I had aids and had the test done.  This was at the time when an aids diagnosis was a death sentence. 

Even so, this experience has been different.  I have had more support and have had to handle it longer and I had more medical evidence that this could be a big problem.  I have rethought my approach to life and have made some changes (or are making, as they take time).  I am more aware of what is really important in my life and I am working on living more authentically to that.  

I will keep you in my thoughts as the 25th approaches.  Please let us know how you are doing. 

Rocklizard:  My boyfriend loves cycling and he is good at it. I  am the jack of all sports, master of none!!  Actually, I prefer running but I am better at cycling so that is why I do duathlons. run-bike-run.  I am trying to get faster running so I don't have to just hope everybody at each race is a slow cyclist!  I would love to start half marathons this summer and try a marathon next spring. 

Hello, girls. Nightnurse, so glad you get time off & a switch in jobs to make things a bit easier. I hope you are recovering well. I'll bet those new boobs will be beautiful : )



Sparky, I am praying your surgery went well today, that you are recovering ok, & that you will get good results. Let us know.



As for myself, I've been very busy this last month or so as school winds down - and insurance has continued to deny my MRI. I am appealing the denial, & should hear from my dr tomorrow on how she wants to proceed. The nurse feels she may want to go ahead & do a biopsy, but the mass isn't showing on mammo or US, so not sure how that would work? Anyway, hopefully more info tomorrow. And still I wait...

Hello!  I have been reading alot here and I feel not so alone now so I decided to post.  I had a mammogram, ultrasound and a core needle biopsy.

 The first words from the nurse were papilloma and then from my NP atypical cells, worrisome around the site and that I should have surgery to remove it.  The surgeon said that if you look at a spectrum like a rainbow I am probably on the benign side of the spectrum but with only three samples from the core needle biopsy they don't really know what else could be there.

 Had anyone had this experience and found that there is cancer? 

I have a wire location and excision surgery day after tomorrow.  I keep thinking everything is simple and OK but inside I am worried to the max.  I just want to be ready for anything!  The surgeon said that if I am closer to the other side of the spectrum sometimes hormone therapy is in order.  My sister had said that some people in my position often have radiation also.

 Any advise would be oh so much appreciated.  Thanks

Janis, Hello and welcome.

There are some conditions out there that are thought to be a pre-curser or a step that can happen before cancer. These conditions come with atypical cells.

They are known as ADH (Atypical ductual hyperplasia) and ALH ( Atypical lobular hyperplasia). Neither is cancer. But they may (especial ADH) be a step that cells go thru prior to becoming cancer. And I stress *may*...Its not certain if these conditions will always lead to cancer.

So hang on until you get the results to the biopsy. If they do come back as one of these, it may very well be that an MRI will be order to see what else may be there. MRI's tend not to be done until after the pathology on a biopsy is done.  

MRI's can show a lot.

And they are high when it comes to false positives (ie they can make areas that really arent suspicious look suspicious). And they are VERY expensive, so insurance companies are pretty picky in covering them unless there is good medical need. So they arent dont indesciminately. 

So they can see more than what an excisional biopsy takes out because they are looking at the full breast(s)...

Mammos, US and MRI are all just different imagine tools, the pick up different things. None is fool proof, they each have their pros and cons.

So MRI's tend only to be given (there are exceptions) AFTER cancer has been detected (or ADH, ALH) to see if there is more areas of suspicion that were not picked up by mammo or US. When cancer had been detected, insurance companies will cover MRIs 

Ok, Im not sure if the contrast dye used in breast MRI's is to pick up cancer cell per say, or to pick up the vascularization (which I know it does do) of an area, or both. Cancer cells can only be truly seen under a microscope. 

With an MRI, the dye shows what is known as "enhancement" but also show the "take up and washing out" of an area (ie the blood flow, I dont know the technical name off hand. )