Was just told that I have breast cancer

waytooanxiousmommy.... if your mass is cancer and it's 1.6cm that is early stage cancer. Up to 2cm is called early stage. If your lymph nodes don't look enlarged it's unlikely to have spread to the nodes. I know it's easy for me to say from where I'm at one year later but my cancer, when it was eventually picked up (a long story of maltreatment by a breast surgeon which I won't go into) was already Stage IV. I had a 10cm primary tumour and the right breast and a 2cm primary tumour in the left breast. The important point for you to hold onto is that, at ultrasound, I was told the lymph nodes looked active. At my BMX it was found that I had 29 out of 29 cancerous lymph nodes and after a bone scan the next day I was told I had extensive mets to the bones, in fact my entire torso is taken up with tumours. I'm not telling you this to get sympathy. I'm telling you because it shows you that even a diagnosis like mine doesn't mean I'm on the way out. In fact, once I'd had the operation and was put onto treatment, I immediately started to feel better. My cancer is hormone receptor positive which means that my treatments consist of ridding my body of oestrogen entirely for the rest of my life by taking hormone inhibitors. I've been told that with this treatment I can still live for many years, all going well. I'm sharing this with you so that you can understand that a diagnosis of breast cancer is not a death sentence and there are many treatment options.

This is some advice I posted some time ago on another thread for ladies newly diagnosed with breast cancer and I hope it relieves some of your anxiety to know that we can still live well with cancer if, in fact, you do have cancer, once we know a few tips.

At first you'll be in shock and disbelief. The disbelief can be with you for a long time but this isn't a bad thing, it protects you from the frightening place you've found yourself in and, once that has worn off, you can begin to accept what's happened and work on how to create a good life in this new reality. Try not to analyse too much or think about the past and what might have caused your cancer as that is futile now. At first it's bewildering and there's a lot to learn in a short time but just take it one step at a time.

There are a lot of stages to go through before you start to realise that life can be good. I know that from where you are right now that might seem strange but, for me, having Stage IV cancer with extensive bone mets has focussed my mind to what really matters in life and the following approach has worked for me:

Write everything down....I keep a day sheet with my drugs, the time to take them and I tick them off when I take them. Make a note of any side effects. Note down everything you're told to do as at first it's too hard to remember what you're told while you're in a blur of new drugs and pain killers.

Don't blame yourself.... you did nothing wrong, this is just rotten bad luck.

Learn to be selfish.... and by that I mean learn to put yourself first....a lot of women go through life making themselves their last priority...for me getting sick has taught me that I was there for everyone but myself and that had to change.

Take it one day at a time..... don't look at the future, just take your tablets, turn up for appointments and between those times find things that make you happy and concentrate on those.

Live in the moment.... each moment is a gift.

Appreciate what you have.... don't focus on what you've lost.

If you need encouragement, call out for help. Support will come flooding in.

This is a lot to process but, believe me, if you try to follow these steps you'll find that having cancer, frightening as the diagnosis is, doesn't have to scare you out of enjoying life.

Was it your family doctor who told you it wasn't early stage? I was diagnosed last Wednesday at 33 by my family practitioner who made it sound like this was terrible. I have grade 2/3 IDC (no stage or hormone status yet). My family doctor made it seem aggressive (isn't that the definition of freaking cancer?), not small tumor but not big either, and "on the fence for having spread." How she knows that is beyond me. But then I saw my surgical oncologist the next day, and he walked in and said "I see you have a little cancer." He told me that at first glance it appears to be early stage. Night and day between the two doctor surgery and clearly it is the surgical oncologist who sees this all the time. For reference the US puts my lump around 1.5 x 1.4 x 0.8 cm.

One step at a time. And as others say, it still might not be cancer!

hello sweetie when u hear those words I too thought it was the end,I was making wedding plans 4 Our 2nd marriages But I'm here to Inspire u and others that u can get thru this I am now a 23yr Survivor Praise God. Hope is what got me thru along with family n friends. Positive thinking I Will He Thru This.mail idc stage2 0/ 3nodes chemo 3 months before n after Lmast got married then radiation 7wks then Our Honeymoon. Believe