Bi rads 4 after 6 months, extremely worried

First, hugs. What you are going through right now is one of the worst possible, most anxiety producing things to have to go through. You have my, and certainly everyone here's deep empathy.

Mine was birads 5 from the get go. If it had been 4, I would have been just as worried, and possibly paradoxically have felt even more anxiety because with a 5, I was told basically what I was dealing with. There were still lots of unknowns, but one specific known. With a 4, it's highly suspicious and still everything is unknown. I personally find that even worse.

It may well be the lymph node that is worrying your radiologist, and it may well just be the flu shot that it is reacting to. It does seem your radiologist is also being responsible in referring you to an oncologist and not making you wait another few months to see what is up with this lump and node.

I wish I could say something to allay your fears. Nothing anyone could have said to me would have made me less fearful and anxious, though, except this: what you are looking at is small, and smaller usually is better.

The only thing that helped my anxiety was getting a biopsy, meeting with a surgeon (I really hope you don't have to ever do this), meeting with an oncologists, reading everything I could (sometimes this made things worse, but mostly it made things clearer and better and more hopeful), and what I'm doing now: following a plan set up with my oncologist and surgeon, one that is backed up with lots of data as having been successful for thousands and thousands of women with my particular type of confirmed breast cancer.

My advice: meet with that oncologist as soon as you can, and if he or she agrees with the radiologist, get the thing biopsied so you know what you're dealing with. If it were me, if I didn't know one way or another, I would just know there was a suspicious thing in my body, and that would give me more anxiety than not knowing.

Hang in there, and come talk to us any time you need no matter the outcome, and no matter if you're still waiting to even know if something is wrong or not. We have all been there, and we all remember intimately how awful that feels.

Editing to add: try to eat (yes, I know how hard that is). Your body needs sustenance, as do your mind and spirit. Keep in your mind, whatever it is is very small still, and even if it is cancer, is in all likelihood something that can be dealt with successfully over the long term.

It really does put our own possible mortality right in our faces, and that is such a bad feeling.

I hope this is the case for you: I got my biopsy, and 3 weeks later got an MRI to try to assess the rest of the breast and the other breast in more detail. At that point, 5 weeks later, the biopsy had apparently caused a lymph node to react. That lymph node had not shown as reactive on either of the ultrasounds I'd had. Of course my mind went immediately to the darkest place: it's hyperagressive and I shouldn't have waited so long to get surgery scheduled (six weeks post biopsy). It wasn't hyperaggressive and had not, in fact, spread to nodes! My sentinel node was totally clean upon removal and dissection. Yours really may well just be the flu shot. I wish you could meet with an oncologists tomorrow, and am sorry you have to wait.

Chemo: I would say don't go there yet, but your mind is already there, so I'm going to tell you 1) I hope you never have to have it, and 2) I'm about to do week 9 of 12 weeks of taxol on Wed. The idea of chemo scared the hell out of me, but it turns out not to be so bad as I'd feared. I'm still most days able to work, shop, cook, clean, and actually have fun occasionally. No, it's not great. Yes I have really bad days. Yes, I hate it, but it really, most days, was worse in my head than in actuality, and from what I've read, it will likely save my life. And I still have my head hair thanks to cold capping, which if you have to have chemo, and that particular aspect feels unmanageable, there are ways of dealing with it.

Hi Hirri,

I'm sorry you find yourself here. I'm in a similar place, in that I was a BIRADS 3 in April and was then moved to BIRADS 4 at my 6 mo follow up a few weeks ago. My biopsy is Tuesday and I'm a nervous wreck. My situation is a little different in that My mammo and ultrasound were clear, however, I've had a few mildly thickened lymph nodes that have not changed or returned to normal size in 8 months. The "good" news is they haven't changed, but the bad news is that they're still there and have not returned to normal size, hence the biopsy.

This is a scary time and in the three week wait for my appointment I've been all over the place from thinking its nothing to thinking I have an occult breast cancer or lymphoma. I just want to know at this point.

Hi hirri, I'm sorry for your scare. I wanted to share my experience, even though it was 13 years ago.

First, I went to a "chemo class" where I basically met with a chemo nurse who told me how everything worked and gave me some printouts of possible side effects and how to best manage them. After that, she took me up to the "chemo suite" for a tour. I was prepared for the worst, but what I actually saw was nothing like my fears. People were sitting in recliner-like chairs, mostly reading, sleeping, chatting with other people, etc.

No one was crying, moaning in pain and NO ONE was throwing up. I can't express what a comfort that was. When I actually had my chemo infusions, they pumped me full of an anti nausea drug called Aloxi. I have no idea if they still use it, but I never once threw up during my four months of chemo.. The worst I ever felt was around days 2 to 4 after my infusions. It was more of a general yucky feeling. Then I started perking up again. I went to the gym regularly during my treatment. Understand that this was all pre COVID, but my point is that chemo isn't like the "bad old days" when you were puking for weeks.

I do hope you don't need chemo, but if you do, you'll find a wonderful group here to support and encourage you.

All the best to you!

Carol

I am newly diagnosed and had 2 enlarged lymph nodes show up in all of my imaging. I prepared for the worst and had my lumpectomy and sentinel node dissection last week. My breast surgeon took three enlarged nodes out and all three came back negative for cancer. The waiting was so hard, and it took tons of effort to remain hopeful until we got the final pathology, so I understand how nerve wracking it can be. My lesson learned is that enlarged nodes does not always equal cancer. Hugs and hope as you wait

Jlt814, hugs and best of luck to you, too. I really hope it turns out to be just some reactive lymph nodes. I'm so sorry for the fear and waiting you're dealing with, too.