30th of October - Results

My Husband and I are sat in the waiting room waiting to see my consultant/surgeon. I'm looking over to the lady opposite and surmise that she is wearing a wig (What the **** is happening to me?).

I've become obsessed with hair and taking plenty of photographs of mine whilst I have it. The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital have run trials in the past on using the cold cap and no longer offer this as an option to their patients.

Through this link you can search for scalp cooling in the UK. Enter your postcode to find your nearest hospital http://www.paxman-coolers.co.uk/campaigns

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Chemotherapy/Pages/Side-effects.aspx

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Livingwithandaftercancer/Symptomssideeffects/Hairloss/Scalpcooling.aspx

Another woman across the waiting room said " I have followed you around appointment after appointment and I half expected you to be on the ward on my day of surgery".

We exchanged the fact that her surgery had been on the Tuesday and mine was on the Thursday. I had obviously been in such a daze not to have notice her, although she was so friendly and familiar. She said I had stood out to her whilst we waited outside x-ray  for the mammogram as she said I was much younger than anyone else there. I explained that I had a lumpectomy and the next course of action was chemotherapy and that I was gutted to be losing my hair, followed by radiotherapy. She said that she had come for her first mammogram (as I think that cancer screening is offered at the age of 50 in the UK) and it was only then that they had detected an anomaly, whisked into surgery and would now need radiotherapy (no chemo involved).

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Testsscreening/Breastscreening/Breastscreeningunder50.aspx

We initially went in to see my Breast Cancer Care Nurse Specialist and a nursing student in her second year at Staffordshire University and they checked the wound site and then called in my Consultant to have a gander at his handy work, which my husband and I are exceptionally pleased with.

The incision across my right boob is 3.5 inches in length
The incision made for the sentinel lymph node biopsy just below my right armpit is 3 inches in length

He explained that it was Grade 3 invasive breast cancer. He had removed the margins of the tumour site and they were clear and that the Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy was also clear.

Staging and grading of Breast Cancer
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Breast/Symptomsdiagnosis/Stagingandgrading.aspx

I tested Negative for ER status and Negative for HER2 Status. I am still awaiting the results to whether I am PR Negative status. This determines whether I take Tamoxifen for 5 years post chemotherapy and radiotherapy or whether I am Triple Negative, which is found in about 1 in 5 with breast cancer (15-20%).

Tamoxifen
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Breast/Treatingbreastcancer/Hormonaltherapies/Tamoxifen.aspx

Triple Negative Breast Cancer
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Breast/Aboutbreastcancer/Typesandrelatedconditions/Triplenegativebreastcancer.aspx

I am now waiting for an appointment at the Lingen Davies Centre at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to discuss the side effects of chemotherapy and the chemotherapy treatment I will be having. All appointments from here on in will be in Shrewsbury - Hurrah.

All I can think at the moment is FEC off ......

FEC Chemotherapy 
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertreatment/Treatmenttypes/Chemotherapy/Combinationregimen/FEC.aspx

Monday 30th of September - Breast Clinic RSH appointment

30th of September 

My Husband wanted to attend the appointment for the breast clinic at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. He asked me on more than one occasion if I wanted him to come with me. I had scheduled my hospital appointment around my working day and after all it was only a cyst...

So off to work for a couple of hours, attended a very cheerful and upbeat team meeting and felt quite liberated wearing jeans and my Joules bright green gilet, not normal attire but then I was off to the hospital for a 10:40 appointment.

I arrived early and went into see a GP who drew a black cross on my "lump" and then told me that I would need an ultrascan. She turned to the Health Care Assistant and said "and also a mammogram" and then retracted her words by saying "ultrasound only ............ too young for a mammogram".

I pootled down the corridor and got changed into my super cape and went into the ultrasound scan room.

http://www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/cancer-information/detection-diagnosis/pages/ultrasound.aspx

As soon as he said Mammogram, something inside of me changed, I started to worry, not panic but again a niggle, I sensed something was amiss. Just couldn't put my finger on it .... actually I could and it was situated on the top of my right tit.

I sat outside the x-ray room with my super hero cape on with four other women all about ten years older than me and wearing their super hero capes and realised that not only should I have accepted my husbands offer, as I really wanted and needed him to be here holding my hand but sometimes It's OK to be scared and let you guard down.

Practical advice
Always take someone with you

The mammogram didn't hurt.
I've heard tell that if your boobies are of a bigger size, it doesn't hurt so much having them squeezed between two sheets of glass/perspex. I haven't investigated whether this is a myth or indeed a fact, but I've just written it down to look into it further tomorrow and google the heck out of it.

Everything past this point is a little vague - my memory is appalling at the best of times

I was ushered into a room to speak with a consultant who had reviewed the mammogram results and said that there was an abnormality in my right breast and that he was going to perform a needle core biopsy.

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Breast/Symptomsdiagnosis/Diagnosis/Diagnosis.aspx

I found myself lying on my back, having a little blub, trying to comprehend the enormity of what the heck was going on around me, whilst trying to engage in a perfectly normal conversation with the nurse about joining the local outdoor walking/running club which I had planned to do that evening. She explained that they would now be numbing the area with a local anaesthetic for the biopsy. A small incision was made and the sensation felt like someone stapling my chest six times. This did not hurt but I think the NHS should provide a pair of headphones to drown out the sound ....

The consultant explained that it would take about 45mins to 1 hour for the results and to come back at 12:45

I arrived at 12:45 and was walked into the consultants room. I felt like I was going for a job interview as there was a woman stood directly behind him and she was introduced as Sue, a Breast Care Nurse ... (alarm bells)

And then he said ..

"There's no easy way of saying this ..... You have breast cancer"

Blub blub