💗 January 24th 2024
The Day Everything Changed — My Breast Cancer Diagnosis
I still remember the day with absolute clarity — not because of the fear ( i was still in shock and dis belief ), but because it split my life into before and after.
It was an ordinary morning that suddenly became extraordinary, a day that whispered, “Everything is about to change.” and it certainly did. below is an account of the run up to my Diagnosis day.
I had called my GP the previous year because my tiredness was begining to become an issue within my daily life and my periods had stopped, I was having hot flushes, dry skin and just generally not feeling myself. I was given the HRT patches as I had explained to the GP that I never take tablets and anything on a regular basis would be too much of a faff for me to keep up with in the long term. Absolutely no problem, we can prescribe the patches, change them once a week ( set an alarm on my phone ) and basically they came with the promise that these patches would change my life! After 2 or 3 months i started to bleed, called the GP back who explained that was quite normal and we could try the tablets and gel which meant we could find the perfect combination of doses for me . Even though my first instinct was ….’this is looking like becoming a faff’ , I went with it dreaming of this new me full of energy and no more old lady symtoms. I had to take a tablet, then pump a measure of gel which would be applied to alternate side of my body every day , ( absolutely no chance of me keep this up for the long term ) after 2 weeks I woke up with big visible lumps across both breasts. I called the GP who said ‘ its fine, dont worry , its quite normal in the early days’……. not my idea of normal so I desided to give up the search for the ‘new me’ and I would cope better with the devil i knew rather than lumps and bumps. I stopped everything and the bumps began to disappear.
All but one of my lumps had gone, I then received a letter inviting me for a mamogram, my opertunity to get it checked out. My appointment wasnt until january 3rd so I had Christmas then dually attended the mamogram caravan in the hospital carpark. I explained to the mamographer about the right side lump so I wasnt at all surprised to get called in for further tests. I had an appointment at the breast clinic and I asked the doctor to be completely straight with me. She said that they needed to take biopsies from both sides as both brests were showing signs and she would be very surprised if it wasnt cancer. That was enough for me to start accepting the facts that I had now become the one in two statistic that will be affected by cancer. I was given all sorts of leaflets , phone numbers and support groups, I even had my own BCN ( breast care nurse ) on the basis of all of this I had decided that as they all seemed to be going down the route of me having breast cancer that I would too. It would be a long long two week wait to get my biopsy results.
January 24th 2024, 2:15pm my results appointment and first meeting with my breast surgeon, who presumed I already new I had breast cancer…. woops. I would deffinately need chemotherapy as one of my cancers was her2+ . I would also need a mastectomy on the left because of this her2+ and a lumpectomy on my right side. Yes I had not got one breast cancer , I had two !! After discussions I explained that leaving me with half a breast was not going to be an option as I would be constantly thinking it would come back……my other reason was i didnt want to look lop sided , so i opted for a double mastectomy and no reconstruction, I would go flat and use the option of prosthetics as and when I wanted to . Up until this point I was totally fine and rationally planning my flat future, then came the blow…….. I would have to have a scan to see if the cancers had spread, if they showed up anywhere else, such as liver, lungs etc then there would be no treatment and I would just have drugs to pro long my life until they stopped working then I would be made ‘comfortable’ . These results would take two weeks…….everything seems to run on a two week process. Yes I was nervous/hopeful waiting for the biopsy results but this was nerves of the scale. These results would literally be the difference between life /hope and death. My first exprience of scanciety , believe you me its a thing.
Whichever way you look at the two possible results I was lucky , I had two cancers that hadnt spread to any other organs but had involved some lymph nodes, it would be a year of the hardest treatment they could throw at me but at least the chance to fight it was still an option.
The early days after diagnosis were a blur of appointments, information, and emotions.
Some days I felt brave, other days I simply waited for tomorrow.
What I learned quickly was that there is no right way to react — only your way.
And that’s okay.
If you are in this place right now — newly diagnosed — please know that you are not alone.
There’s no handbook for how to handle the news, but there are people who understand and walk beside you, one gentle step at a time.
You can also visit our Resources page for more gentle guides and tips.
