I was concerned that I'd get lost on page 35 of the current thread 
.
My bestie, 50, has almost certainly got breast cancer. I say 'almost' merely because she has to wait a week to get the needle biospy results back, but everything else shouts it, sadly (we are both HCPs and can 'read' a mammogram).
She found out yesterday morning and has taken the rest of the week off work to get her head around it. I am not entirely sure that's the best idea especially as she's on her own (got a DS, 15) and, when all's said and done, really needs the money. And I believe there will be plenty of times ahead when she will need the time off more than now, but I recognise that's her choice. There is, god knows, never a good time to get BC, but this could hardly be more disastrous. Her DH had a bit of a mid-life breakdown and walked out 5 years ago. She is still financially entangled with him, they've done nothing 'legal' about the separation at all, though she is now more or less paying all the bills inc the mortgage as he is facing bankruptcy (he told her 3 weeks ago...). She is struggling as it is; she's on a yearly renewable contract at work, too.
Then this.
She has had the lump for over a year and has ill-advisedly, but I guess under the circumstances, completely understandably -ignored it. It's now 3 cm long and there are 'other lesions' which aren't cysts in her breast, plus an 'ill defined' mass on an axillary lymph node.
They did an ultrasound guided needle biopsy of it. She gets that result 'next week'.
Then what's likely to happen? Will the course of action depend entirely on the character of the mass? What I mean is, will that dictate whether she then gets 'staged' via CT scan, bone scan, bloods etc? Or will that happen anyway regardless of the tumour type? Presumably they wait for all those results to be collected together before deciding on a Treatment Plan?
She is a complete technophobe so is highly unlikely to seek information on line herself so I want to get better informed myself!
TIA.
I am off to see her now!