**Tamoxigang thread 51**... no more sangria, but maybe some mulled wine!

[MarthaCostello]

Hello all,

The old thread has nearly run out so I hope no one minds me making a new one. And am I allowed to mention the Big C... Christmas?! our last thread was started in July so I reckon this one might take us into December.

In honour of that, I will lay out some mulled wine, mince pies and I have wrapped myself in tinsel.

A warm welcome to jomidmum, but sorry you've had to join us. No one wants to be in this club, but this thread is a rather nice place to be. Wishing you a speedy recovery from your op, and hoping the pain eases soon.

Massive hugs to beccajoh

A big yippee for Marshy, what utterly fantastic news.

Sitting on the paranoia box for ConsiderablyBiggerBuns, I hope your MRI results are good - when will you hear?

Waving and sending love to everyone else.

I wonder if seeing as we are on a new thread, it might be worth just giving a bit of history for new posters? I will put mine anyway, and then others can if they want to. I am coming up to two years since my bowel cancer diagnosis (grade 2, stage 3c, T2N2M0R0). I had major bowel surgery and six months of chemo.

Good luck today scone,hope it's all clear but if not we're here

Trice lovely to hear from you I was wondering how you were, hope you're doing ok

Scone, I hope your appointments today go well and you find out that everything is ok.

Good luck scone, hoping that you'll get good news today

Crossing everything that can be crossed scone

Thanks for the good wishes. I'll be off to the clinic in about half an hour, so will report back later. It's been so great to have all of you waiting with me.

I'm back and it's all fine. The relief.

I had a mammogram (which I hadn't been necessarily expecting since I'm under 40), then an ultrasound. The mammogram radiographer didn't tell me anything, but the ultrasound radiographer said that my armpit lump was a lymph node. Apparently it was so small that it didn't even count as an enlarged lymph node. He found a small cyst in my left breast that I hadn't felt, but said it was tiny and nothing to worry about.

Then after my tests I saw the breast clinic consultant and he felt all the areas of concern, considered the radiographs, and said it was fine. Apparently my family history isn't significant enough to trigger regular screenings or genetic testing, so I'm all done.

I'm actually shaking with the emotion of it all. Haven't slept properly in a week, and have been feeling awful. I'm so grateful for the support I've received from you all on this thread - you were all there for me at a very dark time when I had no-one else knowledgeable to talk to, and you made it all so much better. Thank you all so so so much.

Best wishes to all of you - you are amazing.

Hurrah for Scone! So pleased it was a good outcome. Now get on with the rest of your life!

Scone, that's fantastic news! I'm so pleased for you :), it sounds like they gave you a very through check so hopefully you won't need to go through all that again for a long time.

You'll probably feel shaky and emotional for the rest of the day but treat yourself to something good this eve, you deserve it.

Thanks for coming back and letting us know, and said in the nicest possible way, I'm glad you weren't given membership to the club :)

scone that's fabulous news! So pleased for you. Thanks for coming back to share that with us.

Give yourself a bit of time to get over the stress of it all now. You have earned a good night's sleep and a few treats!

Great news scone!

speedy thanks for reassurance re pain. Still very sore and no call back from nurse!

salhal I bucked the trend and kept my hair during FEC (with cold cap - horrid horrid thing) and lost it during docetaxol. Another one who went for a number one buzz cut. Its now growing well but does look a bit like a granny perm.

I am on tamoxifen (about 5-6 months now) and still have hot flushes. I take it when I get home from work so no major problems at work usually, tough I take my cardi/jacket on and off an awful lot!

That's the best news scone, I hope you have the best nights sleep tonight!

Thank you everyone for the hair loss advice, I'm just going to get the clippers on it when it starts to go. Just spent the last two years growing out a very short style. Never mind, there are much worse things ...

That's great news scone, I'm sure you will sleep well tonight.

Really pleased for you scone :)

Good news Scone.

Hello all.

I found a lump a week last Monday whilst travelling in the UK (I live in Rome). When I got back home on the Wednesday, I booked in for a check-up with the GP on the Thursday, who referred me to have a mammogram at 11am the next day. This led to an ultra-sound at 12, an MRI at 2 and then a needle biopsy by the end of that same day Friday. Within 24 hours I was feeling a bit shell shocked!

I was told I would have the results a week later, but the doctor warned me she was "70% sure it was malignant" based on the MRI and ultrasound. The lump is about 1.2cm big in my left breast; there are about 4 other smaller lumps in the same breast but she's not worried about those.

So now we are a week later, and the Dr (she is Danish - her English isn't great) has said that the results from the needle biopsy are inconclusive:

• Pathologist did preliminary tests, which are the normal tests to see if it’s cancer, and these came back with “probably malignant, but still not 100% sure”
• So he did more tests, to try and confirm, and actually the secondary tests made it less clear, not clearer, and actually the cells now looked “less cancer like”
• So he asks for a second opinion in the hospital – the other pathologists don’t understand it either, so then he asks the “most eminent pathologist in the whole of Italy who works at the Vatican hospital!” and he apparently hasn’t got any idea what’s going on either
• At which point they come back to me and ask me what I want to do… they’ve almost run out of the sample they took from my lump so would probably need to do another biopsy to keep exploring for a diagnosis…
• So I have decided to go back to the UK and get the process started there (all of this so far has been private medical care in Italy). Hopefully they (NHS) will be able to use my mammogram, ultrasound and MRI results so I don’t have to repeat those, but I imagine they will want to do another biopsy since the Italian results have proved so inconclusive… (the Italians are going to continue doing tests until the sample is finished, and should have at least a report of what they DON’T know by Wednesday to pass on to NHS..)

So I guess my question is – has anyone else had this issue where they have had a needle biopsy and the tests have come back inconclusive? Does this probably mean I have one of the rarer types of breast cancers? Would this normally lead to an excision biopsy?

So many questions which I know you probably can’t answer – the Italians are useless and I haven’t gotten into the UK NHS system yet, so I am feeling a little like I am walking around a bit blind-sided with no map. Where would you recommend I look at on the web in terms of resources to find out more about breast cancer and so on? I don’t really know where to start..

(I am 35 with 3 kids aged 5,4 and 3, if relevant. My aunt died of breast cancer at 41).

Hi Boobz, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question about the needle biopsy as I've never had one, but didn't want to read and run.

The best place I found for researching info was breastcancercare.org.uk. They have a phone line where you can ring and speak to someone who might be able to tell you more. I rang them last week when I was waiting for my visit to the breast clinic and they were really helpful.

I also have a 5 year old and my aunt died of cancer at the same age as yours, so I can begin to imagine how worried you must be. There is excellent advice and experience on this thread, so I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me (not difficult!) will be along soon to give more support.

I found the breast cancer care phone line a great help last week, so I'd recommend you give them a call as a starting point. Hope you get some answers soon.

Thanks Scone - I read above that you got the all clear - you must be so relieved!

I will give the breast cancer care line a call later I think - it's all a bit muddled given I am in Italy and not currently in the NHS system, but hopefully they might be able to at least chat it through with me.

Boobz I'm sorry you're going through this, I hope you get some answers soon. I didn't have breast cancer, so cannot recommend any specific breast cancer websites, but the Macmillan website is quite useful. Whatever you do, do not Google as there are all sorts of weird, inaccurate and downright irresponsible websites/blogs etc. out there, and most of the information will already be out of date. Stick to the cancer charities and healthcare websites.

trice lovely to see you around, I hope you're doing well. Seven years of hot flushes sounds horrible though.

Scone great news :)

Hi boobz,
Sounds like a tricky situation you've got there and no doubt t very worrying for you.

Good advice from scone and Martha. I understand that the breast cancer care helplines are staffed by breast care nurses who are very knowledgeable people that you will come into contact with once in the nhs system, so a very good starting point.

My experience has been that biopsy results have always been unequivocal However the path results following my 2nd mastectomy were unclear and the tissue had to be re examined to determine whether there had been any spread. Fortunately it was a good outcome for me.

Not sure how helpful that is except to say that an inconclusive result is not necessarily bad news.

In your situation I would definitely be looking for further answers.

We got to 995 postings, so I've started a new thread here
Hope the title is OK but I wanted to make sure people knew we weren't just about Tamoxifen!