Mummyshortlegz waiting for tests and results is a very special sort of hell and ,as many will testify ,if you are diagnosed it one of the worst bits .So huge sympathies .
I'm copying a recent post from one of the long term posters on this thread .,Amberlight who describes herself thus
" I'm not any sort of healthcare professional. I had breast cancer diagnosed five years ago, had all the usual stuff done (chemo, surgery, rads, herceptin for a while) and started reading the oncology and related papers online every day. And following the big cancer conferences and their summaries of latest and best news. Have done ever since. Just an autistic science-geek, really, but there's so much encouraging news out there for so many people. Whatever I say on here should always be checked out with teams, and teams are always the best people to know what's what. No great skill to what I do at all - I just happen to have read a lot of it "
and says
For those who have not discovered earlier writings on this on this thread/elsewhere, some possible reassurance for breast cancer waiting.
9 out of 10 lumps in boobs are something else. Only 1 in 10 is cancer.
Firstly, it is impossible to die from a lump in the boob. Literally cannot kill you in there. So if that is where it is, you're fine. Treatment for that is not fun, but it's doable.
If the cancer has had a long long time to grow and wander about, it may have got into the lymph nodes under the arm. They are a 'safety net' of a sort for the body. So, if they have caught it, that's a pretty good thing. It means more surgery to get it out of there too, of course.
If the cancer has spread to elsewhere, you're pretty certain to know about it. Not everyone does, hence the tests. But if it has reached other bits of the body, people tend to be jolly unwell before treatment. If you are feeling fine, that's a good sign that you are fine.
Even if it has spread to elsewhere, these days it's remarkably treatable. We really are seeing some results showing 80% success rates from treating cancer that has turned up in one place in the liver, for example. If it's first ended up in the lungs after the boob, one recent study showed most people are still alive and kicking ten years later...and counting. That was a surprise to the teams.
So, it's not the killer it used to be. Treatments can settle it down to be a long term nuisance for people, if it has spread. No guarantees at all. We all know people who have not been fortunate with their own cancer, and we hold them in our thoughts. But for the vast majority, now, there is every good chance of seeing old age.
None of it takes away from the eek of waiting, or the exhaustion of treatment if it's needed though. And all of us live with that tiny bit of uncertainty. It becomes a 'new normal', after a while, though, for most of us.
Hoping that has helped a little.
As I say, no guarantees. But we really are seeing some very good news from the multiple new treatments and potions.