The pace in which things happen when you go through the process of being diagnosed with a cancer is intense. In the space of a few weeks, I’d clocked up 3 appointments per week, with the routine being something like:

• Appointment 1: Some form of scan/biopsy
• Appointment 2: Some form of consultation
• Appointment 3: Results from scan/biopsy, and request for extra examinations

It felt like the ultimate test in multitasking and time management. I would be in the office in the morning, shoot off to either Charing Cross, or Marylebone for a few hours, then come back to finish up the rest of my day. Piece of cake!

I had the MRI scan and survived the mammogram biopsy.  The biopsy this time had been way more intense. Imagine, your breast being squashed; you have a 4mm wide needle in you; the local anaesthetic is taking it’s sweet time to kick in; and they’re taking approx half a teaspoon of tissue for testing. Yep, that happened!!!  Fun fact…I was sore afterwards!

I knew the results would take a few days to come through. The biopsy was on a Wednesday, the results wouldn’t be expected until the end of the week; yet Barbara had called me on the Tuesday saying Katy wanted to see me as soon as possible.

We were back at the Breastitute again!

The results came back normal. NORMAL!!! All four breast sample biopsies had come back clear. The biopsy result for the sample near the armpit was still being worked on, but the rest came back clear. In other situations, you’d think this would be good news. The reality was, I was being told that I’d need an MRI scan, and a mammogram biospy. That these tests would give more accuracy.  YAY…more needles!

When you’re sitting in a waiting room, you instantly focus on the most random things around you. Like the weird artwork on the walls, or the quality of the seats. The seats in this room were a purple which totally didn’t go with the cream walls. I couldn’t stop staring at them. I’d filled in the forms to register my appointment; and I was sitting there waiting to see the consultant, with Fiona next to me.