A year in the life of a breast cancer patient as told by the clinicians:

“I’m very happy that’s normal breast tissue. It’s probably just scar tissue that you are feeling. We all have painful boobs at our age”

“I don’t think there is anything to be worried about but sometimes we send anxious patients like you for a scan to reassure them”

“Do you really want me to check it again? Two doctors have examined you already. Do you think you think it might be time for you to have some more CBT for your health anxiety?”

“My boobs feel weird and painful all the time. If it’s painful, it’s not breast cancer”

“Oh yes, I can feel that lump but it has all the features of a benign lump but let’s get it scanned just to be sure. You actually have very good intuition and were right to come”

“You won’t remember much from today but if you remember just one thing, I want it to be this: it’s very early and it’s very treatable”

“Oh no (laughter), grade 1 breast cancer grows very slowly. It’s very unlikely you’ve had this for a long time, just a few months”

“There’s no sign of cancer in any of your lymph nodes from the MRI. We generally don’t see lymph nodes that swell up and go down in breast cancer patients. It’s probably just your body fighting an infection”

“You had many many cancers in your breast”

“We tested a lymph node in your sternum and this one was positive. We took 3 lymph nodes and there was cancer in all of them”

“We need to do an emergency CT scan to see whether the cancer has spread. In your case, it’s 50/50”

“Some women live for up to 5 years now with stage 4”

“No, you won’t need chemo, that will do you more harm than good”

“We would recommend that you have the chemo, given that your internal mammary node was positive”

“You won’t need to have your lymph nodes removed. You really don’t want to do that. I’ve seen a patient today with awful complications with her arm as a result of having a clearance”

“I would recommend that given the extracapsular spread, it would be a good idea to have the lymph node clearance”

“You really just have to think about how you would feel if you didn’t go ahead and then it came back in 3 years time”

“If you don’t have your operation within 6 weeks of finishing chemo, then you are outside of the recommended period and I need you to understand that your cancer could come back, and that’s the risk you are taking. Are you sure you can’t cancel your holiday?”

“I’ve emailed the surgeon and the anaesthetist and they’re happy for the operation to go ahead even though you have tested positive for covid”

“Is there a reason you’re wearing a mask?”

“If you have covid then there won’t be any surgery today”

“Yes you are outside of your 6 weeks, but it’s not 6 weeks, it’s 12 weeks. That’s the amber zone. We had to leave it much longer in lockdown. This cancer isn’t going to kill you. It’s fine to cancel elective surgery”

“I thought you might have cancelled this appointment given that you had surgery 2 days ago. The appointment was made weeks ago and I didn’t know the date of your operation. We need some sort of new system of making appointments. So yes, it is a waste of time”