I think we all go through something similar while waiting for the official results to come back. In my case, I had an almost opposite situation. I had a mass that had been present for about 10 years with little noticeable change on annual mammograms. Because I got snowed in this winter and had trouble with another health tissue, I didn't get my annual mammogram until the 18-month mark. At that time, the mass was roughly twice as large as it had been on the winter, 2011 film. This led to a needle biopsy. And all along I kept hearing that given the fact that it had been unchanged for so long, it was probably just an infection or maybe dead tissue or fluid or a bruise or anything, but since it had never been properly biopsied, just to be sure we'll do a biopsy. And of course, while I wanted to believe their reassurances, the fact that it had grown so much in that time frame interfered with that.

For me, the best thing to do was to distract myself from worrying about it. I made it a point to watch my favorite TV, really concentrate on my work, spend a little more time on Facebook than is healthy, and cuddle with the dogs. Try to just put one foot in front of the other every day, and then you can let momentum carry you over any rough patches. As I said, find something that you drag your mind out of worry mode- reading if you can concentrate, jigsaws, Jon Stewart, shopping, etc.

Good luck. Hopefully by now the process will be moving along, and once they do that and have the full picture, you'll be surprised at how fast things seem to be moving.

Thank you so so much for your kind words, your strength and your help in showing me the process is just that...waiting is waiting, but curling up with the dogs and keeping myself relaxed is helping....and I am making it one day to the next...

They might mean calcifications, you do not need to wait for your films to get a biopsy they can repeat a diagnostic one, or have a biopsy with a guided needle.
84% of diagnosed women we do not have a family cancer history.
One never knows how fast cells are multiplying till pathology reads the sample of the biopsy.
There are several types of breast tumors some are benign that grow fast and cancerous that can be slow , or fast.
In my case I wanted the biopsy as fast as possible, to be able to do something.
Usually films are sent electronically asap from one facility to other and then they can be downloaded .

Had a mammo in March. Because I have a great support team with my health system, things went almost too fast. I was biopsied and diagnosed within four weeks. I had the mastectomy in May. Wow, too quick. I had hardly any time to think.

Good luck with it all.

MaryTurk: Mine was the same way, but especially if you've got a fast growing tumor, the sooner it's out the better. Mine was found on mammography with immediate ultrasound-guided needle biopsy in mid May, ultrasound guided needle biopsy of lymph node in first week of June, had mastectomy mid June, and started chemo mid July, with radiation to start in December after chemo is finished.

While it did, and does still, seem to be going very fast, but at the same time I was torn by my desire to wait wait wait and the desire to get this dang thing out of me! For me the hard part was more waiting for the results in between so I could get specifics. I think most educated women know at least to a limited degree what their choices are- lumpectomy, partial mastectomy, total mastectomy, all of them with or without chemo and/or radiation. So even though I had a general idea of what, I had to wait for the results of the breast biopsy- positive, but there are specific tests we have to wait for. So we're looking at definite surgery. But wait, that lymph node looks funky. Let's biopsy that. Wait for the biopsy, wait for the results. Okay, positive, looks like we're going to mastectomy. And what else? Well, we have to wait for all the results on the surgery to come in, and not living in an urban area with a huge hospital, it was a bit of wait.

So, yeah, it did move fast, but given that I ended up with limited options, I suppose in my case that a good thing. Had the process meandered along too slowly, I'd have probably spent the two months between diagnosis and starting chemo in an absolute panic over when the other shoe would fall. This way, they all got their tap dancing out of the way in one flurry of shuffle-ball-chain and now I can take those catch up breaths.