WTF does 'Carcinoma' mean?

When I took my mammogram films home, I of course ripped open the stapled manila envelope so I could see for myself what all the fuss was about. And there they were; all those xrays of my right breast and one xray of my left breast, with a big huge white spot surrounding my nipple on the right, and nothing on my left. My stomach dropped at that point. But still, let’s not get crazy. That could very well be the infection I know I have that I’m looking at; I’m no Doctor and have no idea what is in front of me. There's also no way cancer could be that big, could it? I then pulled out of the same envelope a piece of paper that had the findings of the ultrasound. It was pretty much all foreign to me, at least the first 7 or 8 paragraphs. None of that mattered anyway. All that will ever stick in my head about that piece of white paper was the last sentence, which was bolded, and the gist of it was “mass that is suspicious for primary breast carcinoma.” Not knowing what carcinoma was I went to my computer and googled ‘primary breast carcinoma’ aka cancer. I can’t describe those feelings as I can’t remember them, but they weren’t pleasant, that much I can recall. I started reading what my hits had brought up, and I scared myself into a frenzy with words like survival rate, mortality, new technology to live longer with cancer, just much too much at that moment. I caved and balled; it was a long time coming. Shawn got home and talked me down. He explained that of course it would say that, any lump in your breast would be suspicious for that and not to overreact until there was something to worry about. I am really thankful for his level head in those early days as he was such a calming factor as he never once showed worry, which in hindsight I certainly didn’t need at the time. I decided at that point that I’d stay off the internet as nothing good would come of it, case in point.
I met with the oncologist surgeon, nice enough guy, he said he presumed I’d looked at the report and I confirmed and he told me that he didn’t think it was breast cancer as it didn’t look like it to him, but of course he would proceed in all seriousness to eliminate that as a possibility and would find out what we were dealing with here. I’d be scheduled for an aspiration biopsy.
So I go in and get an aspiration biopsy. It’s explained to me -or shall I say this is how I interpret the following information given to me by the onco surgeon- that there are 3 types of biopsies. 1. Needle biopsy where they go in and take a sample of I guess tissue or liquid or whatever and determine if it shows any sign of cancer, etc. The problem with this is that a needle can only get a small amount and has to be pointed accurately to the spot the cancer is. Basically, if cancer is there but isn’t grabbed with pinpoint precision, it comes back as negative for cancer when in actuality cancer was just to the left. 2. Tissue sample is where they go in surgically and cut some tissue and sample it, which is a good way to do it but a little invasive. 3. This is an aspiration biopsy and is what I opted for as per the doctor telling me this is what I would get. It’s described as a needle with suction that can get more area than a basic needle biopsy and would give an acceptable chance of results and is not invasive at all, just a bit uncomfortable for a second. If it came back as not a concern, they’d then do the tissue sample anyway. Cool.
He was right; it was uncomfortable for a second. It absolutely killed for a second is what happened. He puts the needle in your boob and moves the handle end in and out rather rapidly, to suction out the stuff. Ouch ouch ouch, toes are curled onto the so awesomely placed counter right at the end of the table I was rigid against that I’m pushing my feet with my body weight behind it to lift me up a bit to counteract and react to the pain that I felt. I doubt it was like this for everyone, but it certainly was for me! Although, again, for a second, if that. It was over before I knew it. I braced myself for another wave of pain, but when I finally allowed myself to open an eye, relief coursed through me cuz it was ova. I got dressed and went about my business. I gotta say, for the most part, everything I’ve been going through has been dealt with most efficiently. I’d have to wait about a week to find out the results of this, so I went on with my life.