Stupid lumps...

[Dunja]

So - I think I'm going to start one of those "I think I might be sick - please tell me that I'm probably not" - threads :)

The thing is, a few weeks back I started feeling what felt like lumps in my breast. One, maybe two. It feels tender and if I sleep on it it aches for a while after I wake up. It sometimes aches regardless. A few days back something akin to a bruise appeared on my nipple, as if a vein had burst under the skin. Said breast had not been under any stress prior to the incident. (Sad but true :rolleyes: )

I know that it's probably nothing (and even if it is, cancerous knots aren't supposed to hurt), but at the moment my grandmother is dying from what started as breast cancer and has since spread. I'm feeling rather small and scared right now and would love to hear any stories about lumps that turned out to be nothing, while I wait for my doctor's appointment :) Cancer aside, it's just scary when parts of you start lumping up!

When looking up tender breasts online you get a bunch of pregnancy sites, but I do not think that's the problem.

[skyblu]

Relax! Cancerous nodules do NOT hurt, as you stated. I know it must be very frightening, what with your grandma going through it and all, and I'm very sorry you are having this scare. But I'd venture a pretty penny that you're fine!

My sister just had a lump removed from her breast. It was a cyst. I had a lump removed from breast tissue under my arm. It was a solid lump but non-cancerous. A whole bunch of women I know have nodules, fibromas, cysts, even clogged milk ducts. Those are far more likely explanations, I'm sure!

But get your butt to the doctor's as soon as possible so you have complete peace of mind.

I'll be thinking of you!

[PookiePrincess]

I had a lump about a year and a half ago. (The doctor felt it, I never could.) She told me to stay off caffeine. I cut out the caffeine (my only caffeine intake is through chocolate) and the last time I went, it was gone!

Glad to hear you're having it checked out! Hope all goes well!

[Carrie K]

I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother! And good for you, that you're getting it checked out by your doctor. Better to have nothing and have it checked than to dismiss it as nerves and find out differently later. Sooner is always better.

I have very fibrous breasts (my doctor's description, not mine, lol) and I used to freak out regularly but I've never had any problems at all.

When's your doctor appointment? Soon, I hope.

[Hello Kitty]

I'm really glad you've made your Dr appt already. :)

I had 2 lumps in my thigh - which were weird, and very painful. I was really worried & scared it might be a blood clot or something worse. My doc prescribed Bextra, and I had an ultrasound & MRI - it turned out to be a fatty cyst that went away on it's own. Irritating, but thankfully it wasn't anything serious.

There's my 'stupid lump' story for you - hope you feel better soon!

[diam124]

I had an infection in my breast once - I think it's called Mastitis (sp?). It was a hard lump (big) that was tender to the touch and also had a fever after a while. Antibiotics cleared it up right away though!

[SlvrPhenx]

MY mother had a lump removed from her breast years ago that was just a cyst. She has lumps now that I think she said were fibroids. The Dr just told her to cut back on the caffine. I have a friend that was told the same thing for the lumps in her boobies.

my stupid lump story.. I had a knot in my throat a few years ago and thought i was dying. turned out to be an infection. Antibiotics are great :D

[KrissyCat7]

Get to a doctor and have them do an ultrasound. I had to have three tumors removed from my breast when I was 18. Luckily, they were not cancerous. It is fairly easy for doctors to determine what the problem is, and it will put your mind at ease. Good luck!

[Dunja]

Thank you so much, girls! I feel much better already! :) That's a whole lot of harmless lumps you've mentioned so far! ;)

*hugs* This is one of the best things about the internet. Without you guys I would've been angsting until Tuesday.

It somehow isn't the same, intellectually knowing that it's probably nothing and being told that it's probably nothing. Thanks again!

[Guinness]

I have what my DR terms 'lumpy breasts'. I was scared to death when the first one was found. I had an ultrasound and the one I went in for was fine, but they found two others that couldn't be felt externally :eek: I had to have a biopsy on those and they came back perfectly fine. So lots of harmless lumps. When I was going through it, many woman I told had the same thing. I think it is important to be vigilant and always have them checked, but many times they are just tissue. Hope you just have 'lumpy breasts' too ;)

[BTB]

I don't want to scare you, but I think it's important that misconceptions about important things be cleared up whenever possible - it's been stated here that cancerous lumps don't hurt. That is true 95% of the time - literally. 5% of lumps that hurt are, in fact, cancerous, but when reported by the media and such, it's just stated that "painful lumps aren't cancerous" because this is almost always - but only *almost* always - the case. Why be sloppy when the soundbite wouldn't be that much longer with the caveat explained - I dunno. I just think it's important for anyone reading this to know that you shouldn't ignore any lump just because it hurts. Cancers can grow to impinge nerves; this hurts, but it's still cancer.

That said, I had a lump that turned out to be harmless too. You could have a fibroadenoma, you could have fibrocystic breasts... there's a whole lotta causes for painful nodules, and in young women they're rarely anything serious. You've got the appointment, and that's great. You've done what you need to do (short of actually go to the appt) ;) to take care of yourself and make sure it's ignore-worthy. The fact that you think you might be feeling two separate lumps is even more reassuring, and I hope you'll come back here and post your good news when it turns out to be no biggie. :D

[lowcountrywed]

I found a lump in my breast a few months ago. Went in for an ultrasound, had a biopsy and everything was fine. It was very scary, even though I knew the chance were low that it was cancerous. It's still v. scary, nerveracking, and not fun at all. Definitely get to a doctor to have it checked out. I'm sure in the end it will be nothing, and you'll feel so much better knowing. It felt like the biggest weight in the world was lifted from me when my doctor called.

[scrappy]

I found a lump in my breast (at the age of 26), and went to the doctor to have them check it out. Little did I know that I actually had 6 (!!!!!) lumps in one breast, and 2 in the other. They removed them (all except which was super small) and they all came back as fibroadenomas - basically non cancerous fibrous masses.

Luckily for me it wasn't cancer, but definately go to the doctor and have it checked out. I believe I'm one of the unfortunate few that produce many of these masses. Some women never develop any fibroadenomas, some may only have 1, and others (like me) produce many.

If they do want to do a biopsy, there are more methods out there than the normal "incision and removal with a scalpel" method. One of my lumps was removed this way, and left a nice inch long scar. Long story there, but this particular doctor didn't actually remove the lump I felt (although at the time I didn't know I had more). So I went to another doctor who found the rest.

The rest were removed using a totally different method, but unfortunately, i don't know the name of the machine they used. Bascially it was a, hmmmm, how best to describe this.... a slender rod, with an attachment at the end that munched away the tissue in question (kind of like pacman), and the tissue was vaccumed into tubes to send out for analysis. The whole procedure was done using an ultrasound machine to guide the probe.

The scar (i actually have 3, 2 in one breast, one in the other) is very tiny, and depending on where they enter the breast, the scar may disappear over time.

Ultrasounds are done on younger women when having lumps examined because our tissue is much denser than older women. Mammograms don't work. One tip for those who unfortunately have to go through this process - MAKE SURE THEY ULTRASOUND THE ENTIRE BREAST, not just the area you feel the lump in. It would have saved me a lot of worry, and I wouldn't have had to go through outpatient surgery twice :(

Best of luck to you!! And if you (or anyone else) has any questions about my procedures, feel free to ask! :)

[lowcountrywed]

I have a question? Is it weird that they didn't remove my lump? They took small pieces of tissue from it, but when it came back benign, they just left it.

[KrissyCat7]

lowcountrywed- I think the thinking is that if they know its ok they leave it. They dont want to do unecessary surgery. My doctor told me that somtimes size and location play a part in removing lumps. If it is too big it can hide other ptentially dangerous lumps.

[scrappy]

I agree with KrissyCat. In my case, the first one was near the surface, and the rest were completely removed because a)i had so many and they wanted to make sure everything was okay, b) most of them were quite small, and c) the method they used the second time allows for a much easier complete removal.

[Phen]

Also if they remove a lump that is benign, it'll leave scar tissue that could make it potentially difficult to read mammograms later on.

Thanks for pointing out the misconception about lumps and pain, BTB. My lump hurt and it was malignant. But my first lump (I had a benign one three years ago) did not hurt. They told me at the time that I was just lumpy; good thing I didn't blow off this latest lump.

scrappy, I think you're talking about needle (aspiration) biopsy.

~ Phen

[scrappy]

Phen - I think it was this:

Ultrasound guided biopsy: This biopsy technique is used in our office frequently. Using our office ultrasound machine and local anesthetics, the breast lump is located. A special biopsy needle, larger in caliber than the FNAB needle, is guided through a small nick in the skin that has been anesthetized. This needle is guided down to the lump using the ultrasound images generated by the ultrasound machine. When the needle is in the area of the lump, the needles biopsy mechanism is activated by the surgeon and quickly harvests a small core sample of breast tissue about the size of a half inch long piece of pencil lead. This is usually done 2 or 3 times to make sure the lump has been adequately sampled. This procedure takes about 15 minutes and is made painless by using generous amounts of local anesthetics and requires no special preparation on the part of the patient. The results are usually quite precise and are available in less than 24 hours.

But they removed the entire lump(s), not just taking a sample.

I can't be completely sure, but i think that's what it was.

The first removal I had done was a "lumpectomy." (Lumpectomy is an example of an open surgical biopsy. This procedure is used when there is a lump that can be felt, and is performed in the operating room. After the patient is given local anesthesia with sedation, an incision is made, and the lump is removed (excised) along with a very small amount of normal tissue that surrounds the abnormal area. The tissue is then sent to the laboratory for an analysis by the pathologist. This incision is closed with absorbable stitches and covered with a gauze dressing. These results are available within 48 hours.) But mine was done in an outpatient setting, not in an operating room per say.

Hope that helps!

[lowcountrywed]

scrappy, I think you're talking about needle (aspiration) biopsy.

This is the one I had. It wasn't bad at all. A very scary noise, but that's it.
Thanks for all answers on my lump question.

[Dunja]

Well, since you were all so nice to me in my moment of panic, I feel honour bound to tell you more of the exciting lump tale as it unwinds ;)

I went to my doctor today. She started by asking me some questions, about if I was exercising regularly, if my period was regular, etc. She then did an examination, and to my great disappointment agreed with me that it was a definite lump. I'll admit that I was starting to hope that I'd dreamt up the whole thing, and my soreness was only the fruit of my imagination. I didn't like to have the lump's existence confirmed by a medical authority.

In any case - she told me to wait and see. My doctor has a tendency to give that answer no matter what ails you. You always need to visit her twice ;) I think that somewhere along the way she decided that patients weren't to be trusted when they told her how long they'd been ill, so likes to see it for herself that your sorry condition isn't some 24 hour bug. "Hmmm... You still look as bad as you did three weeks ago. I guess that warrants some action..."

So if my lump hasn't shrunk in two weeks, I'm supposed to return and then she'll arrange for an x-ray. She said that the Cancer Society (the place where breast x-rays are taken. Comforting, don't you think?) doesn't like exposing young women to the radiation unless there is a good reason to do so.

And so I wait. But she said that the lump didn't feel like it was dangerous, so there's some comfort in that.

Thanks again for the support, girls :) You're all so brave and beautiful - the CC is a wonderful place *group hug* I'm sending a special batch of happy thoughts to those of you who are dealing with illness right now.

[KrissyCat7]

Make sure you keep us updated! Is it possible for them to do an ultrasound instead of an X-ray? That is what they did for me.

[Carrie K]

Oooookay, Dunja, as long as your doctor told you to wait and see for two weeks. If it's still there, I think I'd insist on getting a mammogram - I know women who were told to wait and not worry about it, one of them just because she was "too young" - and she wasn't. You know, better safe than sorry and all that.

ETA: yeah, I agree w/Phen, two weeks is unlikely to have much change/cause any harm. I just worry about the "wait and see attitude" in general w/physical ailments because it used to be wait until it's too late. I'm sure times have changed.

[Phen]

Two weeks' wait is unlikely to do much harm. When I found my malignant lump, my doctor asked me to wait two weeks to make sure it wasn't cycle-related, and then we did the ultrasound that determined it was definitely not a cyst. But the two weeks' delay in taking action didn't make a difference in the long run.

This is not to say every situation is like mine, but I thought I'd chime in with my experience.

~ Phen

[Dunja]

Well, two weeks have passed and the lump is staying put. Went back to my doctor who said that she was almost certain that it's benign, and then called the Cancer Sosciety to make an appointment for me.

I'll have a mammogram, a general examination and perhaps an ultrasound on Friday. She said that the doctor who'll take care of me has been "looking at breast mammograms for over thirty years" - and although I pity the poor fellow for having such a monotonus life, I think this must be good news for me ;)

I didn't think to ask if I'll have the results right away or not. I hope this will be resolved soon - I'm moving overseas in less than two weeks :eek: