So a few months ago my boyfriend noticed a small lump in my breast (he examines them more often than I do). I honestly couldn’t remember if it had been there before. Eventually I went to the local clinic and the doctor totally brushed it off. She said she could barely feel it and that small lumps occurred naturally if one was on the Pill. I took her at her word and never thought twice about it.
Then, more recently, I started feeling pain where the lump was. Not regularly and not much, just an occasional twinge now and then. Unfortunately I deliberately ignored the pain in the hopes it would go away (or that I was just imagining it) - until I finally had to admit to myself that it was actually there and that I should probably get a second opinion.
I went to a bigger hospital this time and got a mammogram - the first in my life (I’m 29). Um. OUCH. I’d heard it was painful but damn, I was not prepared for the sensation of having my boobs flattened between two plates. The nurse kept reassuring me that I was doing great and I felt like a 10-year-old again. Then the ultrasound. Both confirmed that there was definitely something there - the doctor said it was 2 cm wide and that I needed to get a biopsy to make sure it wasn’t malignant. (He showed me the width of the needle and I nearly fainted.)
The good news, I suppose, is that statistics are on my side. I’m under 30 with no history of breast cancer in my family. The biopsy is a procedure called Mammode and it’s supposed to be the latest thing - no scar, little risk of lingering pain or side effects.
The bad news is - well, it could be bad news, and my mind keeps straying to worst case scenarios. I read somewhere that while breast cancer is rare for young women, it tends to be more aggressive when it does appear.
The biopsy is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. My boyfriend is coming with me - I feel bad because it’s a bad time for him - his dad passed away just a year ago and waiting around in hospitals will probably trigger some unpleasant memories - but he was adamant about coming. Wish me luck.
Good luck with the biopsy! I hope the results come back showing that it is benign. Waiting for test results to come back can be scary, even when you know statistics are on your side.
Good luck! If you don’t mind sharing, could you describe the lump? I have particularly dense breasts and there’s a lot going on in there, but I’ve heard that the thing you should really worry about is something that feels like “coral formation”.
Yikes. I dunno about coral formation. It just seems like a knot on the inside of my right breast. I heard that if it’s hard and doesn’t move around, that’s a bad sign, but I can push it around, so to speak. The doctor did say something like there were calcium deposits, which doesn’t sound very nice.
Thanks for that. That is also encouraging. :: crosses fingers ::
Thanks for the good wishes everyone. I’ll keep y’all posted.
I’ve had a few biopsies and luckily they’ve all came back benign. The time between doing the biopsy and getting the results can be filled with angst, but if you take the attitude that whatever the result turns out to be it’d be better to know than to not know. If it’s a malignancy then at least you’ve found it early enough to hopefully squash it. If it’s benign then it’s a big relief. Either way it’d be OK.
I hope and am almost positive that your results will be benign. See, this is why you should be more like me and not check your breasts because, hey, what if I* found *something??!
Just kidding. sort of
Let this be a lesson to every woman reading this thread, though. The whole point of mammography is to find potential cancers when they’re small enough that they’re less likely to have spread. Don’t ever listen to a doctor who poo-poos a lump because it’s “small”.
I’m very glad you followed up on this.
I’ve had a biopsy, myself, and can tell you that the size of the needle is meaningless. They numb you so well you won’t feel a thing. My lump turned out to be normal breast tissue that had built up in a milk duct – not even a cyst, let alone a tumor of any kind. Here’s hoping you get a similar result!
Being able to push it around is also a good sign. When I had a scare, my surgeon used the phrase “grapes in Jell-O” to describe the feeling of lumps that were usually benign.
I’ll keep y’all posted.