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found a lump and first mammogram done....now??

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Posted 7/24/2011 8:15 PM (GMT 0)

Hi,

My name is Kim, a 43 yr old wife and mother of 6 from Northern Vancouver Island, in Canada. In mid June, while shaving my arm pits I found a lump. Chick pea sized. (looks bigger on the mammogram though and it is sort of long and not round like it feels) It is close to my left  breast just below that muscle on the inside of your arm pit. I went to the doctor to have it checked. They sent me for a mammogram, and after the doctor saw the first set wanted more, which they did, same day, and now I am waiting to get an ultra sound. They wanted to do it that day but couldn't (great medical system) and now I am waiting until the 5th of August. It is pure torture. I saw it...the lump...this milky white, sort of elongated round mass in there, on the computer screen. Why can't they say...oh...we have seen this a million times...it is...xyz...NOT cancer....or...abc...it looks suspicious...nothing..just we have to get an ultra sound, and maybe a biopsy.

I am not really sure what I am wanting to know by posting here...I guess I am just trying really hard not to fall apart, and let that little sliver of fear in my chest take me over, before I know...because there is still a chance it is not...cancer, right? I just can't wrap my head around this...that it is happening.

Anyways, a little introduction, before I start snooping around, and reading up, and "meeting" some of you, and reading your stories. I am glad I found this place, and hope to find information and some insight into what is happening with me :)

Bye for now,

Kim

Posted 7/26/2011 4:15 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Kim,

I'm in Victoria and a 4-yr breast cancer survivor. My one friend, also a breast cancer survivor, called the whole waiting process "Hurry up....and wait". It just about drove me mad.

I understand the waiting game. Change in breast May 7, 2006, antibiotics (this will be clear in a moment) x 2, sent for a mammogram, sent for an ultrasound, sent for MRI and biopsy at same time. It was the MRI that provided the guidance to do a needle aspiration biopsy. Diagnosis: August 9, 2006. I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.

It's not my intent to say you have something wrong. Lumps can be ingrown hairs (with no infection), non-cancerous cysts, etc.

The only advice I can offer you is to keep going back until you get an answer and to not worry in between appointments. I know that's easy to say, but it is true.

Thinking of you.

Post Edited (gumoore) : 7/25/2011 10:22:09 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 7/26/2011 8:47 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, Kim. So, is the only mass they found in your armpit? Or did they actually find something in the breast? A mass can be many things. The fact that they are doing an ultrasound means that they are looking to see if this lump is fluid-filled, which would most likely be non-cancerous. Of course this is a scarey thing! Anytime there is the suspicion of cancer, it is downright terrifying. Especially for a mother of 6! As mothers, that is the first place our minds go, to "what happens if... "

Try not to worry too much. August 5th sounds like a long time away, but really, that's pretty quick. Here in the U.S., we often have to wait six weeks or more for follow-up tests. So it really is a process of "hurry up and wait."

Let us know how it goes.

Hugs...
BEV
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