Kate,
Thanks for your honesty. It makes all the difference.
xx
HI again puddle duck I am feeling ok now thank you glad that I have finally finshed 2 years of treatment another opp needed in 2 weeks then that should hopefully be it.
Before I was diagnosed I started to be very depressed I was also extremly tired all the time it was not normal for a 24 year old to never have any energy. I did then one day find a lump in my left breast it hurt all the time so in the end thought i had better get it checked out they say cancerous lumps dont hurt well mine was so painful that during the 4 month wait to be seen by the breast clinic my partner took me to A&E as I was crying out in pain, they just laughted at me and said you have a lump not really an A&E matter put up with it and wait for your appoinment to come through. and the rest you know was diagnosed with aggressive bc and yes mine is hormone possitive HER 2 and ER+
I hope all will be fine with you we are all thinking of you hin take care
love clairemmxxxxxxxxxxx
Puddleduck, I just want to reinforce what everybody else has been saying. I was dx with high grade DCIS on 28 June following a mammogram I had done privately. The consultant at the BUPA hospital got me transferred within a week back to her NHS clinic for a biopsy because I didn’t have medical insurance.
I went privately because I went to my GP less than 2 weeks before I was due to relocate 300 miles and she was willing to refer me but couldn’t get me seen through the NHS within that time so she suggested I went privately and wrote me a referral. I went to see her because one breast had become larger than the other and I had persistent non-cyclical pain in that breast. On examination she found that an area of my breast was much hotter than the rest.
I was extremely fortunate that my GP took my concerns so seriously. I had a skin sparing mastectomy on 17 September with a saline expander and a reduction on the unaffected breast. The histology revealed a 12mm invasive carcinoma - they got good clear margins of 7mm. I now have to have my lymph nodes sampled on 16 October to see if it’s spread.
Although this is all horrible, I am so relieved that it’s been found. So my advice is to listen to your body and get that mammogram. I regard my £450 as money incredibly well spent!
Good luck
Deborah
Hi Puddleduck,
I think that you should get a mri done even if the discharge comes and go and the excema too as I had a similar discharge as you had from your nipple prior to diagnosis. I had a lump checked out a year and a half ago. I was told because I was 26 and had no family history etc that it was hard tissue. I felt like they thought i was making a big deal out of nothing so did nothing more.
However, i started to get bloody-brown discharge from my left nipple about 6 months later. i went to another GP as i had moved in the intervening months. She was great and referred me to the breast clinic the next day. They, the clinic initially thought i had a papilloma (a warty type growth on a nipple ducts) however it was an invasive carcinoma with dcis meaning i had a mastectomy. I’ve just finished chemo and start radiotherapy tomorrow. Things are going well : )
To sum up Puddleduck, if i’d known back then what i know now i wouldn’t have been so laid back about it all. So don’t let them tell you it’s nothing just because you are a younger women. Also, i had had the bloody discharge for sometime i think before i really noticed it. i think it use to come and go. It was a bloody-brown colour. To reinforce what everyone has said, listen to your body and get those tests done.
I hope what i’ve said has helped you and I really hope you have a good outcome. Please keep us updated on things and do take care. xx
hi puddleduck, just to share my story im 30 was dx end of june, found a lump actually it didnt even feel like a lump i taught it was a bone… and only that i was at my docs getting bloods done i might never have went as it was sore i always read breast cancer is painless. (load of … ) so she said straight away nothing to worry about as its definitly too big to be any thing serious its just a cyst so she got me apt in hosp following 2 weeks to get this so called cyst drained.
however in the meantime puckering came in my skin where lump was so i did get a little concerned saw consultant of a monday was in tripple assesment wednesday getting mamagarm ultrasound and biopsy when i saw the biopsy i new summit was wrong, and yes dont be fooled by a mamagram mine was clear… anyway friday got call from hosp to say results were back i new straight away summit was up i was told i had invasive ductal carcinora at stage 3 had wle following few days followed by total axilary clearence week after and another tumour which was dic…
so my mamagram was clear and yet i had 2 tumors, dosnt make sense …
all i can say to u i never taught summitlike this would happen me as im sure did all younger women on this site but unfortunatly it does
SO PLEASE DONT SIT QUIET FEMAND TO GET A ULTRASOUND AND BIOPSY DONE, you no your own body and discharge ect is not normal
i hope this story helps im now on my 2nd chemo plus herceptin as im her2 pos and oestrogen pos but doing ok …
hope all works out ok and if you need any questions answers or to just rant away feel free
lots of love breda
xxxxx
Hello to everyone,
Reading all the responses from you, mostly women in their twenties and thirties, makes me think something in the healthcare system is wrong. The protocols set up to manage breast symptoms does not seem to really take account of younger women.
Obviously mammo is not always accurate for young women, so how much of a case is there for MRI instead?
Where do we have to shout to have this heard?
HI puddleduck
you no what i totally agree…
i wasnt offered a mri as im sure neither was anyone else so how can we fight to get one
if we ask i feel the doctors think we are over reacting but we are not mammograms dont show up anything so what are we supposed to do wait till it spreads
iv recently read something aabout a new technique about dectecting cancer at av ery early stage
yhe website is www.icorg.ie its in ireland as im from ireland but im sure they would put you in contact with some one doing research or trials in your area.
my breast nurse is brill and i spoke with her yesterday she said as im young i would be better off getting a second opinion and going on trials
well if i find out any more info
il report back
p.s i forgot to say y i was at hosp yesterday is i found a nother lump nearly freaked on other breast but the doc couldnt feel it, amyway he sent me for mammo , y i dunno so that was clear and i demanned an ultrasound so they gave me one and low and behold i have 8 cysts not cancerous thank god their only baby ones he said they wont turn cancerous, but how do they no this for sure
sorry for the rant
iv chemo brain today
chat soon
breda
xxx