I am 47 and have been referred to the breast clinic. I have an appt Monday. I am absolutely terrified that I have IBC. I have several cysts in both breasts , that’s what the GP called them, a dent in my lt breast which increases when I lift my arm up and an area of thickening and peau d’orange on my lt breast. Has anyone had these symptons and it’s not been IBC?Thanks
Hi Buddleia,
Sorry you have this anxiety at the mo.
IBC is rare & there are other benign reasons for your symptoms, so just try to carry on as normal until your clinic appointment, the clinic will get to the bottom of it.
If you have been, it really is best not to generally google symptoms as any breast change or symptom will come up as a symptom of bc at some point, when mostly it isn’t. As a result, it feeds anxiety & doesn’t change anything. Statistically, bc is the least likely reason for your symptoms whatever they are & most women here get the all clear.
If you want to, let us know how you get on
Ann x
Thanks for replying. I flit from being worried about the thickening and peau d’orange to the multiple cysts. Could they be all cancerous? Finding it very difficult and think I am kidding myself if all those symptons aren’t cancer? Can’t believe I hadn’t noticed the cysts before
The anxiety when waiting is horrible Buddleia & inevitably the mind goes into overdrive & so much easier said than done, but it can help to carry on as normal & distract yourself from those thoughts, as it wont change anything.
Even IF on the off chance it is bc, then treatment is excellent now & the sooner it’s dealt with, the better.
If you think it would help, do post in the ‘ask our nurses’ board of the forum, or ring the helpline above to talk it through.
ann x
Hello I went to the breast clinic on Friday. I got a cancellation. I saw a nurse practitioner who couldn’t find any lumps at all and wasn’t worried about my thickening and didn’t think it was peau d’orange. I only just remembered about the dent in my breast and showed her that too on my way out of the room. She briefly mentioned Mendor’ s disease but wasn’t sure. I next had a mammogram and then went for an ultrasound. There wasn’t anything on the mammogram and they did an ultrasound of the area of thickening (medial part of my breast) and my left axilla at my request. The radiologist said the thickening was glandular tissue and nothingto worry about. I went home with my partner slightly shocked and very happy there wasn’t anything found. After a while I realised that I hadn’t asked about the dent so contacted the nurse practitioner who said it may go or stay and if was anything it would have shown on the mammogram. I accepted this and had a good weekend. Monday morningwhen I am back at work. I work in Oncology, the dent starts playingon my mind again. I keep looking at Google on my phone about cancers that are missed by mammograms etc. I can’t rest so again ring the nurse practitioner who is very kind and says she wants to reassure me that my test was clear. My partner says they did ultrasound of my left breast all over but I don’t think they did. The nurse tried to reassure me about the mammogram but I am so anxious again. I hope this will pass and is just residual anxiety but I just don’t know what to do. I am taking propanalol and diazepam which helps. I feel so stupid when I should be happy nothing was found.
Mean Mondors disease
Hi Buddleia,
I think quite a lot of us have left appointments thinking I should have asked that!
It sounds like everything was done that needed to be done with the the mammo & ultrasound where they would have looked at the whole breast, so it’s highly unlikely anything was missed, although inevitably, these stories will be found on google.
It might be an idea to ring the helpline above or post in the ‘ask our nurses’ section.
ann x