I did a search on this and read a few older threads relating to IBC, but I have a particular question that is concerning me in relation to my mum’s cancer. I hope I am posting this in the right category.
Long story short: my mum found a lump in her breast early September around the time she was due a routine mammogram. She went in, and two weeks later received an “all clear” notification, but still felt uneasy, as the lump was still there and was tender. She went to her GP, who told her that as it was painful and the mammogram was clear, it was nothing to worry about and to come back in 6 weeks. A few weeks passed and the lump suddenly grew extremely quickly and became very sore. No nipple discharge or changes in skin texture, but the area was slightly red. She went to see another GP who was extremely concerned and rushed her in for a biospy. A week after that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it transpired that a lump had been visible on the original mammogram from September, but it was somehow “missed”.
My mum has since been dealing with a consultant who seems to be very experienced. She has decided that she will deal better with BC if she doesn’t know all the details, so she has asked him only to tell her things on a “need to know” basis, so all we know is that the lump was very large and quite deep in the chest cavity, and that it was very aggressive. She had a mastectomy and 3 lymph nodes tested, one of which was suspicious, so she had a follow-up operation four days after the mastectomy and fortunately the lymph nodes were clear. She also had a CT scan which came back clear.
However, she now has considerable tenderness in the other breast. There is no lump, and for this reason her consultant has completely dismissed her concerns over this new development. He has suggested that often after a cancer diagnosis many people immediately assume every ache, pain, lump or bump may be related (which I am sure is true, but I am still worried). He told her to contact someone if she found a lump. My mum doesn’t know about IBC, I only found out about it when I told a friend my mum might have BC, and they said, “God, I hope it isn’t that really rare, super aggressive one that’s painful!!” So I then scared yself STUPID with internet searches about IBC (which I have since read on older threads on here are often full of out-dated information) due to my mum’s original lump being so painful… it was so painful that her second mammogram was practically impossible. My mum is pretty tough and doesn’t usually complain about pain, so for her to struggle so much she must have really been in pain.
My dilemma, really, is that I want to somehow insist that my mum gets her other breast checked out without freaking her out by telling her about IBC. She is obviously concerned, too, but the consultant’s disinterest is making her worry she will be perceived as a hypochondriac if she keeps trying to follow it up.
As IBC can be present without the presence of a lump, can it be picked up by conventional scan methods, such as a CT scan? How do they test for it and determine it is there? And can anyone advise me as to what to do as regards telling my mum to go and see someone without frightening her? She has had so much to deal with over the last month (and is due to start chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy in about two weeks) that I really don’t want to add to the general unpleasantness of life at the moment.
Thank you for any advice you can give me.
-Tamsin