Hi everyone,
Around 10 days ago I woke up feeling like I had bruised my ribs right under my right Breast,I couldn’t see a bruise but it was very tender.As the days passed it was moving down the pain and that’s when I noticed what looked like a swollen vein running from my breast down my side,it was tender to touch and also felt a bit like a pulled muscle depending on how I moved.I felt under the breast and there felt like a small lump joining it.Today I went to the Dr to have it checked,before he even looked at me he explained that’s will all breast issues they refer you to the breast clinic as he can only give a general opinion on the issue and is not a specialist,he then had a look and feel and said it was very unusual and he hadnt seen it before.He said it looked like phlemitis but that’s usually found in the leg.he felt under my arm and my collarbone and said there was no swelling,I asked if he could check my left breast as sometimes it felt lumpy on top(I have quite heavy boobs)he couldn’t feel anything at first but then said he could feel as he described thickening? And he noted on my referral it was 2cm×3cm approx and palpable…the thing that’s worried me is he said it’ll be around 4 weeks till I get an appointment and finished by saying I wish I could give you 100% reassurance but I can’t ,your young (I’m 34yrs) your healthy and no obvious signs of swelling …yet here I am haven’t ate all day,cried my eyes out and now can’t sleep !! Don’t know if I’m more worried about cancer or if this is a blood clot why isn’t it been seen to?? Don’t know what to think ,heads racing please help x
Snickers
Hello and welcome to the forum.
Your GP is correct in that he is not the expert and that he needs to refer you to a breast clinic as they deal with all sorts of breast conditions not just breast cancer, so it is good that he has referred you.
If he has referred you as an urgent referral you should get an appointment within two weeks of the referral being received as that is the NICE guidelines. It might be worth checking with your surgery to see if that is the case, you could always follow this up with a call to your breast clinic to see if they have received your referral
xx
Hi Snickers, It’s completely natural to be thrown in to a tail spin when something like this happens, a referral does not mean you have cancer and as your GP rightly said it’s the correct thing to do with any breast issues as only the specialists can tell you for certain what is going on.
I know it sounds flippant to say but please try not to get yourself in to a panic , I did the exact same but with hindsight it just made a stressful time even worse and although I was diagnosed I was and am ok ?
As Helena rightly says the general referral wait is 2 weeks so it may be a good idea to check with your surgery or even call the breast clinic just to clarify this. So many young ladies pass through the forum exactly as you are and report back that all was well, of course there are those of us who get a diagnosis but even then the huge majority of us go on to be just fine and stay around to help support people like you but we are also back to normality and getting on in the real world again ?
There will always be someone around to have a chat to if it helps you during your wait so please keep in touch if you feel you can Xx Jo
Thank you ladies for the replies,had a bout 2hours sleep and now need to go to work and deal with the public,can feel a panic attack coming on but need to just get on with it,trying to stay positive but at the same time don’t want to pretend that I’m definitely ok to then be brought down with a bang if somethings wrong,my heads all over the place,I keep going from feeling positive to thinking the worst and now my breasts both feel achy but I don’t know if I’m just imagining it because I know there might be something,this is my worst nightmare