Hello, I’m new here
I found a small firm lump in my right breast a week ago, on the side closest to my chest bone (cleavage area). At first I thought it was an insect bite or spot as I was first alerted to a small red patch of skin, but when I ran my fingers over it, noticed there was a hard pea sized lump below the skin. The redness faded but the lump remains. I visited my GP yesterday and she felt it was under the skin rather than in the breast tissue, but couldn’t be 100% certain as due to its location, it was difficult to ascertain whether she was able to move the lump around or not. When I try to see if it moves, i can’t be sure either.
I am a little anxious as I have had a few investigations this past year for alarming symptoms (blood in urine and unusual vaginal bleeding). Further urine tests showed all clear and the ultrasound I had for the strange bleeding revealed an ovarian cyst, which has subsequently resolved. But I know full well what what they were looking for!
I wondered if anyone else had experienced a lump with this type of redness before and did it turn out to be OK?
Sorry to hear you have another health scare. I didn’t have redness but I’m commenting because you mention a couple of times about whether the lump moves or not. My lump was also small and described as ‘free moving’. My GP said it was almost certainly benign because it was free moving and likely to go away on its own. She referred me for scans though anyway (health care in Norfolk is excellent - I think they have bigger budgets here as we have a larger than normal population of older people!).
On the day of my scans at the hospital I was first seen by a doctor and student. The doctor confirmed there was a lump and said that as it was free moving it would be benign but as I was here do the scans anyway and then I could tell them at the desk that I had been told it was OK for me to go and not wait for the results. I bounced back into the waiting room full of relief.
It was during the ultrasound that the good news turned to bad - the doctor doing the ultrasound was very worried about the images and then after doing a biopsy she said that although we’d have to wait for the histology report to confirm she was sorry to say that she was 100% confident I had cancer.
I don’t want to scare you, or add to your concern, but please do push for further tests and don’t automatically assume that free moving means it’s OK. I’m sure that statistically it probably is but it wasn’t in my case.
Have you been referred for further tests? Hope you get a good result. x
hi Pinklepurr
sorry to hear about your worries. hopefully you will soon be posting to say all is well!
I have had biopsies a few of times. In my experience, they have given me a local anaesthetic which works almost immediately. They then insert a needle - I don’t feel any pain, just a tugging sensation which is weird but not too bad. To actually take the sample, the needle makes a noise a bit like a wall stapler - this is the worst bit but it doesn’t hurt. The needle is removed and the wound closed with steri strips.
Over the next few days as it heals, I have had a bit of bruising, and my boob felt a bit lumpy - ironically.
I don’t know if this is the standard way for getting biopsies but this is how it has worked for me on all 3 occasions.