Hi Ladies
I hope you dont mind me posting on here for some advice 
I was dx in Jan- 39mm triple neg IDC, Grade 3, 1 node, no vascular invasion. I had mx early feb followed by 3 fec and 3 tax, last one 16th June (I havent had rads as surgeon got clear margins). Anyway, Im obviously naturally worried about recurrence given the tnbc status and so Ive been extra vigilant about signs symptoms etc…
Soon after my last chemo a rash started to develop on my surgery side- it was just redness at first but it has tracked down my boob and some bumpy lumps have since popped up. My surgeon is baffled and although he says he’s ‘not unduly worried’, he says he cant be sure what it is. I had a course of anti b’s in case it was an infection in my expander but its got worse not better. I saw my onc today for my 8wk follow up and she was quite concerned when I showed her- although she said it doesnt look like cancer, she said it could be and so I am going in for some tests tomorrow. less than 2mths out of chemo Im sure you can appreciate how anxious I am. I have a 15mth old son and he thought of what could be is very scary.
Can I ask those of you who have experience of skin mets what it looks like etc? My onc said it tends to be skin coloured but mine is quite angry looking- Im sure its not a case of one size fits all though surely? Also, if it is cancer, would it be classed as a recurrence or secondary cancer?
I am expecting an ultrasound and fna/ biopsy tomorrow- will let you know how it goes.
Thanks in advance ladies
Tina x
Hi Tina,
thought I would put my experience with skin mets down. Not sure if it will help. I had had a mastectomy which healed well - no reconstruction. Six months later at my check up the surgeon remarked on half a dozen ‘insect bites’ I had around the surgery site. I had them for a little while and as I had cats assumed they were sharing their little friends with me LOL. He said straight away it was the cancer back again and did a biopsy there and then of 3 of them. It was the sort of biopsy that takes a bit of the lump - like a gunshot when they do it! Of course he was right.
The anxiety must be awful for you with a little one to care for as well. I do hope this is one of those mysteries and not cancer again. Good luck for tomorrow.
Dawn
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Thanks for your reply Dawn and sorry to hear your experience did indeed turn out to be skin mets.Its the little lhard lumps that are worrying me- I suppose they are a bit like insect bites but the whole area is reddenened and the lumps are almost purple. Im hoping they do some definative tests today- just hope they dont burst my expander in the process (although thats the last of my worries at the mo).
There seems to be very little info around about the possibility of recurrence in the skin?? All the focus seems to be on bone, lung, liver and brain mets. Does that mean that skin mets are very rare?
I will let you know how I get on later.
Thanks again
Tina xx