A month ago I awoke and realised I had a large painless swelling in my left underarm and towards the crease in my arm/breast. After a visit to my doctor she prescribed antibiotics and an anti inflamitory cream, however neither of these have been successful, but my doctor has referred me to the breast clinic as she said the swelling had thickened in size. Since then the swelling has got larger/thicker. My husband reckons because I am overweight that it is fat. He is not being supportive, and has never asked how I am. I’m trying to stay upbeat for my daughter as she nears her last exams before she hopefully heads off to University in September but finding it hard, it’s always on my mind. My appointment is on the 24th of April. Has anyone else experience symptoms like mine?
Hi Helsangles, Just wanted to give you my experiance (although everyone is different!) I did have swelling in my left underarm - wasn’t one big lump though, I could feel 3 smallish lumps, largest maybe about 1cm, mine unfortunately (along with a sizeable firm lump in the breast) did turn out to be cancer. However the good news for you is that breast cancer rarly spreads / grows that quickly, I had left mine a couple of months thinking it was hormones and there was hardly any change.
I know it’s easy to say try not to worry but there are all sorts of breast conditions your lumps could turn out to be, my Dad always used to say ‘never bid the devil good morrow’ worrying will change absoulty nothing but possibly make you feel ill. Oh and don’t Google, (although I have a sneaky suspicion that it’s too late for that!) remember most lumps are not cancer, although I can understand why you are so worried. Most of the stories you’ll find on the Internet are of the worst case senerios as that’s when people tend to look for support from people in a similar situations, unfortunately these do tend to drown out any good stories as people don’t tend to need the support once they get the good news.
I really hope you get some good news in a few weeks, if not then your in a great place as you will get great support from this forum 
Hope my rambling helped.
Moonbeam
Thank you Moonbeam,
Your post has greatly helped me, however I did visit my doctor last week to see if I could get my appointment moved forward. However she said that there was a back log and I would just have to wait, she did say the swelling had become a bit more thicker, and I now have a stabbing pain in my underarm, pain in my chest wall under my left breast and pain in my mid bone between my breast, I can only wear a soft material bra now. She said that I must have hurt myself but I havn’t. In the last couple of weeks I have also been suffereing from horrific sweats, not just at night but also during the day. Sorry for moaning, really hoping it is nothing but the waiting is a nightmare.
I wish doctors would not insist that patients must have injured themselves in some way just because the doctor is unable to diagnose the problem.
I’ve seen it tons of times as a physio, where people with back pain, for instance, are always being told they have a pulled muscle or have strained themselves somehow, when the patient categorically denies doing anything strenuous!
Sorry, rant over. I hope you get your appointment soon and they give you the all clear!!
Hi Helsangels, sorry to hear it’s still getting worst, you must be so worried about it now. I thought a two week referral was standard these days but looks like it may be another post code lottery thing. Just over a week to go now, you will get there although I’m sure it feels much longer. Hopefully they can give you some answers, sometimes they can actually tell you on the day what they think so may be able to reassure you. Hope your partner is showing you some more support through this now, it could be that he just doesn’t want to think about what it could be and everything that would come with it. Mine just carried on as if nothing was worng as he could cope like that - this was surprisingly helpful to me at times as he kept me grounded, although he did know when to show some sympathy!
Wishing you all the best
Moonbeam