Worried about new lumps
Worried about new lumps I am worried (maybe paranoid) that I have found new lumps in the same breast that I had my lumpectomy in. My checkup in June was clear - although the consultant only prodded about - I havn’t had a mammogram since the one which confirmed my original diagnosis (April 2005). Is it likely that the cancer has come back so fast? If so does it mean that they missed a bit when they did the lumpectomy? Why didn’t I have a mammogram then to check? I’ve been told I’m due one in the Spring. I phoned the breast care nurses and they have made me an appointment at the breast clinic on Monday so I suppose I should just be patient, it’s so hard though - I was looking forward to a proper christmas this year and hesitated for a few weeks before calling the breast care nurse as I have a check up due in January anyway. Is everyone else out there paranoid too? Anyone found perfectly safe lumpiness that is not cancer?
If they are new lumps I assume that Mastectomy is the only option - what happens to the muscle they took from my back to fill the hole - does it get put back into my back? Or do I have to lose that as well?
I havn’t told anyone about my fears - my husband thinks the checkup on Monday is just a routine one that I had forgotten to mention before.
I keep thinking that if the cancer has come back so fast it means that I am going to die - I’m so scared - this is silly as I coped really well the first time round.
Sorry but I needed to put this all down somewhere.
carine -all new lumps need checking. Phone your breast care nurse and get them seen. Then you will know if it’s OK/not OK. - best wishes, dilly
and yes we’re all paranoid- had hysterics a few years ago about what turned out to be an innocent cyst. Sympathy over the waiting woes, dilly
Carine,
so sorry to hear all your worries - but all these anxieties you express sound very normal to me. It is possible for the cancer to return quickly so you do need to get it checked out asap - so hopefully that will all start on Monday. It is perfectly possible that it will be nothing to worry about - but you can’t afford to waste time on a wait & see basis. Even the feeling that you are going to die I suspect is quite common. I say this because i have been there quite a few times and know what that feels like. But now 16 years on I haven’t died!! I am very much alive and enjoying life and would say it is possible to learn to live with cancer and have a reasonably normal life. Let’s hope for you that it will be good news though.
love Dawnhc
Hello Carine, so sorry you are going through this.
I had new lumps come up in my reconstructed breast about eighteen months after mastectomy. There were four lumps that came up in all - one main one and three little cancerous nodules.
I was worried that I would have to lose my reconstructed breast, but instead the surgeon recommended the lumps be removed by surgery and then the whole breast treated with radiotherapy. He also changed my hormonal treatment from tamoxifen to arimidex with zoladex (to make me post menopausal).
If these lumps of yours do turn out to be cancerous, your treatment will, of course, be tailored so that you get the best treatement for you.
As for worrying about dying, I know just what you mean. But my breast care nurse told me that a recurrence doesn’t effect prognosis in any great way - especially if the lumps are found and dealt with quickly.
Keeping my fingers crossed that your lumps turn out to be harmless.
Deirdre
i had new lumps too Hi there,
I had some lumps appear in my reconstructed breast literally a couple of weeks after finishing chemo and thought too “how can the cancer come back so soon”. They did a needle biopsy on one particular lump and so like you I had the worrying wait. However, this came back as being fat necrosis - I believe this can be quite common when there has been some kind of trauma to the breast - I think it’s a kind of scar tissue.
So although you will worry I’m sure I just wanted to let you know that after surgery there can be harmless lumps appearing.
Hope all goes well
take care
Katherine xx