Breast Pain 8 months post lumpectomy

[worriedinks]

I had a 2cm lump removed last Aug in my left breast. When it was found origianly it was only 1cm and I had no pain with it. The excisional biopsy was only 3 wks from my mammo and it had grown. It was found with an annual mammogram, and was benign.

I am 45 and have been post menopausal via complete hysterectomy since 28 yrs of age due to endomitirosis.  I've elected to not partake of HRT due to family history.  My maternal grandmother had breast cancer at the end of her life (82) they didn't do anything as she had other issues and was with hospice.

In the past 3-4 wks, I've been having pain in that breast and feel some physical changes. The incision is on the top of my nipple, as the lump was directly under it.  The pain is on the left side of my nipple and that's where I feel the changes.  I'm not sure if it is a lump or not.   My concern is should I:
a) contact my GP and follow thru with a mammo,
b) call the surgeons office
c) just wait and see what happens in the following weeks?  

I know I've seen alot of reports that say pain doesn't equal cancer, and don't want to look like a worried wort.  

Please help me feel some relief and figure out what I sould do.  The kicker to it all is that I am currently waiting to be approved for supplemental life insurance and am worried that doing anything right now might jeapordize my application.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[lizziecee]

Hi - I am sorry you have had no feedback, don't know if I can help, but here goes.....

If you were not waiting for supplemental insurance (whatever that is - we have socialised medicine in England so fortunately don't have to pay for health issues, but sometimes have a problem getting seen on a timely basis), I would suggest you do a or b, but either of these options could seriously compromise your health insurance.

From my own experience, I would wait until your insurance kicks in. I was dx at a normal (for England) 3 yrly mammo at 58 yrs old. I didn't have a palpable tumour, either by myself, my husband, nor my GP, when I was recalled to a breast care centre. There is no breast cancer in my immediate family, but my father died of colon cancer at 59yrs and my twin brother of a malignant brain tumour at 50yrs, so there is always the familial concern. My tumour had obviously grown in the 3 yrs since the last mammo. We only start having mammos here from age 50.  I had no reason to be suspicious, except.... for some unusual stabbing pains in my right underarm area and down my right arm, almost like a quick electric shock. They would could come out of the blue. I had no pains in my right breast and certainly no palpable lump - in either breast, as I at first was in denial at being recalled after the mammo. I thought there was a problem with the x-ray film! Just shows how you don't want to confront cancer.

As my diagnosis progressed, it was found some 4 out of 18 lymph nodes were cancerous, as the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes under my armpit, and I do now wonder, with hindsight,(which would be a wonderful thing if we had foresight)  if I should have checked out these pains with a doctor, but it felt ridiculous at the time. Breast pain with cancerous tumours is slightly unusual, but not unheard of.

Once your insurance kicks in, I would go and get your symptoms checked out at a breast clinic, just to be sure there is nothing wrong, as there well may be.  Your previous excision may be the cause of your pain and the lump could be scar tissue. It can take a long time heal, as when nerves are cut during surgery.  The surgical lumpectomy has left me with a ridged lump along the excision, and I do get shooting pains frequently, but my bc surgeon says that all is okay.

Don't know what else to say, except that 4 years later, I am still here at 62 yrs young, enjoying my life, and so glad I had that mammo, when a few of my much younger friends refuse to go for them -and mammos are free here! They are like ostriches. Drives me to distraction when I think of all the women in the US who don't have free medical care like we have here in the UK. Also, when you have cancer in the UK , all your drugs are free, as are chemo and rads.

If I can help you with anything, you can contact me at: ***@****

Take care, and hope everything goes okay.
Liz.