Mastitis and Breast Cancer

I was just diagnosed with Mastitis this week and was wondering if anyone has experienced the same delay as my situation. Lumpectomy July 06 for BC, Radiation finished early Oct 06, on Tamoxifen now. So nothing was out of the ordinary until Wed this last week, then I started swelling and hurting and began to wonder. By Thu morning I elevated to panic mode and called my surgeon, he took me right in and said I have Mastitis which I understand is an infection. The surgery area has long healed up. Why would an infection take 4 months to develop???? According to the internet Mastitis is generally due to breast feeding, well I have no kids so that is impossible so it must be from the surgery. Now I am on a RX to get rid of it. He also put a needle in my breast and removed 10 ml of yucky looking fluid. Is this at all normal, will it reoccur now that I've had it once?

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear Under Forty Pam: Mastitis is an infection of the breast.  It is most common in women who are breast feeding but can also develop in a variety of other situations.  This  is likely related to the surgery  and/or radiation treatment to the breast and lymph nodes.  There may be no way to know the exact cause of the infection.  Your surgeon is best equipped to discuss his thoughts on this.  Assuming the infection is cleared up by the antibiotic, there is no reason to believe that this will reoccur, although there is no way to be certain of this.

[boninclyde]

Glad you came back to the forum just wish it was under different circumstances. Seems like we get through one diaster and then something new comes along. How are you doing on your tamoxifen? I will start mine tomorow. Hope your RX will clear things quickly. There is someone else one here with a breast infection so reading your post will maybe help her. Don't stay away so long. Happy Thanksgiving.

[Montana girl 06]

I hope the antibiotic takes care of your infection.
If I remember right, you previously posted that you had 7 benign biopsies and your 8th was cancer. Were your biopsies for calcifications or lumps? Also, did they catch your cancer early (with all your biopsies it sounds like you kept a pretty close watch) or did they feel it had been there a while hiding in your dense breast tissue? Was your 8th biopsy for calcifications or a lump or both? I hope you don't mind the questions. I also have dense tissue and they are always sending me for a biopsy.

[carme]

Stay on top of this infection. Don't let anyone tell you it's nothing and if you still don't feel it's cleared, keep bugging them.
I'm the one who lost my reconstruction implants to massive infection I came home from the hospital with. Only took them from 12/24 to 2/14 to finally get the last implant out.
Maybe it was the red streaks around my chest and back that finally got them to remove the first one...but I insisted they remove the second because I DIDN'T FEEL WELL!!! If you don't feel well and have "low grade" fever, you're probably NOT WELL.
Good luck.

[Under Forty Pam]

Boninclyde - I've been mostly on breastcancer.org in the last few months.  I have been doing ok on tamoxifen.  Seems to give me headaches more than any of the other side effects.  I never really got headaches before the drug so I am fairly sure it is from that.

Montana Girl - I am not the person with the 7-8 biopsies.  I was 1 for 1 on that front.  1 Biopsy, 1 BC.  Mine was calcifications, nobody felt a lump ever.  Just caught it between two annual mammograms.  It was early, still in DCIS.

Carme - Oh they didn't try to tell me it wasn't an infection, he took about 20 seconds to tell me that is what it was.  Plus draining a bunch of fluid confirmed it.  The RX seems to be working but it is giving me loss of appetite and nausea.  I guess you can't win it all.  I asked to go off it for Thanksgiving so I could enough food again but they said no, try crackers.  Well crackers did help a bit yesterday, I may cheat a bit tomorrow.  This wrecked my whole summer, I really didn't want it wrecked this time of year too.

[Montana girl 06]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I have many things to be thankful for. One is the friendship and support of all of you. I continue to keep you all in my prayers.

UnderFortyPam - Sounds like you move from one misery to the next. Hope it clears up soon.

[boninclyde]

A hard road to hough. But we can be thankful we are alive. The Sh_ts is rough. It seems like this will wreck our lives for a long time to come. I am sorry you are having a hard time again. I told montana girl I thougth you were the one with several biopsies. She was on here with us. Can you possibly remember her name. Was it Naniam? I have her e-mail I'll ask her? Ever who she was she was here with us doing numerous biopies. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

[Under Forty Pam]

I can't remember the person with the numerous biopsies either.

[Bunny711]

To you and everyone, you are so right we are lucky, and this forum has helped so much, I have tears in my eyes every time I come on, the kindness of everyone is amazing!!!!

[boninclyde]

How are you doing? Just wondering if you found out what was going on with the breast?