breast biopsy negative -- but still have symptoms

[lindamonika]

I had great news yesterday. The core biopsy of my breast have come back negative. The mammogram is clean, except for very large lymph nodes in my arm area.  One of these I can very clearly feel.  Today I am having an ultrasound guided biopsy of my lymph nodes.  I have already been through one course of antibiotics and am halfway through a second course of a different antibiotic.  So far all my other symptoms are still there.

Basically, my breast is very red, the nipple area is very hard, and the nipple is slightly inverted.  I have the lump in my breast that has been determined to be benign.  The lymph nodes will be looked at today.

It appears to me that it is unlikely that I have an infection.  My blood counts were normal and my symptoms are not responding to antibotics.  I have been doing surfing on the web and have come across "inflammatory breast cancer".  WOuld the breast biopsy have picked up this type of cancer?  Or will the lymph node biopsy rule this out?  

If "inflammatory breast cancer" is ruled out and I am not responding to antibiotics what else can be causing the redness and the very hard nipple area?  

Thank you and sorry for the long post.

[CCF-RN,MSN-rf]

Dear lindamonika:  If this is not determined to be an infection, then it would be important to determine what it is.  Inflammatory breast cancer usually presents as a red, hot, inflammed appearing breast, with or without a lump.  A skin biopsy can often provide diagnosis.  On the other hand, though a negative core biopsy is good news, a core biopsy only gets a small sample of tissue.  It is possible that it could miss tissue of concern.  Hopefully, the lymph node biopsy will shed some light on the source of the problem.  If not, you should discuss with your breast specialist whether an excisional biopsy should be done.

[surgeon]

Have you seen a surgeon, or have all the biopsies been done by radiologists? If you haven't, you ought to see a breast surgeon.

[lindamonika]

The breast biopsies were done by my breast surgeon.  The lymph node biopsy today will be done by a radiologist.