Tender Breast

[Denise8207]

First I just like to say that this is a very great forum. Now for my question, I've been have mildly tender breasts for past 5 days, the right breast more than the left one.  I recently had an breast abcess removed which I haven't been having any pain from where it was removed.

What could this be? I'm very afraid it may be Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Any insight would be helpful. Thanks

[Denise8207]

Thanks again MiracleB! Check your inbox!

[MiracleB]

Kelfex is good. The culture is an added expense and request and he may not have done because he knew keflex would do the trick. I think it is a common, wide spectrum antibiotic used for many bacterias. There is a really good site to look up all drugs, for common uses, inter-reactions and even herbs. It is called Vitaminlife.com. You can look up Keflex or anything by brand name  or generic, which is cephalexin. It is a really good site as I am on 3 heart meds and have use it to look for interreaction and I use to do a lot of herbal treatments for other problems and did not always tell my doctor about them but would check to see if the herbs would interfere with my heart meds. This is just me, so please, Do as the doctors say, they know best, but knowlege is good.  You should also get a drug insert sheet with any prescription and it explains most  of this information too. The main thing is, whether or not the Keflex is working. If it is then it is good.

[Denise8207]

Ok thanks for the info. I'm not sure why he didn't do that. I was given Keflex by my family doctor prior to him referring me to the Breast Specialist and removing the abcess. Is Keflex good for a Breast Abscess?

[MiracleB]

A culture, is when they take some of the fluid, be it pus, blood, etc or can even be done from a skin scraping and the apply it or rub it so to speak in a petri cultrue dish and montitor it's growth patterns and type of bacteria that grows. It can take a couple of weeks, but it can determine the exact strain of bacteria and then they can then determine what antibiotics it is resistant or responsive too. This is usually done if the infection is not responding to the current antibiotic that you are taking. However, most doctors will use what is called a wide spectrum antibiotic to cover most, like Bactrim or Augementin . Some bacterial infections may need quite a few weeks to clear up, so take all that they have been given even if you start to feel better.

[Denise8207]

Thanks again for your input. He didn't do a culture on the pus and fluid. What is a Culture? I've never heard of that.

[MiracleB]

No apology needed. Details are so important. I hope this is all it is and maybe some more time and antibiotics will clear it all up. If not, keep going back to the docs. It may need to be professionally drained again or some different antibiotics to finally kick in. Did they do a culture on the pus and fluid? This could help to determine the best antibiotic. I tell ya, I felt so stupid after my experience and I had an ultrasound hoping they would find something to drain but did not. Better safe than sorry.
With everything it could be it is best to rule out the worse.

[Denise8207]

Thanks for the Reply, your so sweet! Thanks for the insight. I'm a 25-year old in college studying to be a Medical Transcriptionist (just thought I'd give you a little info about me).It all started for me when one day back in August of this year I felt a pain in my right upper part of the breast, I was at home at the time so I went to the bathroom and saw this fairly large reddened bump, so I touched it and it was slightly tender. So I thought it was just a boil, so I started putting a warm compress on it, it helped the pain some but still not enough. So that next week I went to see my family doctor and he said that he thought it was an abscess, but to be sure he said he wanted me to have an ultrasound. So I had the ultrasound and within two days later the doctor office called me and said they wanted me to see a breast specialist because the radiologist  wanted to be sure of the findings he saw. I immediately asked the nurse (she's the one who called) what did the radiologist find but she wouldn't tell me, that's when I immediately go worried. I was scheduled for an appointment with the specialist that next week it was on September 13. I went in there a nervous wreck! I was totally out of it! When I entered the room for examination, I was on the verge of tears! I immediately told the nurse that brought me to my room that I was nervous and she said not to worry and relax (like that was easy to do!)

After about 15 minutes the doc entered the room, and asked me why I was so nervous and I told him that I was afraid that I might have the most worst cancer in the world! But he reassured me not to worry. So he brought my films in from the Ultrasound and immediately said its an abscess. He then said I'll show you that I'm right in just a few minutes. He came back in a couple of minutes but this time with a nurse, I then asked him what he was going to do and he said he was gonna drain it. I was completely scared at this time. So then he did the incision and he said "And there is your pus", he also said it was pretty bad infection, which is why he kept pressing on it, to get all of it out.

So after he did the minor surgery, he prescribed some meds for the pain and I was on my way. Upon removal of the abscess I felt instantly better! But then I started FREAKING OUT! I was constantly reading the internet about breast abscess. I then proceeded only two days after my minor surgery, began to start poking, squeezing, and pushing on my breast. I was doing this approximately every 2 minutes, so I noticed after everytime I did it my breast became more sore. But I noticed when I would stop doing it the soreness would go away, but when I started it again, it became sore again. So I was still FREAKING OUT! and I began to do the same thing to the other breast and the other breast became sore too. I even went to the hospital a couple times from being so FREAKED OUT over this breast abscess. So this week I starting bothering my breast AGAIN doing the same thing, and the soreness is there again. I didn't ever think about pushing and squeezing your breast could cause soreness.

And Yes I'm still on antibiotics. My often says to me I need to allow time to heal. I think I'm gonna try that.

Sorry for the long post.

[MiracleB]

Sorry, my cat just jumped on the key board. It could still be from the abcess removed as it can disperse into other areas. Are you still on antibiotics? Maybe you need some more, as some infections and abcesses are hard little buggers to get rid of. You may want to try some cold and hot compresses. I definitelt understand your fear. I went through a very scary episode thinking I had IBC. There are clinical signs and I was sure I had them all. Swollen breast or increase in size quickly, redness, hot to the touch,itching,very painful, no responce to antibiotics, as my docs thought it was an infection. Good news though, as IBC is very rare, both my Onco docs finally said no way, as the discolration was not an orange peel look. I still wasnt convinced and was insisting on a biopsy. However, I was right in the middle of radiation treatments, but all this happened right before, so I was sure it had nothing to do with the rads. Well, call me stupid or just overwhelmed by everything esle, but I had forgotten that I hit myself, right in the boob, with a closed fist, trying to grab something, at about the same time all these symptoms started. Sure explained a lot for me. I did not remember until my onco said that it could have been caused my an unknown trauma. He said I could have forgotten that I had something happen without even realizing it or bumped into something. Bam...the light went of.  I told my docs, later, what I finally remembered and they all said, if I still wanted a biopsy to please wait a month after treatment and they would do it. I am completely better know, except for toasty red from rads.