Poll regarding how us Triple Negs found our tumor

sweetnvmbr00

I found mine just a few days before my last reconstruction surgery in October 2008. I had a  bi-lateral prophylactic mastctomy in November 2007 because of my twin sisters diagnoses and being BRCA1+. It was in my arm pit, high close to my shoulder. My PS was shocked and said in all his years of practice has never seen this. My slides from the mastectomy were all clear.

go24lisa

My mom was trip neg. She had mamo done it was fine-four monthes later she found lump-dx stage 2b. I remember her saying her breast always itched...that is how she found lump itching..

LRM216

Had mammo's every Feb. since I was 40 (diagnosed at 62, late Feb, 2009).  Never had a call back in all those years.  Skipped 2008 as my daughter was in the hospital with blood infection for 6 wks.  Figured all was fine, no cancer on either side of family ever, so went in 2009 for yearly and WHAMMO - damn 1.2 cm IDC in right breast, non-palpable, at 11:00 - 5cms. below nipple.  Go figure - and here I am.

Linda

MsBliss

Hi Cheeky!

I didn't find mine initially....my cat did.  Actually, two of them did.  They kept climbing on me when I laid on the couch and kept grabbing me right on top of the tumor.  I reached up to move a paw that was scratching at my chest and felt the lump.  They stopped doing this after my lumpectomy.   Incidently, both of them are feral rescue male cats. Little boogers....I think they saved my life.

mossybaby

Hello,

Mine started as a little pain in my right breast which I thought was just PMS.  That makes you feel all sorts of odd things.  Well, a couple months went by with the pain only occuring now and then ..then almost overnight my breast just swelled up.  Dr thought it was a cyst since cancer doesn't usually hurt but of course it wasn't, which is why I'm here.  I do think the triple negative moves very very fast!!   It really scares the poop out of me but I'm still going to kick its ass!!!!

vbabey

Mossybaby, good for you, thats the attitude to have!  it's interesting that the docs say cancer doesn't hurt, yes it does! I posted mine story already, but my husband found it, it was painful and came about only a month and a half after my clinical breast exam with nothing there and a mammo less than a year ago. I am brac negative, so I dont know where this came from, but hoping to get it all out, out, out and move on. 

Karen3

Hi all,

I was dx on 8th September. I first found a lump in May in my right breast about 1.30 and high up in my chest wall. I have multiple cysts in my breasts and had one large cyst drained a few years ago via fine needle. I simply though this was another cyst. But it grew quickly and felt different - by August it was painful. On my holidays I felt a pressure in my chest when I lay down. I went to the doctor in mid August and follwing a core needle biopsy I was dx with BASAL triple negative, grade 3 breast cancer. I have had a sentnel node biopsy (3 nodes removed) and it was clear. I have had a CT and bone scan showing no detectable mets. They are leaving the tumour in situ while I have chemo. I am having regular MRI scans to see how the tumour is reposnding to chemo (My second treatment of chemo was last Thursday). They suspect that I may be BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 positive because of family history on mums side of the family so are referring me for genetic testing. If I am positive, they recommend that both breasts and ovaries are removed. If not, lumpectemy and rads XX.

Meece

I had mammos since I was about 30 due to FCBD.  I was bathing and decided to do my regular self exam, and easily found the lump.  Looked down and could visibly see it, close to the skin in the two o'clock position just a tiny bit off of the areola.  Because it was so close to the skin, the removal caused great disfiguration and the lose of 1/4 of the breast. 

I know it was not there, or at least not visible, two weeks prior.

another_mom

Sadie-Rose - I have triple negative and my mom also had bc.  She was diagnosed at 46 and died at 49 and this was 25 years ago.  Because it was so long ago, we don't know if she was also triple negative, etc.  I did the genetic testing and it was negative.  

Mantra

I'm not sure if mine was triple negative because they don't test for HER when it is DCIS. No lump . .    just lots of calcifications on a mammo. I read that ER/PR - is more common in younger women. I'm 57 and but I guess my boobs thought they were still young spring chickens?!

maher_p

I felt my lump when i felt an itch/pain on upper right quadrant of my right breast. it was stage 1 before surgery and was classified as stage II B after surgery (as there were more lumps here and there). i have no family history, just wonder what happened. I feel blesssed I found it myself as I was 37 and not started on mamos.

buccaneersdj

I have always had sore boobs from PMS but this time when my period left the pain stayed in my right breast, had never had a mammogram I was only 39. I tryed to feel for a lump and found nothing. A week later when it still hurt I really dug in to a self exam and found the lump. My MRI tech said I was lucky I found it it was so deep in there. IDC found upper outer quad in deep 2.5cm.

gillyone

I found mine Memorial Day weekend this year. I was getting ready to take DH and 2 sons to the airport so did not say anything. Just felt an itch, and there's this lump, almost in my armpit. I spent the week they were gone by myself just knowing it was BC. I'd had a clinical breast exam the previous September - nothing. No BC in family, and I am 54.

Surgery in June, almost done with DD AC and taxol, with rads to look forward to.

kane744

Mine was found in my annual mammogram.  I never felt it, none of the doctors could feel it.  But there it was all the same.  I seem to be the only one posted who didn't feel theirs!  After lumpectomy, chemo and rads which ended 4/08, in June I worked up the nerve to do a self-exam and BAM, I felt a lump.  After a mammogram, ultrasoundm MRI they say there are three cysts.  Still, my oncologist wants to follow up with another ultra sound on 11/2 and she may want them to come out or a mastectomy.  Am in a dither but trying to hold it together.  I think if she recommends surgery I should just have both taken off,  What do you all think? 

123Donna

I found mine during my annual mammogram.  I never had an abnormal mammogram and was shocked when I got the call back.

Duffymom

I found my lump in bed one day. I had had a mammogram a year before.  My tumor was 9cm and in my chest wall.  Surgeon thinks it grew in about 6 months! Had chemo, surgery, more chemo, rads and NED for 1 1/2 years. A year ago recurrance in chest wall, lymph nodes & majority of bones.  Doing well so far on chemo.  Scary - I don't like being Triple Neg!

Kathy

dhorak

Mine appeared in Dec of 2007, after having a clear mamo in Oct.  During the week between Xmas and New Years the left side of my left breast got hard as a rock.  After about a week the hardness went away and what was left was a lump.  Turned out to be 2.5 cm.  After going for another mamo and ultrasound, lump still did not appear on mamo, but was seen on ultra sound,  Had biopsy and lymph node biopsied also.  Sure enough, stage 2b.

jkiss75

I found mine because it hurt and throbbed, I was nursing my DD at the time and after a few months went in to have it checked. I was 32 yrs old and my DD was 19 months when I had to wean her. I cry now just thinking about how I had to make her stop nursing so the could cut off my breast.

11tyBillion

Honestly, until reading these posts, I still had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that perhaps I should have checked my self BETTER, and perhaps I would have found things earlier ... or maybe I should have checked more often  yadda yadda.  Now I know I am not alone with having this thing seem to pop-up out of no-where! 

For 2-3 months prior, I had had a weird suspicicion that SOMETHING was not right ... but I felt around on both breasts and never found anything.  I, like most of the previous posts, was surprised when on Nov. 6, 2009, I found my painful lump (3o'clock, right breast).  It was like BANG, there it is!  I SWEAR it was not there weeks before!  It was in the same place that I had a clogged milk duct the year earlier when I was nursing ...

Funny thing is, the boys and I had been really sick (flu or sold) the week earlier,and I thought that I had pulled a chest muscle coughing ... then I thought I was sore from one of the boys sticking an elbow in my boob ... felt around, felt nothing ... then I rolled over a few mornings later, felt a pain, and thought that there was a toy in the bed under my boob ... nope, that painful lump was IN my boob.  I jumped up and there is was, and it felt HUGE!  Got into the OB/GYN that day, and had my first mammo that day too.  I am 39.  Had a bilat mx 12/2/09, and am due to start chemo Jan 6, 2010.  I had three lumps in that quadrant, the largest was 2.1 cm.  We have to get the word out that "just because the lump hurts, does NOT mean it is NOT Cancer!"  All over the web are diagnoses that state "Cancerous lumps usually are not painful!"   LOOK at all of the previous posts on this thread!  Seems to me that the lumps that hurt tend to be the most evil (TN) too!

Hugs to you all!

iluvlife

It was the week after my period, I was running up and down the steps in my house packing to take my GS Troop on their very first camping trip.....my kids were sleeping and I had a t-shirt with no bra on and told my husband it was hot, flashed him and grabbed my very small boobs and when I did was shocked to find the lump, which was lumps 2.1 cm and 1.5 cm, they hurt like hell but I had Goggled "breast cancer" and "lumps don't hurt is they are cancer".....that was a Friday night, saw my GYN on Monday, Mammo on Wednesday (that showed nothing), Ultrasound on that Friday and a HORRIBLE radiologist walked in and said "bad news, you have Cancer"...I then freaked, saw my breast surgeon and she thought it was just very dense breast tissue and sent me for a second opinion film consult which resulted in another US and FNB, which confirmed malignancy, had a core the week later, 2 weeks later left mastectomy.....

And I feel if I had been doing BSE maybe I would have found it sooner!!!

Scoobydoo

Very interesting thread that has been going on now for a couple of years.  There should be some good statistics that can come out of this thread.

I found mine like many other TNs.  While taking a shower I felt a hard lump 6 oclock on the bottom of my breast.  I knew immediately that it was probably cancer.  I am adopted so I have no family history.  But something just told me this was something serious.

Anita

puddingirl84

It was only about a year and 4 months after my ++- had been found. Life was good. I still acted like I had never had cancer. I saw the very small scar on the upper outer quadrant of my right breast and some residual burns and I had to take an extra pill now but still life was good and I never expected to see BC again. I went for my 1st follow up mammogram and it was clear and my boyfriend and I celebrated.

A couple of months after that I was getting out of the shower and was sitting on the edge of my bed applying lotion to my still damp body. A feeling came over me, almost like a whisper in my ear. Whatever it was, (I always felt it was my Auntie in heaven) told me to lift my right hand and touch my left breast and there it was. A 2cm lump that wasn't there the day before. It literally came overnight. Out of nowhere! I knew before I even went to the breast surgeon, that it was cancer.

I didn't know anything about triple neg or second primaries then. I just figured the original cancer had come back.

This past November, the triple neg came back exactly 3 years later, appearing in my left breast right after having a clean mammogram in July. It snuck in the same way, overnight, and 3cm. Discovered during a routine follow-up with my oncologist, it was 2 cm when discovered and had grown to 3cm by the time I had surgery. TN's grow extremely fast. I am pissed now that my oncologist asked me to delay my surgery so that I could participate in a clinical trial. My blood pressure was too high so I couldn't anyway. The tumor probably would have grown another 2 cm's before the surgery!

I have to admit even though I hate this disease you have to respect the intelligence of this monster, respect its strong will to survive, and its ability to sometimes fool sophisticated imaging equipment. Now it has even learned how to mutate itself so that you don't know if it is a recurrence or another primary.

It is a force to be reckoned with. And If you are a non-believer, this triple neg will make you believe for sure.

I pray for the strength to keep fighting this beast. To fight with knowledge and intelligence.

I found out about the seriousness of Triple Neg from reading newspaper articles. My medical oncologist never told me. It makes me feel just a little betrayed. I was given the impression that once chemo and rads were done, my survival rate was aproximately 85%, that I would be at least 5 years with NED. And whats with not having CT/PET scans done until cancer comes back? Shouldn't it become part of your followup regimen? I am lucky now because my scans are clean, but this is not so with so many other women. When I confronted my oncologist, she tells me NOW that TN returning in 3 years is  textbook. She said it did what it was supposed to do. I think doctors should be more up front with their patients about this monster. 

I knew the text book description of TN, but was not told about the difficulty in treating it. I received A/C x 4 and rads for the 1st TN. My most recent TN has not been completely staged because BMX has not been done yet. So I don't know what my TX regimen will be. 

puddingirl84

TexasPeaches

It was Sunday, November 30th, last day of Thanksgiving vacation with the family.  I was getting out of the shower, reached for something and felt the lump against my inner arm.  Went to the doctor Monday, had a mammogram and sonogram Tuesday--the radiologist said it was a 2.5 cm mass and said I needed a biopsy.  Saw a surgeon the following week on the 8th who said he would not bother with a biopsy, but would rather just remove it--being 3 cm and painful.  Removed it on the 14th.  It came in at 3.6 cm and malignant.  Today I learned it is triple negative breast cancer.  I'm scheduled for a mastectomy on the 21st of this month.  Because of the location and size of the tumor, and the small size of my breasts, lumpectomy is not an option to eradicate this beast.  Now I'm wondering if I need to do a double mastectomy.  Too many decisions.  

To the point of this post, clear mammogram in May--big bugger in November, growing fast in December.  Literally over night.   

Hoolianama0508

My hubby found mine during an intimate moment. His exact words were, " I know your boobs and this wasn't there before."

My surgeon stated that feeling the tumor depends on the lcoation and the size. Sometimes you just can't feel anything until it reaches a certain size.

Thank hubby for saving my life.

HairSprayMom

My hubby found mine too..LOL. I was told time and time again it can't be cancer...you are too young, you have no family history, blah blah blah. So I had a surgical biopsy(lumpectomy and the doc called and told me it was cancer. The lump just popped up over night. Really weired.

I'm with you Hoolianama0508 Thanks Baby for saving my life!

XO to all!

jinnypel

It was the day of my 34th birthday and on top of that we were moving from a place called Eastbourne (UK) to Doncaster (UK).  I had just unpacked boxes upon boxes of stuff and went to sit outside to have a well deserved glass of wine.  I'm not sure why but I had brushed my hand past my left breast and found the lump.  I decided that I wasn't going to be worried about it as woman do get lumps which go away, so ignored it for two weeks.  I had in the previous 6 months gone to the doctor who told me that it was not breast cancer BECAUSE BREAST CANCER ISN'T PAINFULL - BIG FAT LIE!!!  So I lived in De Nile (Should have lived on the Thames much closer!!!) Anyway to cut a long story short are you snoring yet?? eventually went to the doctors who said it was nothing but sent me to the breast clinic anyway to put my mind at rest.  And so begins my cancer story

MBJ

I found mine after doing my weekly exam--I kept thinking something was wrong but I never found anything.  This was a year after a suspicious mamogram (yes, very dense breasts) but the ultrasound was deemed okay.  I now wished I had pushed for a biopsy.  All 3 beginning to form tumors were visable but the dr thought that this was just how my breasts were.  Also, they were well differentiated but after the biopsy one of the tumors started to extend to my chest wall.  My first lump appeared at 4 o'clock and I just knew it was cancer from what I read and yes there was pain, my second one appeared a couple days before my biopsy just left of 12 o'clock and my third one was just starting to grow and showed up on my mri.  Prior to this I was so stressed out I thought I was having a nervous breakdown.  Started going to the dr's regularly.  It took 4 mmonths for the lump to finally tell me why I was feeling so awful.  Currently still having chemo and surgery is scheduled for April.

puddingirl84

Hi everyone. I remember as children my sister and I being afraid of the dark because we didn't want the boogeyman to get us. My mother would say there's no such thing as a boogey-man. She would say,"you don't need the nightlight on, you don't have to sleep with your bedroom door open. It's just a fable. You are safe."

For lack of a more scientific description of it, TNBC to me is the real life boogey-man. Sneaking in like a thief in the dark. Just showing up out of nowhere. Where is it coming from?????? Why do so many of us have it now??? Almost seems supernatural.

A monster like TNBC that can attack young women even while they are nursing their babies or just given birth, just married, maybe just out of college, healthy vibrant women, and also grandmothers, surpasses every horror story I have ever read.

I posted on this topic earlier but this is, just my thought for the day.

Puddin' 

nialal

Mine was found on mammogram.  1.5 cm. 12 o'clock position.  Mine was deep.  My surgeon said I wouldn't have discovered it yet as it was too deep too feel. Stage 1, Grade 3. 

puddingirl84

nialal-Thank God it was found on a mammogram and you are of an age that you were able to have one. I am assuming  the guideline is still 40  for a baseline mammogram. This thing is hitting women way younger than 40. 

Hoping you have a speedy recovery. 

Puddin'