Anyone felt the lump getting bigger?

rosemary_39

Anyone felt the lump getting bigger?

rosemary_39

I felt the lump at the end of Jan. on left breast and was diagnosed with breast cancer. The lump was about 1.2cm. Now, I am waiting for MRI for right breast just to make sure nothing is wrong with right side. Recently, I felt the lump definitiely got bigger to about 3cm. I am very worried now but I need to wait for another week or so for the test and results. Has anyone exprienced the size of lump getting bigger? Does this signal anything?

LovebeingNana

Hi Rosemary,

At times it did seem to me that the lump got bigger, and I even convinced myself that it did. I think what was actually happening was there were other "monthly" changes happening that made it seem more pronounced. Also after the biopsy there was a lot of swelling so that also made it seem bigger to me so that worried me. I talked to my MO about the wait for surgery I had and he said it was ok and wouldn't affect the outcome. As it turned out, even though I thought it was getting bigger, it was smaller than the MRI or ultrasound said by about 1cm. Try to take it one day at a time. I know the waiting is so scary….it almost drove me crazy. But you are on the right path to finding out all you need to know about your cancer so they can treat it the best way possible. 

msphil

I believe I also thought it was getting bigger, but was just paranoid, waiting for things to move along, it didn,t get any bigger, it was my imagination. msphil(idc,stage2,0/3 nodes, L mast, chemo and rads and 5 yrs on tamoxifen)

juneping

i think mine did. it was size of a golf ball and grew to size of an egg or a lime after a month from DX. my BS said she didn't think so. but when i leaned forward to grab the lump i could tell the it grew. but it doesn't matter anymore, it's gonna be removed anyway and it was.

pipers_dream

I was dx'ed in Nov and have postponed surgery due to wanting to work with a holistic MD first and I swear it has not grown bigger, though as Nana said, there are monthly changes that make it seem bigger and then I get really paranoid.  I was told that the average time for a BC tumor to double in size is about 3 mo with 60-200 days being the range, and I'm pretty sure I'd know if this thing had doubled.  

pipers_dream

Oops, I wanted to add something I've noticed with this and that is that I have "learned to feel the lump."  By this I mean that at first I wasn't really sure what I was feeling since it's not a classic lump--I have ILC.  I have learned to feel it in different positions and the best one is to lay down on my side and feel it from above and it really pops at that time.  I've only learned this recently though b/c I couldn't bear to touch it much at first.  Based on my first experiences though, it doesn't seem to have grown at all and may possibly  have shrunk just a little.  Holistic doc said not to expect much till the dental fillings are out and chelation is mostly done.  

Slappy-Squirrel

pipers dream,

Are u getting silver mercury fillings removed?

Shirley

ziggypop

I absolutely could feel mine getting bigger & it was. I could also feel it getting smaller when I had chemo (which I had prior to surgery). Mine was quite large - 9 cm. Part of the change in size can be fibroid tissue forming as the body's attempt of 'walling off the cancer' as one BS put it to me. A fast growing tumor is not necessarily a bad thing - what is most important is whether the cancer cells are of a type that like to migrate & have the ability to live in tissue other than that it originally develops in. If you end up having chemo, then a fast growing tumor can be a good thing as chemo 'attacks' fast dividing cells (that's why your hair falls out & generally starting with the fastest growing hair first). 

lakegenevagirl

I felt my tumor get larger at the very beginning, but like other women have mentioned, I felt it was likely due to cyclical changes. 

I did neo-adjuvant chemo therapy so I also felt the mass (which was initially 3 cm), get smaller throughout chemo.  In fact, by the time I had my mastectomy (after five rounds of chemo), the mass had shrunk 100%.  I had no invasive cancer, just DCIS.

Prior to chemo, I did egg preservation and was put on a Letrozole.  That drug also had an effect on my tumor and I felt it get smaller during the weeks I was on it.