Thickening/rash near mastectomy scar

nickythebean

Hello all. Im so tired of this cloud of possible recurrence or metasteses following me around for the rest of my life. Ain't nobody got time for this.

So, I have been having a rash of sorts on my left side chest (site of original tumor) just under my mastectomy scar. It is probably 4 inches long, and 1.5 inches tall, and feels like a bunch of mosquito bites all clumped together. It looks red and irritated, leathery, and somewhat shiny, and feels like the skin is thickened. It is itchy, but not in the top of the skin kind of itchy way. It's more like it itches inside, under the skin if that makes sense.

I have had this for months, and have been trying to get rid of it on my own via hydrocortisone, lotrimin, and anti-bacterial cream. Sometimes it seems like those things help with the redness and/or itching, but the underlying bumps and thickening never go away.

I received my initial treatment at Siteman in St Louis, but recently moved to Chicago. I talked to my STL oncologist the other night, and he is afraid it's mets. So I have made an appt with a new oncologist at Northwestern in chicago for next week. I'm guessing he will biopsy it.

Any thoughts? Could this be IBC mets, or would this be a recurrence or what? I'm hoping its a great big bunch of nothing.

(Can't remember if I have stats in my signature below, so here they are)

Dx August 2012 IBC, 7cm x 7 cm, HER2+, ER+, and slightly PR+, positive nodes, BRCA-, P53-

Neo-adjuvant chemo: herceptin, taxol, and some other HER2 targeted drug I can't remember the name of, then some other cocktail of 3 chemos, including FU-5 or something like that. I have a horrible memory.

Double MX March 2013, 28 weeks of rads, then continued Herceptin chemo through October 2013

Total hysterectomy November 2013

nickythebean

Whoops. Initial DX was IDC not IBC.

KBeee

Hopefully a biopsy will give you the answer. It could be a local recurrence, but also could be a weird rash or infection; weird things can happen after rads. Keep us posted

bsufan

On January 27th I noticed some small pimply looking things right above my lumpectomy scar (from surgery I had in January 1999 for stage 2 idc) that after a few days turned into more of a scabby looking sore, not wet or oozing just dry and itching from underneath mostly as you described.  Turns out that "rash" was a bc tumor that broke through the skin and in the last 8 weeks it has had a pattern of a few pimply type things that then scab and then more appear and it's now covering over half my left breast.  I started chemo almost 3 weeks ago and am having my 2nd treatment of TC on Monday as my BS decided instead of the mastectomy she planned on doing before the "spread", I would now need chemo to stop the spread and while we're at it, minimize the 3.2 cm tumor I have underneath where the original sore appeared. Doctors are calling it a local recurrence as it doesn't appear lymph nodes are involved and PET scan was clear, but they did stage it as IIIB due to the skin involvement.