Tingling Pain

MamaShift

Hi everyone,

Last month I started to have a strange tingling sensation around the top of the aureola in my remaining left breast. Over the last few months that breast has become increasingly sensitive and painful, especially when my 10 year-old inevitably leans on it or runs up to hug me. I had the very same pain up to about a year before my 2008 diagnosis. The tingling sensation is often painful -- though often not for days on end. I was on holiday at our home in France when all this started to get my attention, and since we've been home I've found plenty of other things to distract me from it. But since this morning it has been constant enough to get my attention. So I called for an appointment at a breast center here (we live in Austria). Since I knew I'd be going in soon, I decided to gather up all the paperwork to bring with me, including my last mammogram from last June. I thought I had the actual film but I don't. I have a letter from my gynecologist of the time, stating in English that the mammogram was "OK." With this letter, she sent the mammogram report in German. All this came at a time when I had just had surgery for a uterine polyp, was extremely anemic (going through IV iron) and having new heart troubles, so I guess I just took the "mammogram OK" at face value.

So I sat down and ran it through Google Translate and was surprised to find that I hadn't done that back then. The report talks about an old fibroadenoma, which I've had forever and knew about, but it also mentions small cysts and scattered punctate calcifications. The punctate calcifications have me upset because it's precisely how my right breast presented back in 2008. They thought it was DCIS, even after biopsy, until they went in there for the mastectomy and realized it was IDC in all four quadrants of my breast -- basically everywhere. And my sentinel node was positive. My onc at the time expressed surprise back then that it hadn't spread to my left breast.

So now all that has been sitting for a year and this tingling/painful sensation started over a month ago now (No, I haven't learned to call the doc immediately because my onc is back in the US and I hadn't settled on anyone since moving here a year and a half ago...I'm 8 years out, so...).

I got an appointment for May 3rd.

Just here for support while I wait. Thank you so much.

bevin

wishing you the best. Keep us all postes

MamaShift

Heh heh, thanks for saying something Bevin! I realize there's not much to say to my post when I re-read it.

KBeee

Waiting is the worst!!! Keep us posted!

MamaShift

I thought I would update, though there isn't much to say yet.

Saw a breast specialist and have scheduled a mam/us/MRI. First thing the guy said when looking over my records: Why did you have a mastectomy? Second thing he said, "And why did you do chemo?" Umm. It kinda floored me -- and put me in a very bad mood. Should any doctor really say that to a woman who has lost her breast -- even one who hasn't been overly affected by it?

He claimed they wouldn't have done any of the above here in Vienna. I was too pissed to ask him what he would have done. My cancer was in all four quadrants and multi-focal/centric. One SLN was positive. And it was 8 years ago, nearly, so maybe things have changed? My husband really wants to know what he would have done.

I'm not sure an MRI is in order, but I guess it will give peace of mind? I just had a cardiac MRI a few months, so I'm really not feeling up to another one. I asked him if they wouldn't have picked up something on the cardiac MRI (incidental finding) but he said they are two totally different things (which is true, but the list of incidental findings on cardiac MRI is long!). He says I need the MRI because I was 40 when diagnosed and my mom also had breast cancer.

Anyway, I'm rambling again. But I am totally convinced that I have cancer in my left breast. It just feels way too funky for it not to be something.

KBeee

how rude!!!!!! All that came to my snarky mind is "I had them remove my breast(s) to save my life. You would not have done that here? Wow. I sure am glad I was not treated here."

MamaShift

I shoulda had you along to back me up while I was still picking myself up off the floor!

MamaShift

Had mammo/us/mri yesterday. Mammo was clear but when I was telling u/s tech that I didn't want an mri he told me I definitely need it because he couldn't tell me with 100% certainty what he was seeing on u/s. Got all the images from MRI. There is definite non-mass like enhancement but I don't see specialist till Thursday night. Meanwhile I'm obsessing over all Google images of enhancements. Sigh. I feel like I'm lit up way more than any normal breast MRIs I've seen. I really don't want to have to wait till Thursday night. Hate this so much. My girls have no clue.

KBeee

Uuugh. Sorry you have to wait. The waiting is so hard. Keep us posted.

MamaShift

I have an appointment at 8 pm to discuss results. I've been a wreck for days now. I've obsessed over the MRI and ultrasound images. I have no doubt there is something there. There are multiple lesions with no clear margins. There are a couple of lesions on u/s with shadowing. I'm trying very hard to tell myself that I can't possibly intrepret these images, but it seems pretty darn clear to me.

I do have a question: Are micro-calcifications always a cause for concern? Why was that dismissed on my last mammogram? They still say my mammogram is clear.

I just want this day to be over.

MamaShift

Well, ultrasound was indeed bi-rads 0, concerned about the same lesions I was. But MRI was all clear, bi-rads 2. Is MRI 100% accurate? Those lesions still have me concerned.

KBeee

Nothing is 100% except biopsy, but you could ask for them to be repeated in 3-6 months to see if they've changed.