Flashlight test? Anyone heard of it?

Leslie735

I have an area above my left aerola that feels like a thick balloon or swollen breast tissue, it's kinda big, a couple inches in width. I can move it easily and it's soft so I wasn't completely alarmed over it considering I'm 33, no history, had a clear breast MRI, mammogram/ultrasound and my breast are not dense, less than 2 years ago. I had all those tests for an unrelated area that cane back as nothing. Well last night I ran across something how you can shine an L.E.D light through your breast and if an area shows up as a shadow or dark spot it could mean something that needs to be checked out. Well my curious mind decided to try it and the area I feel showed up dark. I read that a cyst will show through, which is what I was thinking I was feeling. Ugh! I already suffer from health anxiety so this did nothing but terrify me! So needless to say I'm seeing my gynecologist next Wednesday to see if she will send me for mammogram and ultrasound. I'm terrified!

Egads007

I'm glad you're having yourself checked out, any changes should be, but please step away from the flashlight! I've read about it too but it makes as much sense to me as using a screwdriver to flip eggs! It also leads us tomaking self diagnosis which heightens your anxiety levels. Only your doctor, mammogram, ultrasound etc and pathology reports can give you answers. While you wait try not to google, it's as effective as a flashlight as all you'll see as the negative end of things. If you must google, use the search term 'benign causes of breast lumps'. Keep the stats in mind, 80% are benign, so the numbers are on your side! What you describe sounds more cyst like than cancer, but still needs checked....if anything it will help with the anxiety. I know how easy it is to panic, I've done it myself. Keep very busy until your appointment doing things you love to do. We're all here for you too. Please let us know how your appointment goes, sending you positives! Hugs

Leslie735

Thank you Egads007 for your kind reply. I thought it sounded ridiculous too but as I further read up I found case studies that made it seem legit at the same time. Regardless, I'm going to trust my Dr and what she decides is best. I keep hoping my clear MRI in April 2016 is still meaningful. Especially since this thing is is like two finger widths in size but painless and that's what concerns me.

Egads007

Hi Leslie,

I always have a lot of cysts and they are absolutely painless. My cancer lump did hurt. Painless isn't a sign. As for the flashlight, well yes it can show something there, but you already knew there was something there. Seeing it would scare the hell out of me. I can't even look at the US screen I'm such a chicken lol! Besides, and this of course is just my thought, I'm not qualified to make a judgement as to what it is....I just know at the time that I don't want it there and it's scaring me. I equate my right breast to being like the earth.....surrounded by space junk (i'm dense and cyst-y). Shining a light on it isn't going to make a lot of difference to the result except for scaring me. I also think we can't help but poke, prod, flashlight or whatever as it's hard wired in us to have answers.....it's what put us on the moon....questioning and probing unknowns. So I get why someone would use a flashlight. I can't judge you or anyone else for the things we do, it's simply in our nature.

Ok, enough of my endless philosophy lol!

Leslie735

My appointment got moved to Tuesday, Dr was overbooked on Wednesday. While I'm waiting, I admit I've been googling a lot about this. Some studies make it seem legit but othets don't. It's really freaking me out. It feels cyst like but then dark on the light test.

CancerSurvivors271694

ok thnx

Recap

Half-tempted to shop for a bright torch in the stores. Police have the brightest torches lol might have to call for officer assistance.

Seriously, so far I, my mom, gynaecologist, surgeon fellow, surgeon staff, and ARNP have done breast exams on me. I felt something, the ultrasound clearly showed something, the gynaecologist said she felt something but it seemed to me more like the power of suggestion influenced her, the two surgeons didn't feel anything (bias), the biopsy clearly removed something, the MRI didn't show anything, and the ARNP didn't feel anything (bias.)

Every single one of us had a different technique during their manual exam of my breast.

Where's Waldo has been the most frustrating aspect of this entire experience for me. Last night in bed, warm and dry, which seems to matter, I LIGHTLY, SLID, my index finger pad, up from the valley, over the surface of the skin, over two round lumps, hit a hard speck which I believe is the missing titanium bead, and then switched over to the other side of same breast, and once again flicked my fingernail over the linear ridge below the arreola extending outward. I believe these are now remnants from one end of my biopsied lump and the other end of my biopsied lump.

I fully expect to have more clusters of microcalcifications again on the next go-round, and this saga is going to cost way way more money than the simple prophylactic mastectomy I wanted to begin with.

Since the same lump situation occurred on the front of my upper leg, half of me wants to shoot the rapids again with a different specialty in order to get an ultrasound done there also.

Leslie735

Wanted to come back and update for those that were kind to reply to me and those that might be going through similar worries....

Anyway, went and saw my OBGYN this morning, so she came in and we talked a couple minutes about life in general, how she cut her hair and l liked it. She noticed my anxiety right away and made a comment "you have anxiety but I love ya!" lol! I explained what I felt, how it half way went away during my period and then I told her about the flashlight thing. She dismissed the flashlight thing immediately and said that is not a true test and to never do that again. She said immediately she wasn't worried about what I was explaining because it was squishy and it partially went away....
She then did an exam and felt both breasts pretty well. Then I pointed out what I was feeling and she said I have are fibrocystic changes and she said its something I'm going to have to get use to. She said that it was a cyst and it left behind a scar tissue (which is probably what I'm seeing on flashlight, although she didn't suggest that). She said when I feel something like I feel, I need to give it 3 cycles before worrying. She said if after 3 cycles it hasn't gone down then come in. She was a little surprised that it being so big that it didn't hurt but other than that she wasn't concerned. She told me not to even chase it, that its nothing....
Then we talked about my anxiety, quite a bit. I told her I wanted help with it and I couldn't deal with it anymore. She agreed to help me. She gave me an herbal anxiety med to try. She told me how to take it and other patients that have taken it before and loved it. Its called "Bliss" antistress forumla. She said if I like it, then I'm welcome to have more. That was pretty much it, overall it was a great visit and another confirmation on how much I love my Dr.