31 and nervous

hopefulmee

Hey everyone,

I'm 31, no history of breast cancer in the family, but when I looked in the mirror yesterday, the bottom left of my right breast looked like it almost had a bit of a flat edge. Went into the gynecologist today and she noticed it as well, but didnt feel anything abnormal. She ordered both an ultrasound and mammogram to be certain.

It is my only symptom at this moment. Any advice or experience with this? My period also arrived last night so maybe it's swelling or something from that?

I have four young children and I'm so worried. If everything turns out fine, you should know I now have a tremendous amount of respect for all of you fighting this. The anxiety about whether I have breast cancer or not is dibilitating on its own.

I guess i don't really know what I'm expecting by posting this except I'm just scared out of my mind.

💜

Moderators

Hi hopefulmee, and welcome.

We're so sorry you find yourself here, but we're happy to send our positive thoughts your way and best wishes. You're not alone -- there are many others here worrying! Others will surely be by soon to offer their support, too.

Keep us updated on how your imaging turns out! We're thinking of you!

--The Mods

Salamandra

Aww, I'm sorry you're going through this.

I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but based on my recent experience I'll say that every wait turns out longer than I expected (and feels even longer than it is) and that the anxiety really has been both the dumbest and in many ways the hardest part.

Even if it's not breast cancer, it might take a while to sort that out 100%. If it is breast cancer, it will take even longer to sort out exactly what it is and what needs to be done, and there's always more tests with results to be waited for. Maybe you can think of this as Jedi training time to build up waiting skills?

I would also say that our bodies do all kinds of bizarre stuff that no one teaches us about, only the tip of the iceberg of which was even covered in Our Bodies Ourselves, and most of it is not cancer. Every time I think I've got to know my body, it throws me for another curve. We think finishing puberty means we'll finally have some homeostasis, but it's not true. There's an excellent chance that this is some more weird but not actually dire stuff that your body is coming up with. Hormones are truly odd. A friend was convinced that she must have gotten unintentionally pregnant because she was having all the identical symptoms of her previous pregnancy, and on the verge of freaking out about it. Nope, not pregnancy. Hormones doing their weird thing.

Hang in there!

christina0001

Waiting for tests and then results is so hard! You are young and have no family history and those greatly put the odds in your favor that this is not cancer, and may very well be related to PMS even. It's so hard but try to stay positive and focus on positive things right now to get through the wait. Good luck!

hopefulmee

Thank you so much for your encouragement!

hopefulmee

This is very helpful to remember! Thank you so for taking the time to reply!!!

hopefulmee

Thank you so much for replying and for the reminder to try to remain positive even when it is difficult! 💜