Non Lactational Mastitis - Anxiety

Areonia

Hey, so I am extremely new here. I have severe forms of medical anxiety, especially from medical symptoms I do not completely understand (even when being checked by a doctor.) This is in no way to get a diagnosis outside of the doctor's report; however, my goal is to get comparisons outside of WebMD, since my doctors (when asked about Inflammatory Breast Cancer) always tell me "that is extremely rare so I doubt it."

About two months ago, I had a redness and slight swelling on the underside of my right breast. After a few days of it not subsiding, I went in for a visual breast exam. The doctor checked my symptoms, and noted that I had eczema and swelling below the nipple that went from around 3 o' clock to 9 o'clock. She felt that it was "abnormal", and wrote up a request for an ultrasound. The day following that, I got an ultrasound and it was determined that I do have some skin thickness in that area, but no noticeable lumps, even in the armpit area of the breast. When asked about Inflammatory Breast Cancer, I was told "it is extremely rare" and "it doesn't look like it." (This is because the redness was not accompanied by orange peel skin, or rash like bumps, etc. It is smooth skin that is red and swollen slightly in the area only.) As a result, she felt that it could potentially be non-lactational mastitis, and she suggested that I try some antibiotics. ((The ultrasound resulted in a "your exam was benign appearing (not cancer.)"))

I was given antibiotics for 7 days (dicloxacillin), where symptoms of redness and swelling died down a bit, but the area where the swelling started didn't get smaller, but stayed around the same size in terms of coverage. The doctor was happy with the results, so she said for me to wait a little after the antibiotics to let my body "handle the rest." However, the redness and swelling started to gradually come back, and a few days later I was in for another check up. I was given two more antibiotics this time, but this time for two weeks. The redness comes and goes. I am on my last few days of these two antibiotics and the area is still covering the same amount. It hasn't grown in size, and it hasn't gotten increasingly red, swollen, or have skin texture roughness/ orange peel skin. It primarily looks like a slight change in skin tone in the area, changing from a slight brown to a slight red. I've heard that non lactational mastitis can last for a while at times (and take even longer for the skin to show no swelling / redness), but I wanted to see if my symptoms were comparable at all to anyone else in terms of conditions like people who have Inflammatory Breast Cancer. My doctor has basically given up on me, saying that I should go see a higher up breast specialist if it does not go away after that (which would cost up to a couple thousand--which I do not have at the moment.) ((The fact that she gave up in general somewhat scared me, since my condition showed improvement in the beginning, and now it is sticking around a little longer.)

If it were Inflammatory Breast Cancer, would symptoms ONLY get worse, or can they just stay the same for long periods? For IBC, does there need to be orange peel skin? For about two months of having these symptoms, do you guys think that by now I would have had much more drastic symptoms if it were a cancer?

I have heavy bouts of medical anxiety, and it really takes its toll on my mental and physical health, making me catch sicknesses with my body being over stressed about these things all the time.

Should I trust my doctor when she says she "highly doubts it is IBC" due to it being extremely rare (and the fact my age is 23), or would it be wise to try and save up the lump sum for a biopsy since my symptoms haven't completely cleared up yet?

(I lose a lot of sleep over this, and I am somewhat at a loss at this point, so any information is greatly appreciated.)

Thanks.

daintyfloridagirl

Inflammatory breast cancer symptoms simply do not come and go. Once you have symptoms, it can take a few days or even a few hours for symptoms to progressively get worse. Because the redness comes and go with you, I highly doubt it is inflammatory breast cancer.

Of course, because no one on here can properly diagnose you, it would be wise to see a breast specialist. If you don’t have insurance/insurance won’t cover it, a lot of facilities may offer payment programs where you pay in increments.

Sorry you’re going through this and are worried. The main symptoms for IBC is swollen breast that’s keeps getting bigger, redness, hot and tender breast to the touch, orange peel appearance skin, etc. Mastitis often appears witha fever and chills. Perhaps you have a skin allergy. I wish I could offer more help and words of encouragement to but you shouldn’t worry much as it doesn’t sound like IBC. Good luck and I hope you get it figured out soon

Moderators

Arena and daintyfloridagirl, welcome to Breastcancer.org! Sorry you are here and worried, but glad you've found us!

IBC is NOT a common form of Breast Cancer, specially at such young age. As you can read in our main site in the article "Inflammatory Breast Cancer", "the average age at diagnosis for inflammatory breast cancer in the United States is 57 for white women and 52 for African American women." In this article you can learn more on symptoms, diagnosis and staging of Inflammatory Breast Cancer too.

You may find helpful also the Topic: Anxiety where you'll find great suggestions for managing anxiety.

Hope this helps!

We are sending warm thoughts your way.

The Mods

Areonia

I think I am primarily worried because even if it showed signs of improvement during my first run of antibiotics, it is slightly swollen again (where the skin feels slightly raised--a dip, my doctor called it )and redness is slowly coming back (it goes from brown to red discoloration, which is a very slight tint on the skin) near the end of my second round of antibiotics. Not to mention that I never had fever or chills since the beginning, and my breast feels uncomfortable usually like it is slightly warmer (not to the touch, but in feeling.) I also do not have any pain, which I've honestly wondered about, too.

Areonia

I think it was more so the fact it didn't clear up that worried me. It never "went away", it only had decreased swelling and redness at the end of my first week of antibiotics, and then during the second and third week, it progressively started to turn red and raised again.