Pea sized lump in right breast

Sgirl

Hello,

I've posted here before a while back, but have a new breast issue that has come up and would like to get some opinions and hear experiences from people who've had breast cancer or even benign breast conditions.  

I'm 27 years old.  About 9 or 10 months ago, I was doing a self breast exam and found a very small pea sized growth in my right breast.  It can be difficult to feel, and I had to push down pretty hard to feel it.  It cannot be felt by just touching my breast.  It is pretty close to my aerola just to the right of it.  Before doing this self exam, it had been a long time since I had felt of my breasts.  I can be extremely anxious about my health and have a tendency to be a hypochondriac, so at first I didn't go to the doctor because I have way overacted in the past.  However, about two months after finding it, I went to my OBGYN.  He did feel it, but not immediately.  He had me in a certain position to find it and had to press down hard on my breast to feel it.  He said it felt like a pea and seemed very benign.  He said it seemed like it could be the very beginning of a fibroadenoma.  I asked him if I should have an ultrasound or see the breast surgeon I've seen before.  He said he didn't feel like that was necessary at this point and to just keep an eye on it.  

About two more months passed, and I still didn't  feel comfortable, so I made an appointment to see the breast surgeon I've seen before.  She did a breast exam and could not feel the exact pea lump the OBGYN and I felt.  She did mention that area of my right breast felt lumpier that my left breast.  She did an ultrasound, which found a fluid filled cyst in almost the exact area I felt the lump.  So that is what I thought I was feeling.  She said to come back for a follow up in six weeks to see if it has gotten bigger and it could be drained if that's what I wanted.  I came back for the follow up, and that cyst had gotten very slightly bigger, and she also found an additional small fluid filled cyst.  She said it wasn't necessary to have them drained, but that she would do it if I chose to have it done.  I thought about it and about six weeks later decided to have them drained.  I got them drained, and they were benign with a small amount of fluid in each one.  However, the pea sized lump is still there.  So it is not the cysts that I am feeling.  This has made me even more concerned, because what I am feeling must not be a cyst.  Nothing else showed up on the ultrasounds, which by now I've had three done.  The breast surgeon said she saw no signs of a fibroadenoma.  She said I may just be feeling lumpy breast tissue and didn't seemed worried about it.  But I just can't shake the feeling that this could still be cancer hiding.  I know there are some forms of breast cancer like ILC that are very difficult to find.  I've never had a mammogram due to my age.  I feel like I need to get a second opinion from a different breast surgeon.  I regret waiting so long to get it because if it is cancer it could have spread by now.  

For those of you who have had breast cancer, how did your lump feel?  How easy was it to feel through the skin?  I have no dimpling, inverted nipple, thickening, or any other signs or symtpoms.

I would appreciate any advice or feedback!

Sgirl

I forgot to mention a few things:

I have been diagnosed with fibrocystic condtion.  I have very dense breasts and have in the past experienced burning, and now have pain and tendneress two weeks out of most months.  

I was 26 9 months ago when I first found the pea sized growth

MelissaDallas

How is your health anxiety these days? You were convinced you had IBC last time and now you are talking about ILC since they aren’t seeing anything serious. After three ultrasounds and consults with a breast specialist this tim I would tend to believe the expert that I didn’t have anything worrisome going on.

Sgirl

I did not say I had ILC; I simply said that I have read about it and know that it is difficult to find and is usually not caught with a mammogram or an ultrasound.  I do have a small lump in my right breast; even my obgyn can feel it.  I will admit that it's hard to feel and unfortunately the breast surgeon could not feel it on the days I went in to see her.  She said the cysts she drained were deep in the breast and were not even able to be felt during a clinical breast exam, she just happened to find them when she did the ultrasound.

I have been managing my health anxiety very well.  I've had this issue for going on 10 months now and have remained very calm and level headed about it.  I just thought it would be wise to have it checked.  I also thought I would reach out here just to get advice and opintions.

Salamandra

I couldn't feel/find my lump. My ob gyn found it on her exam. I had no idea, I felt completely fine and healthy. I didn't do BSEs because I don't trust myself to find anything and in fact, I couldn't feel it even when the gyn was pointing my fingers right at it. I'm not planning on starting to do self exams now, either. I'll do the imaging my surgeon prescribes for me and get doctors' exams whenever they are able.

It was flagged as very suspicious right away on the mammogram/US and they told me to call for a biopsy appointment. In retrospect, I really didn't understand what was going on at the time. I thought they were being cautious, but with the benefit of the reading I've done since, I think that my cancer looked just exactly like cancer, and the radiologist and ultrasound doctor probably were as certain as they could be without the actual biopsy that it was cancer.

I hope this makes you feel better. It sounds like you have a breast surgeon who is taking your concerns seriously enough to follow up, which tells me that you can trust her when she says she feels they are benign. If you have good doctors, relax and trust them, that's what they are for.

Hyper vigilance can actually undermine your sense of your connection to your body and ability to be in touch with when something (which could be lots of things besides cancer) is actually going, in many other parts of your body besides your breasts.

Intellectually, I'd encourage you to go a thought exercise about what would actually make you feel better. You are young and with dense breasts. Mammograms are the least reliable for that, and they'd probably use the ultrasound you've already had in addition. If that didn't find anything concerning, would that actually relieve your mind? Or would you feel like you couldn't rest without a biopsy anyway? If you had the biopsy and it was benign, would you feel at peace that your breast was healthy, or would you keep worrying about DCIS or the next lump or lobular or something the biopsy could have missed? The truth is that the anxiety can be never ending, and even if you had a completely elective mastectomy, cancer can still come either in the breast or elsewhere in the body. If you aren't trusting the doctors and imaging now, then why would you trust them later?

I'd strongly encourage you to follow this one up with your mental health care team, and keep tracking according to your breast surgeon's instructions. Lumps in young breasts are very common and are so frequently benign that for decades doctors wouldn't escalate for further investigation at all. A lump doesn't sound like a typical presentation of ILC anyway. Try to remind yourself to think horse and not zebra when you hear hoofbeats.

Sgirl

Thank you for reaching out!  Yes, I have not had a mammogram and don't really want to get one.  I don't think that would give me any answers.  As you said, mammograms are relatively ineffective in young women with dense breasts.  My obgyn said that 35 is the age I should get a baseline mammogram and the earliest age one would probably be effective at.  An MRI might give answers, but they are expensive and I doubt my insurance would pay for one.  

It's great that you have an astute obgyn who caught your cancer early.  I wonder how it felt to her to tip her off that it was suspicious?  I wonder if she felt a lump or thickening? I see that you were diagnosed at age 39, which is considered young for a breast cancer diagnosis.  

Interestingly enough, my obgyn was able to feel what I feel, whereas the breast surgeon never really felt it.  I actually feel like he did a more thorough breast exam than the breast surgeon did.  I'm trying to think through this logically and keep a level head about it.  I can honestly say I've handled this way better than I have other issues that I've had in years past.  At most, I may seek a second opinion from another breast surgeon at a teaching hospital in the state I live in.  Or I may just watch it carefully.  Either way, I know that overreacting won't help anything.