Stabbing pains

venlou

Hi there

I've had stabbing pains in my right breast only since early November. They are like small jolts that last a few seconds and sometimes there is general discomfort too. My doctor gave me a cream to try and wrote a referral letter for the breast clinic. She also did a check for me and couldn't find a lump.

I have been keeping a journal of the symptoms and although i don't think it is cyclical there has been times when it goes away for days so I'm trying to see if there is a pattern.

It's back this week and I rang the hospital to check if they got my referral letter. They have an appointment scheduled for September! As there is no lump I am not an urgent case. My birthdate is 1971 but my doctor mistakenly gave it as 1981 in my referral letter. I wonder if that makes a difference to the appointment date I was given?

My doctor said there isn't usually pain with breast cancer but I've been reading online a lot and see several instances when women had the "bee sting" or stabbing pains prior to diagnosis.

Just looking for some advice or if anyone has similar symptoms. Im 47 and in Peri menopause. Sometimes I wonder is it menopause related but I've no symptoms in the left breast only a very mild pinching sensation but this is very rare.

Hoping someone can help, thank you!

JoE777

I had tingling for months that actually stimulated the nipple of my left breast. I had a clean mammogram even though a lump could be seen. One year later I was diagnosed with stage 2 HR+ Invasive ductal carcinoma. Get pushy. My primary doctor wrote my order for a mammogram even without exam after he heard my symptoms. BAM my life changed

Lexica

I agree get pushy. I had pains - most were stabbing, sometimes a dull ache, and at one point I felt an intense pinching.

venlou

Hi Thank you both. Could I ask you lexica if you had those stabbing pains along with a lump or just the pain? The reason they won't give me an earlier appointment is it's "just pain." And was yours constant or did it come and go? Thank yo

BrinkOfEternity

What kind of test did they do to find the lump? Mammogram? If your breast tissue is dense, mammogram is very ineffective in finding the lump. Mine was 3cm, palpable, and even after diagnosis via biopsy, mammogram still showed nothing. Also I was told lumps are generally not palpable until they reach 1cm.

I did feel some pinching pain in my armpit since diagnosis and I was worried the cancer had spread, but surgery pathology came back with no lymph node involvement. So sometimes pain can be nothing too I suppose... but like others have said, better to push and get answers sooner than be sorry!

venlou

I haven't had any real tests yet brinkofeternity, it was just a physical check by my doctor to see if she could feel anything when I presented with pain. I think you and all the others are correct - I need to get pushy about this. September is so far away and so long to worry.

MoonGirlJess

I had what I describe as “lightening bolts" in my left boob. They came and went. I was 40 years old at the time. I had a mammogram that said had dense breasts, no surprise due to my age. At 41, my boob started to distort and ripple and the skin thickened. I showed it to my gyn who said “it was just you." I had another 3D mammogram with that distorted breast and again came back as dense breast tissue. It hurt. I knew something was really wrong. I finally went to my plastic surgeon and she took out my implants and found my cancer. It was 3 months after my last 3D mammogram. My breast was full of multi focal lobular cancer. Tumor in my axillary lymph nodes also.

Don't let them blow you off. Seriously. I'm an RN and I knew I had cancer but no one would listen.

Wigging2000

I had pain in my cancer side along with itching. I can’t exactly remember how long ago but I would say 1-2 years before I was diagnosed. I remember googling IBC because of the itching. I ended up with IDC/DCIS/LCIS. No palpable lump, found on routine mammogram 1.6 cm.

Be as pushy as you need to be!!!

jessie123

I had an unusual quick stabbing pain on the side of my left breast on Nov 2nd ---- it made me reach for that area and that's when I felt the small, hard lump. I had never had the pain before and have not had it since then. I considered that quick pain an angel alerting me (-:

MiCyn

venlou...

The pain you are describing happened to me about a yr before my lump appeared. It would come & go suddenly, like I was being 'zapped' with electricity, and sometimes like I was being stabbed. I even mentioned it to my primary care Dr @ my annual physical.I pointed out the area where it was happening. There was nothing there. Because of the location (left side lower quadrant near my cleavage) my Dr wasnt thinking breast related, and neither was I. Also, I had just had clean mammo 7 months prior. Less then a month after this physical, a lump suddenly appeared in the exact spot I had pointed out. Be persistent if this continues..