Waiting for an appointment

neurothey

Hello all!

This is my first time posting here and I have been scrolling through reading some of your fellow posts to feel a sense of commraderie/put myself at ease. I am 28 years old and I am usually very diligent about doing self breast exams. I have two aunts with breast cancer and a history of my great grandmother also having it. A few weeks ago I felt a lump in my left breast. It was hard, unmovable and tender about the size of a pea. So, I called up my OBGYN and asked to be seen. Skip forward to my appt. in which my doctor felt the lump and said, "Ah, I see what you were feeling." and told me that she also felt an area in the same breast of dense tissue or thickening. After calling 4 people and playing a very compelling game of phone tag for 2 days I scheduled an appt. for a breast ultrasound. She said I may get a mammography while there as well. Trying to be in a positive mindset but the whole process is a bit unnerving and I have never had a mammography before. Any advice?

Thanks!

- neurothey

MelissaDallas

Hi neurothey, sorry you are here with worries.

Glad you went and got checked out. The good news is that the odds of this being common benign fibrocystic issues or some other benign thing are much more likely than cancer at twenty eight. Also, even though your OB/GYN may have submitted your referral for both, don’t be surprised if you do not get a mammogram unless the ultrasound doesn’t resolve what you are feeling because they are of limited value in young women with dense breasts, unless to perhaps correlate something seen on ultrasound. Otherwise they are pretty much like looking for a snowflake in a snow storm.

As to family history, your great grandmother is pretty far down the list to contribute much to your risk. How old were your aunts when they were diagnosed? Are the aunts from the same side of the family?

What a pain on the scheduling! Why did you have to do so much calling and phone tag after your doc’ referral? I would have been really frustrated by that.

When is your appointment? Hang in there, and let us know what you find out.

LivinLife

Hi neurothey and welcome! Good for you being proactive! Hopefully all turns out benign. Regarding aunts... I had a total of 5 aunts from mother's and father's side of the family with breast cancer - 2 who died of it, 1 who died of treatment-related causes and 2 who had recurrences. I had genetic testing done and despite the aunts, as well as both parents and 3 sibs with various cancers I have no higher risk of cancer due to genetics, except for a variant related to colon cancer which we're already watching. The genetics counselor told me even when people have a lot of family history it ends up being more coincidence vs. genetically related... Still important to stay on top of what makes sense to stay on top of tho which is what you're doing now.... Yes, please let us know as things unfold...