Tingling Under Same Side Armpit as Original DCIS

JoAnn_K

My family history for breast cancer is very high. My mother died at age 62 of metastatic estrogen-progesterone breast cancer within 3 weeks of recurrence in year 7. Her mother and all her sisters had breast, uterine or ovarian cancer. I am BRCA negative, but they believe there is another aberrant gene that has not been discovered to date. I recently learned I was an inseminated baby, and my biodad died of a blood cancer at age 68 and his sister died from breast cancer.

In 2008, at age 53 and still getting periods, I had a lumpectomy of my left breast for DCIS found in the upper left quadrant of my breast near the lymph node. Since it was DCIS, no sentinel node biopsy was taken. Because of family history, the lumpectomy was immediately followed with radiation and 5 years of Tamoxifen ending in 2014.

Between 2008 and 2014, I had two additional excisions for nipple bleeding in both breasts. This was caused both times by papillomas. In 2014, I decided to get a bilateral mastectomy with extenders. The extender product ended up being infected with e.coli and after a bout of septicemia, they were removed. There has been no further activity related to the breast cancer.

However, the Tamoxifen caused 2 bouts of precancerous uterine fibroids so I opted for a hysterectomy and oophorectomy in 2017.

Four days ago, I went on the antibiotic Bactrim for a toe infection. Two days ago, I started having a tingling discomfort under the same armpit side as the cancer was in. I am very worried that I have a recurrence. Is that possible?

I don’t want to panic unnecessarily, but it is hard to imagine an armpit lymph node reacting to a small toe infection. The armpit is not swollen and there are no lumps nor a reddened area. I will wait to call the doctor until the course of Bactrim is completed. I moved from the area where all my cancer treatment occurred.

Thoughts? I appreciate any input. This forum was so helpful to me long ago

Beesie

Is it possible? Yes. It is likely? Not at all, after an initial diagnosis of DCIS.

All sorts of things can cause armpit problems. Irritation from deodorant or shaving. An infection that affects the nodes (although I agree that a toe infection is unlikely to do this, unless you have something systemic going on). Apparently underarm cysts are quite common - I learned this because I have a small bulge that developed that I know isn't a lymph node (I've had an MRI) and it feels soft and squishy and sometimes is there and sometimes almost completely disappears. The big cause of armpit lymph node swelling of late is the Covid vaccine, which often causes that reaction.

Not sure what advice to give, other than to watch it for a while to see what happens. Use the two week rule. Monitor for 2 weeks and if it goes away (or lessens to the point where you know that it is going away), then it's fine. If it remains the same or gets worse over the 2 weeks, then see a doctor.

Hope it's nothing!