Help- Mom thinks I'm crazy?

Hi - I don't think a 2nd opinion is out of the question.. and I know that you mentioned tests don't help but have you had a breast MRI - this test is very helpful with early cancers or as you say pre cancers?  That could help you understand if there are other area's of concern within both breast - or better what those area's of "undiagnosed lumps" might be.  I know it's hair raising for a mother (you) who has small children to just "sit" with "watchful waiting", but a second opinion on the biopsy that has been done is a good idea to settle your mind.  If you decide to have a second opinion on the tissue it's really easy - just ask your breast sugeon to send it (the tissue samples at the pathology lab that did your biopsy)  out to any one of the breast cancer specilty hospitals in the country (I choose Vanderbilt but there are quite a few others so do your own research and see which one "feels" right to you).  I was able to get my insurance company to pick up the charge of the second opinion which was only $350.. but that amount can be huge if you are in this economic mess - If you got a benign reading from a breast cancer specilty center it could put your mind at rest.   Good Luck and let us know what you decide!  Best

Hi Floridian --

 Definitely get those lumps checked out! It's good biology and it's better psychology. It's your body and your life - and your decision!

I had the opposite situation from Dierdre's -- 2 MRIs, a yr apart, were both clear, but a digital mammo 1 year after lumpectomy and rads showed a lot of ADH (nothing new, apparently - just stuff that neither the earlier film mammo nor 2 MRIs had shown.). My local onc thought another biopsy would be enough, without excising all of the ADH, but i got a 2nd opinion at Mayo. They thought that a mastectomy was sensible at that point -- my view too; i needed to be sure there was no DCIS in there. (There wasn't - so i had a mastectomy to prove i didn't need one. Weird.)

Your mother wants everything to be OK (can't blame her!) but you need to be sure it is. Try to get to a major med ctr or teaching hospital if you can - in any case, not to the MD next door who golfs with your 1st opinion...

 And probably it will be benign and your mother can say she told you so. But you'll sleep better! Good luck.

Floridian,Its probably nothing but..... I had very dense breast tissue in both breasts and 6 years ago was told the mammo was ok but to keep getting checked every couple of years due to dense breast tissue.  I went back two years after that and both breasts had invasive Lobular Carcinoma,,, which had mimiced the breast tissue and had made the doctor think it was just normal tissue. I sat with this cancer for two years and by then it had traveled to my lymph nodes on both sides. I had a bilateral masectomy with reconstruction,, chemo,, radiation and armidex for 4 years.. then recently the cancer has returned to my bones. I'm not trying to scare you but I was in the same situation and if I had pushed them initially to check me further then the cancer may not have traveled so far and today I wouldn't be making end of life decisions.  Its no time to just take someones word for things.  Doctors make mistakes too.  My tissue was so dense the mammo would barely see through and had to have an ultrasound and then many biopsies of the whole two breasts to check suspisious areas.  Please please,, never think your being paranoid. Its your body,, its your life. Do whats best for you. Ask for an MRI because thats about the only thing that would have found my type of cancer.

Good luck to you