Peau d'orange skin ? pictures

Juliebee30,

In many places there are special programs provided at low or no charge to help with exams specifically for breast cancer. Contact the American Cancer Society to see if they can tell you where one might be located close to you. Another suggestion is that you go to your local public health clinic and find out from the nurses there what local programs are available to you. IBC is unusual enough that even some experienced providers are not that familiar with it, so it may be exceptionally necessary to get someone to truly recognize whether or not it is a problem. I wasn't able to just click on your link and had to insert it into my browser to get it work, so it may be that others have read you post and not been able to get it to work either. Because IBC is so much more fast-growing than many other breast cancers, and because peau d'orange can show up so differently in different women, and because it is so uncommon, I don't think you should rely on general opinions about your photos from others here. I have not seen peau d'orange that often myself so I can't say, and what I did see had "indentations" that were not like yours. The public health nurses should be able to help you to identify where you might get a biopsy.

Here are a few other pictures so that you understand the very different ways it can appear:

http://www.ibcresearch.org/pictures/ibc-visual-clinical-symptoms/

If it is IBC, it spreads rapidly, so be sure and get it thoroughly checked out.

Best to you,

AlaskaAngel (sister to IBC patient)

juliebee30......It sure looks like it to me too. I would definately get in touch with someone and get it checked out. IBC if very fast growing and nothing to wait around about and see. When first diagnosed at minimum it is a stage 3. All IBC is at least a stage 3 if not stage 4. There are only 4 stages. I'm not trying to scare you, but you need to know it's nothing to take your time on. If it's IBC you need to get started on treatment right away. You should be able to go to a clinic and they will be able to help you get in touch with someone to help you get a biopsy. My sister lives in south Missouri, she doesn't have insurance either. She wnt to a clinic and when they heard she might have IBC, they got her a biopsy right away. IBC has many symptoms. Not everyone has then all. Some only get the bug bite looking red mark, or the inverted nipple, or the swelling. Everyone is different. Please get it checket out. Good luck and let us know how you came out. God Bless, Leisa

If your mammo and sono come back benign then you will not be recommended for a biopsy. Perhaps that is why at this point the doctor is not ordering it - yet. If they come back "suspicious" or "highly suspicious" (a BIRADS 4 or BIRADS 5) a biopsy should be done. The tissue sample from the biopsy is the only way that they would be able to tell a 100% that it is benign or cancer.

As an IBC patient, I'm sorry to tell you that NO is the answer . IBC, DOES NOT show up on a sonogram or a mammogram. If you are lucky enough to have some other kind of breast cancer instead of, or with IBC, that has a lump then and only then does it show up on either one of those tests. A biopsy is the only way to detect IBC. With IBC, there IS NO LUMP. It comes in sheets. If you get a doctor who actually knows about IBC(a lot do not), then if the physical symptoms seem to be IBC symptoms, he/she should send you for a biopsy. If your doctor know about IBC, they also know there is a reason to be very aggressive. Most other cancers, you have time to get a second & third opinion if you wish. With IBC, however it is a very aggressive cancer and you only have a few weeks( a month or 2 at the most ) to begin treatment or it can easily go from stage 3 to stage 4. When IBC is first diagnosed it is an automatic stage 3 cancer. If shows up very suddenly and progresses very suddenly. Mine personally went from looking like nothing was wrong to having almost every symptom of IBC there is, in a matter of days. With that said, I do hope you only have some kind of rash and not IBC. It is very doable and they are coming out with new drugs everyday. I am actually in a new drug trial right now. There is hope for this dreaded disease, no matter what kind you may end up with. But remember @ 90o/o of all biopsy's are B9. Good luck to you. I will be praying for b9 results for you. God Bless. Leisa

Hello Julie,

That is concerning. I'm sorry that you got that response. I would say "get a second opinion" but I realize you don't have many options for care.

If you have exhausted the options mentioned in the links above, you could try the National Association of Free Clinics or even Catholic Charities. The web site for the free clinics is:  http://www.freeclinics.us/ They may help you apply for Medicaid so that you can be guaranteed care if the worst case scenario comes to pass.

Best of luck!

Get a second opinion. Don't settle for a non-diagnosis. (Antibiotics can be harmful if you do not need them, as you could compromise your ability to fight future bacteria, so I would not go on an assumed diagnosis). Try the free clinics or the Catholic Charities. Do not take "we found nothing" for an answer. Sorry to sound alarmist. Good luck.