After a year of strange symptoms a mass is now growing fast

Hi Cheyne, I had IBC not when I was pregnant though. I had it in 2008. My symptons are familar to you and I was misdiagnosis any way's. I would recommend a specialist that is familiar with IBC. I would ask for a core biopsy. Sometimes you cannot see IBC on ultrasounds or mammograms it comes in dense sheets not in lumps. I wish you the best and hopefully you will get more responses cause it will be in the beginning of the forum once  I  post.

Hi Cheyne, I don't have IBC but if something is worrying you so much and you feel that the breast clinic is not doing what it should, for your own peace of mind I would ask to see a specialist as soon as possible.  ((((Hugs))))) to you and I hope you get some answers to your questions from the docs soon.

Love n hugs.  Chrissy

Cheyne, 

Not only go to the clinic who didn't diagnose you correctly to begin with, but also arrange to see a private oncologist breast surgeon, AND begin to find a large Cancer Clinic in a larger city in your state.  Some women have to travel a long, long ways to get to a properly run cancer place.  As for your left breast, my understanding is a CLINICAL presentation of IBC is all a good breast cancer doctor needs to declare you have it, and sometimes even a skin punch will miss it, altho that's the best way for an inexperienced doc to find it.  As for the lump, we can hope it's something else, but any palpable lump must be biopsied to see what it is.

Now, for me, while my info at the bottom just says Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, I also have the clinical presentation of Inflammatory Breast Cancer, which at my Hope Womens Cancer Centers in my town (I'm lucky) are absolutely positive I have that, too.  There are people who can have both IDC and IBC.  With IDC, you get a growth that is obvious on a mammogram.  With IBC, you will get a thickening of skin, and noticeable swelling, and eventually a whole lot of pain, with a red mark sometimes appearing on the skin.  I had mammogram, and later CT scan, and right underneath my red mark is where a 5+ cm growth is, which I NEVER felt, and the pictures also showed several other growths of various sizes, and an adenoma in my ampit of a pretty good size, too, with enlarged lymph glands.  But this is the good part:  After extensive baseline testing, bone scans, CT scans of my whole body, etc., my cancer had not yet spread!  Imagine that!  Most breast cancers are very slow-growing, altho Inflammatory Breast Cancer is indeed aggrresive.  

I am 60 years old, so I am postmenopausal and do not have the hormone thing confusing any diagnosis like you may have.  But I first noticed in November 2010 that gosh, my skin on the end of my breast was really tough-feeling, kind of rubbery, and that's when I noticed just how much larger that breast was than the other one, and within another month, it began to hurt like the devil, at which point I had begun to figure out what doc, etc., to go to, so come January after a few missteps on finding the right doc, the red mark appeared.  Now, I don't know if my progression is typical or not of Inflammatory Breast Cancer, those were just what I had and how quickly they seemed to appear.  But anyhow, I was diagnosed in February with both types of cancer, chemo treatment began almost immediately, I'm still in it now and it's June, and in July I will have surgery to remove the breast, I elected not to save mine and plus they said they weren't planning on saving it anyway.

My biggest fear is my statistics for the IBC part of my cancer in the skin is not as good as plain old IDC with the growth.  But my breast surgeon is quite relieved with the progress my chemo has made on dramatically reducing nearly all symptoms of both cancers, the cancer load has been significantly reduced.  The very first chemo treatment I had, the pain left my breast, the swelling went down, and while I was annoyed at myself for not coming in a couple months sooner, I also realized that some women come in "early" as they beg everyone with the pink ribbon organizations, and yet they don't freak out like my docs did and jump all over them with "get that chemo in there STAT!"  So, even if I had gone in the moment I noticed my breast felt kind of hard and swollen, I likely would not have been put into chemo until about when I did.  So, even tho these docs have perhaps missed something serious for you, you are still within the year of finding problems with your breasts, so better late than never, and I believe the results will be so dramatic once you begin treatment, that you will begin to relax with what is going on with you, IF THEY FIND anything sinister.  The push for early detection has merits, but so TOO does going in at all, which the push helps with that part, as well.  And while you do sound like an IBC person, it could just as easily be that you simply have a typical slow-growing cancer that has made your breast seem like IBC, when in fact it may not be.  As I said, a skin punch biopsy of any suspect skin tissue, CT scan will show skin thickening, and a qualified oncologist will also visually and palpably recognize it as being IBC, the latter of which is the very best way of knowing, if you do have it.

I hope my information and advice has helped you.  Yes, you must take this just as serious as a heart attack, and if someone FINALLY unfortunately diagnoses you with some type of breast cancer, whatever kind it is, you will indeed work through the shock that will hit your system of this strange reality, but hon, I'm telling you, coming to this particular breast cancer organization website was singly one of the best things you could have done for yourself.  I know, the answers were slow coming, and when I first came here, I was just like you.  But eventually I found a home here, and if you got cancer, you are in the right place, you will benefit tremendously from the support of so many wonderful women here.  And there are women here who are pregnant and going thru all this crazy treatment and scariness, so you will get some advice from them, they are in a few places under the forum thread called "Young Women With Cancer," I think it is, under the section on the main forum Index for "Support and Community" down towards the bottom, and here is the link: http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/27 

Let us know how things go with setting up as many docs as you can (smile!) and bless you, child, you are going to be okay now. 

GG

Hi Cheyne:  I see that your post is more than a week old, so I hope that you have looked at the other posts and have returned to your doctor, or better yet, had a private consultation with a knowledgeable breast cancer doctor.  IBC is very often misdiagnosed.  Mine just started off as a rash and I was told by a breast surgeon in an excellent teaching hospital that 'it was nothing'.  Later the nipple inverted and a mammogram showed 'skin thickening' but no masses or lumps. Ultrasound showed edema and inflamed nodes.  Congratulations on your pregnancy and you don't need the worry of cancer at this time.  I hope that you have been able to see a specialist and feel confident with their diagnosis.