Was anyone else told their lump was "just a cyst"?

Yep this happened to me.  I felt a small, very hard lump.   Went to the doctor.  They ordered a diagnostic mam.  They couldn't see it on the mam although the tech could also feel the lump.   They took me to ultrasound and the radiologist herself who most recently had a double mastectomy did the ultrasound and said it is a cyst and to come back next year.   Six months later I am calling my doctor saying the lump is growing and it is painful.  She said it is probably a cyst to and see a surgeon but she would order another diagnostic round of text first.   The second time it was obviously cancer and they were all over it.   By the time all of this passed and I had surgery and a PET scan, I was stage IV before the first drop of chemo.   

 Everyone says you need to do something about it (....lawsuit???)    Doesn't change where I am at right now.  

Jennifer 

I'm sorry you ladies have had to deal with a runaround too. In 2004, I found a lump in my left breast while 6 mos pregnant with my 2nd child @ age 27. Told my OBGYN (in AZ) but she couldn't feel it. Said it was probably a clogged milk duct & we'd check on it after baby was born. A few weeks after delivering, I ended up with bilateral mastitis. Got that treated. Moved home to TX and went for postpartum checkup with OB who delivered my 1st child. He felt lump & sent me for biopsy. While doing the ultrasound guided needle biopsy, my surgeon said he was "quite certain" it was a fibradenoma (b9 cyst) common in women my age after having baby. A few days later, after pathology, he called me in and diagnosed me with BC. Here I am almost 8 yrs later & 35 yrs old. I've only been able to get yearly mammos & ultrasounds due to lack of insurance & low income. I just had them & was told they found a "cyst" in my right breast & wanted to check it again in 6 mos. By the grace if God, the program that helped me get those scans has helped me go to a breast surgeon, get an MRI & I will be having an excisional biopsy. Thankfully, this surgeon (who I just met) is proactive & agrees we need to be thorough & have pathology. He also agrees that I need full scans like PET/CT since I haven't had them in years and am triple negative. I'm really concerned about what could be going on in other parts of my body as well.



So, after that long rant, my point is that we have to be our own advocates. I tell all my doctors that I am not comfortable with just scans & pictures. I NEED pathology. Best wishes & blessings to you!

I suppose this is a question all stages can answer.

My internist felt the lump and immediately called a BS on the telephone and sent me to said BS's office - a three block walk. The BS saw me within minutes, felt the lump, which was hard and amorphous, and remarked "this might be a cyst" BUT he had it tested anyway. He scheduled both a mammogram and an ultrasound, both if which, I believe happened within days.

Yes that's what I was told. They even gave me an ultrasound and still said it was up to me if I wanted it removed. The surgeon would not move up the date to take it out even when I said it was painful. He looked remorseful when he had to tell me it was cancer the day after surgery.

wow, 4myangels, I don't know how one copes with the crap you were dealt. Never apologize for your anger.

Did the doctor at the very least stick a needle to see if the "cyst" could be aspirated? My BS did, two minutes after we first shook hands. Also, my mammogram and u/s showed the lump very clearly but there is no way to know for sure (barring surgery) that it's NOT cancer without an actual biopsy. The doctor should at least have "ruled out" precancerous cells. I had no BC family history either (in fact, no history or ANY cancer).

I would not have done anything differently from you. How is one supposed to know, after all? I just got lucky that I happened to be in excellent hands. At those initial stages, one doesn't want to know - anything! If a doctor tells me, "don't worry, the lump in your body is not the dreaded C but only a cyst" I, too, will heave a huge sigh of relief - especially after two visual laboratory tests. And think nothing more of it. In fact, you showed commendable initiative in insisting on another mammogram.

You have every right to be angry. Any doctor worth half of their little finger knows that 70-80 percent of women (I like this statistic so I'll use it :-) ) who get diagnosed with BC had no family history. My BS said it best after he diagnosed me: Your risk is that you are a woman.  

I have lots of anger.  My "cyst" WAS aspirated.  I WATCHED the ultrasound guided needle going into my breast, and I SAW the congealed tissue that was pulled out by the syringe.  What I don't know is what that doctor did with that tissue.  It was never sent for a pathology report; I was dismissed as having an infection related to breastfeeding my 2 month old.   This happened TWICE.  When I went for a second opinion, doctor number 2 went along with number 1.  It wasn't until my breast was huge and the nipple started to turn to one side that I sought a third opinion at a cancer center that a biopsy was done and cancer was found in the nodes.  Here I was, tan, athletic, "young" and "healthy" with a newborn, at a cancer center with bald, sick people thinking "I don't belong here".  Yep, stage IV - - I had been complaining of the lump in my breast while pregnant, for six months before dx.  I am very angry - been trying to let it go but feel that sharing my story may help to prevent it from happening to others. 

I did the opposite. I pointed out the lump to my ob gyn and then told her I thought it was just a clogged milk duct. I had many of them when I was nursing (which cuts your chances of getting breast cancer by 50%.) I had a lump on the other breast, so I did convince myself it was the clogged milk duct. After 18 months, I decided that it was getting bigger and started reading info on the internet. By the feel of it, I knew it was cancer. As soon as a different ob gyn felt it, he sent me straight up to imaging. After the mammogram, they immediately did an ultrasound. They promised that the radiologist would explain what she saw before I left. They showed me how they were pretty certain it was cancer. From 2pm - 4:30pm, I knew my answer. Then they did a months worth of tests before they would perform my surgery. Everyone tells me to stop reading about cancer, but I was able to convince them to give me tests after I explained that I had all the symptoms of breast cancer.

Yes, it happened to me too. The Dr told me I drank too much pop. I had a cyst on my breast and under my arm but since I was 32,  looked healthy and had no family history, he told me it was nothing and I believed him. Over a year later the cyst on my breast was quite large and I could feel 2 large nodes under my arm so I finally called again (I did not call earlier because I never did stop drinking my Diet Pepsi). Anyway, I could tell by the look on his face, just by feeling them, he knew he screwed up. I tell everyone I know, if you feel something is not right, you make sure they check into it. DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! 

I am sorry this has happened to all of you and I am sure this happens quite often. 

I recall that Dana (Wings of Hope) was essentially told not to worry. In 2002, Dana, then 31 years old, was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, more than a year after she first sought treatment. " Because of my age, no family history and the fact that African-American women have high cases of fibroadenomas (a benign breast lump) - the lump went misdiagnosed," Dana recounted. "I was told to come back and have it checked in six months. Six months later, I was told the same thing."

I was also misdiagnosed. I was 30 and had a palpable lump that my GP thought was probably a breast mouse, but as it had been there for a good 6 months, she referred me to a specialist breast clinic. Because of my age, I was given an ultrasound and no mammogram, but nothing at all showed up on the ultrasound, so I was told it was a breast mouse and nothing to worry about, even though my nipple had started to invert. I was referred back a year later and told that it looked like a small cyst from the ultrasound, but this time they took a punch biopsy. 3 days later I was diagnosed with BC and had my first mammogram. This showed a tumour of around 8 cms. And the rest is history...

JeninMichigan - your story is mine. My family has lumpy breasts so when I developed one that was uncomfortable or hurt with hormonal fluctuation, and also moved when palpated, there was no reason my GP or I suspected anything. No breast cancer in my family. I do have dense breasts, haven't had a baby and started my period at age 10, but so have plenty other women who won't get cancer and will live to be 80 or 90. You always hear "if it hurts, it's not cancer...usually". That's funny because I read an awful lot of posts here in Stage IV metster-land and see a number of us had discomfort or pain.

yes , I was told it was just a cyst twice by two different breast surgeons:(

I had a lump (more of a blob) that was investigated with mammogram and ultrasound and I was told there was nothing there, come back in a year.  Then shortly afterwards I had a series of pleural effusions that also went undiagnosed - no cancer cells or other  cause was found.  I asked whether the blob in my breast that was not supposed to be cancer could be related and everyone pooh-poohed the idea until my nipple inverted and a new mammogram finally was positive.  Now I finally had breast and lung biopsies and lo and behold, it was stage 4 breast cancer!  Every doctor I've had since said the "cyst" should have been biopsied, but none of the four doctors I consulted for the breast and lung issues ever mentioned it.  When I requested a lung biopsy, the doctor said that lung nodules were common at my age (61 then) and there was nothing large enough to biopsy.  I looked into a malpractice suit, but in Texas, where I lived at the time, you practically have to prove willful neglect.  Apparently incompetence isn't enough.

I agree with you, may this bastards get something!

This post is from 2014. Chances are, they have moved on.