very concerned about IBC 22 years old

hi nasm123, IBC is more common in younger women. I would get referred to a breast specialist as soon as possible and dont wait to see if the antibiotics work. Time is of the essence. You will probably need a core biopsy done of your breast. There have also been even some teenagers who were unfortunately diagnosed with this disease. I truly hope that you just have mastitis or something along that line that can be cured. Good luck and God bless. Let us know how you get on. 

jessozzie - I have never heard that it is "more common" in young women  but more common in us 'oldster' (I was 63 when DX, 67 now).

From all I've been told/learned, peau d'orange (French for 'orange peel') skin is part of the 'signs' of IBC.  I developed it.  It is not the skin peeling but looks like the skin of an orange.

Jessozzie, I used to belong to a different website, which I have just learned has now been shut down due to spammers, but you can access it through googling "ibchelp". Its just the support thread that you cannot access. 

Patti Bradfield was one of the founders and she then set up "eraseibc" website due to her daughter passing. Her daughter was in her late teens or early twenties when she passed. I have bean a member of that website since 2006 when I was first diagnosed and I found the support fantastic. There were some younger ones there in their twenties and thirties and some with families. 

I think that the average age is about 45 for IBC, but that is still young compared to other cancers which have an older average (if that makes sense).

Warm hugs

Mandy xx

This may sound crazy - but when they were ruling out an infection, antibiotics over the course of a weekend, the surgeon used a black sharpie to draw a circle on my breast around where it was swollen.  This then helped confirm his suspicions of IBC, as he had clear indication the swelling was not going down.  Not real high tech - but helped him and me from believing things were improving maybe even minimally, when they weren't. You can do this yourself, your doc may think you are crazy.  And like others have said, do not wait until the 31st.  Sooner rather than later is better. 

Keep us posted

Nel

hello NASM123

I agree with mandymoo, go get check ASAP and don't wait. I was diagnosis with IBC last year at 32. I have heard the youngest case was a 12 year old. Cancer has no age on it, and nothing is unheard of. If I could send you a pic of my breast I would. The changes are so fast and the cancer is so aggressive. It took 4 month for my tumor to grow about 6 cm and for it to get into my lymph nodes. I had warm/ hot to the touch, breast  twice as big as the other, my breast look like an orange and sharp pain. The tumor grew into my arm pit in the matter of weeks. I'm African American and cancer is more aggressive in us, so that's maybe way everything happened so fast. I also had a tumor, most people with IBC don't but I already had a large fibroid in that breast since I was 15, so I didn't know it was going to develop into cancer. The earlier you know the better because you wouldn't want it to spread into your lymph nodes. I hope this is not the case and it is a infection. Good luck!!

Maybe it is an infection, but the antibiotics you're on currently certainly don't seem to be working.  Have they done a culture?  They need to stop focusing on your age and figure out what's going on with your breast.  If it's an infection, they should be able to tell you what organism is causing it so you can take the appropriate antibiotics.  Ask them what kind of infection takes weeks to respond to antibiotic therapy - and causes peau d'orange and nipple inversion???  My understanding is that antibiotics are almost always given first (as infections are way more common than IBC), but if the rash doesn't start to get better within a few days, a full workup for IBC should be done.  I was 30 when I had a colonoscopy for a single episode of rectal bleeding.  They found a villous adenoma with severe dysplasia and carcinoma in situ  - well on its way to becoming invasive colon cancer.  I was my gastroenterologist's second youngest patient ever - the youngest was already stage 4 by the time they scoped him.  I'm not trying to scare you, but these doctors need to look at all of your symptoms, not just your age.

nasm123 good luck with your appointment. X . I drive 2 hours to see my oncologist every 3 weeks. Even when I had radiotherapy every day for 5 weeks. I don't think twice about it. 

Dang, that sucks. I really hope that the doc today will be more helpful. xx

Right - a biopsie not a mastectomy, plus what you have is a bunch of symptoms that are much more worrisome than a tickle !! Why are some doctors soooo dense ? I'm sooooo glad you have an appointment at the U of A cancer center. And 8 days is an okay wait. I think that's a reasonable wait, even though obviously it would be more reassuring to have it yesterday. Please keep up posted !