Papillomas?

Congrats on the benign result.  When I had all my testing done I was told I also have papillomatosis, it was passed off to me as something not to worry about, and to be honest I had enough to worry about at the time so I've forgotten about it.  I am due a check up in a couple of weeks so I will make sure to ask the question. xx

Most papilomas are benign but they are removed most of the time because they grow and cause discharge and other annoying symptoms. The duct excision to remove them is a minor procedure & most women here report back that they had minimal discomfort from the removal surgery.

Papilloma was my Dx.  I had planned to leave it and do 6 month follow ups like I do on my fibroadnomias, but I was having pain after over 6 weeks after my core biopsy.  I ended up having it removed.  They are such a hard one to decide on because there is so much controversy.  However with a history of anything worrisome I'd think that the doctors would say, it's best to remove it because it can hide other things.   The chances that it is benign are very high for single papillomas that are in the large ducts.  Multiple papillomas, especially in the smaller outer ducts, are riskier.   I think they always recommend removing those.

You can read some of my posts to see my story.  I'm doing well and so far the shooting pains I was having seem to be gone, at about 2 1/2 weeks out.  So I feel like I made the right choice.  At least for me.  But before I realized the pain wasn't going away, I was OK with the wait and watch plan.  Every woman has to do what is comfortable for her, given her history and her temperament.    

Good luck. 

After seeing some spontaneous bleeding from my left nipple, my breast surgeon (without any test results to go on) initially said it was a papilloma, which was benign, but would have to be surgically removed, or it would continue to grow and cause more bleeding. She said the procedure was an easy one.

Unfortunately, in my case, further diagnostic testing revealed DCIS and IDC, but I am SO HAPPY for you, bluewillowskys..... benign is always good to hear!!!!

Delilahbear - gosh, that was so long ago... I was dx'd in 2011, and within days they had discovered the IDC, leading to a BMX and recon. I never had any duct excision done, since they were removing everything anyway. But thank you for thinking of me!

Sounds like you went through the wringer first! Hopefully, Bluewillowskys will have a very easy time of it!

Hi. I had my papilloma removed a month ago and it is still discharging brown fluid. Have any of you had this?

bluewillowskys - unfortunately, recurrence is kind of a crap shoot. There are many studies that show that lumpectomies with radiation have the same survival rates as bilateral mastectomies (which is not the same as "recurrence rates") but I'm sure you can look it up.

I chose BMX because of my history (Mom had BC) and the fact that my Original Girls were huge, droopy, fibrocystic, painful, and hung to my waist. My Radiologist could not assure me that my right side was clear, and like you, I didn't want the annual anxiety of wondering if this were the year that something was going to show up on the other side. (Ironically, my lump was never palpable, or discovered through mammogram.)

My choice (BMX with reconstruction) made total sense for me, but it's a hugely individual choice. Mastectomy - especially with reconstruction - is a serious surgery.

I went into it knowing that 1) I could still need chemo; 2) I could still need radiation; and 3) I still faced the risk of recurrence, even though the final pathology report showed that the cancer was tiny and detected early.

There is no way that any surgeon can remove every single cell of breast tissue during MX, and the possibility exists that a rogue cancer cell could be floating around somewhere inside the body. It could be a new cancer, a recurrence of the same cancer, or it could be a metastasis to a distant location.

We do the best we can with what we know. We research our options, gather as much information as we can, then trust the medical professional we choose. We go through treatments that are suggested, and hope for the best.

As far as I'm concerned, I was healed of BC the day I had my mastectomy. That's my story and I'm sticking to it until someone tells me differently.