Swollen lymph node in armpit

Hi Lovemyfurbabies!

I'm so sorry that you had to join our little club that nobody wants to join. You're at a very difficult time in your treatment arc. Post-diagnosis, but before you have a plan in place. Most of us worry ourselves silly at this point and try to read meaning into everything. For instance, your painful lymph node. You could just have a cold coming on, or some minor infection. But with your new diagnosis, everything screams "cancer" to you. All of the minor aches/pains we all experience will still happen. But now you'll always wonder if it means "something else." Mostly it doesn't.

I have some suggestions for you:

1. Get a copy of your pathology report. That will tell you a lot about your BC. What your post-surgery margins were. The hormone status of your tumor (ER/PR sensitivity). You're entitled to have a copy. If you have a patient portal with the surgeon, it might be there. Or ask his/her office to send you a copy.

2. If you haven't started a list of questions to take with you to your appointment, please do. You'll want to remember all of your questions for your meeting on the 1st. For example,

A. Do you have clear margins? (if not, do you need more surgery?)

B. Do you need a sentinel node biopsy (SNB)? Since your diagnosis was based on an excisional biopsy, they wouldn't have considered a SBN at the time of your surgery. But they might want to do one now. And, BTW, you might want to ask about a SNB even if you didn't have a painful node.

C. Should you have an MRI to look to see if there are "more things" to be concerned with in your breasts? (Note that I'm not suggesting an MRI, but you want to know what your doc thinks about that.)

3. Get a copy of the BC.org booklet. Some docs give one to their patients...my Mom's doc did, but mine didn't. You can print one out from the linked page. It's helpful in getting a handle on what your pathology report might mean, and you might want a copy even before your appointment.

4. Plan to take a second set of ears with you to your appointment. It's really hard to take in everything they tell you when they're talking about your cancer. You might even want to ask them if you can record the appointment. Many docs will allow you to, and that will allow you to go back and re-listen as many times as you need/want to.

5. If you want to read about BC, consider a source like BC.org. Or a book like the most recent edition of Dr. Susan Love's The Breast Book (the 6th ed. was released in 2015). Don't just google around (there's a lot of old, outdated, or just plain wrong information on the net). That's another thing to ask on Dec. 1st--what they consider to be good sources of patient information.

5. You're about to be buried in paperwork and appointments. You'll be dealing with various docs (at least a surgical oncologist, a medical oncologist, maybe a radiation oncologist, a pathologist, an anesthesiologist, as well as your usual docs) and institutions, labs, imaging centers, hospitals, etc. And you may get separate bills from each of them. And you may need to be sure each of them accepts your insurance. And they all generate separate reports. You'll want to collect copies of all of them. And for some procedures, tests or drugs, your insurance may require pre-authorization or have other preconditions to coverage.

And often a test or a report which needs to get sent from one doc to another won't get there. You're entitled to copies of all of them. Work out how you want to keep track. You may want to take copies of your most recent reports, labs, etc. when you go to a doc, just in case whatever was supposed to be sent on to them, wasn't.

All of this will seem overwhelming for a while, but once you have a plan in place, it begins to be manageable.

Hang in there, and come back here when you have questions or just need to vent.

LisaAlissa

I was diagnosed with adh last sept. I have been on 6 month check ups my last one on Sept 23 (US) last week i felt a swollen lymph node under my armpit on the same side as the biopsy. I went to my gyn today and he confirmed what i was feeling. Tomorrow I have an appt with my onc. Has any one else had a swollen lymph node if yes what was the outcome? I am so anxious but all I can do is wait im praying so hard its something other than bc but i know it cant be anything else. I haven't been sick or have any infection that i know of. Oh I dont have any palpable breast lumps. But I never had any i was diagnosed with adh through clustered calcifications.

Good luck Lovemyfurbabies bc diagnoses and tests can take a toll on your mind. Try to remain calm its easier said than done, I know, but at this point all we can do is wait and get a plan in motion.

sending prayers..Please keep us posted