"Fat Necrosis" six months ago, but its grown?

Gosh you are so young! Did you have a biopsy of the lump?, or is it just from imaging and Birads 3 come back in 6 months?

I have/had this and it started about a year post surgery. I also feel that exercising or accidently bumping your breast may cause it. At least that's what I think happened to me. Exercising in a class one day I dropped a weight on there and eventually my imaging was enhancing so had the biopsy and it was fat necrosis. Now it's noted but it is not doing anything The scar or dead tissue I was told can happen at any time. Isn't that wonderful?

Good luck at your next appt.

What you are describing I think the vast majority of us experience after a breast cancer diagnosis. Unrelenting anxiety. If you are not in counseling I highly recommend it and do not hesitate to treat yourself with psychiatric medication. Yes, unfortunately, this diagnosis isn't short lived. It's just not that type of cancer and for those of us who are still hoping for a long life despite it thanks to being so young when diagnosed it's a world view changing thing. That's not something human beings can handle normally without help. I am both in counseling and take anti-depressants and won't hesitate to do something else if I need to. Life is short even without cancer and needs to be enjoyed. Don't think that you can't have enjoyment and have to remain so fearful. But in regards to your very real and understandable fear over your nodule just remember that other things besides cancer occur frequently. Yes you need to get them checked out but the chances of them actually being something life threatening are not great even after a breast cancer diagnosis. I also know that fat necrosis is pretty easily identified even without a biopsy. If that's what they told you it was, chances are high that they are correct.

Hi @turbokitten88

Congrats on being 4 years out from treatment! I'm having an opposite problem to you - I just had my lumpectomy a month ago for TN IDC, and now have a large, hard mass on my breast (that is very triggering because it is in the same spot and resembles the original size of my tumor) that my PS dismissed quickly as fat necrosis. Previous info I've read on the topic says fat necrosis typically develops a few months after a trauma - so I was worried that it developed too soon, and may be a recurrence. While googling, I found some info that may put both our minds at ease. From breastcancernow.org:

"Fat necrosis can be found at any time after breast surgery or an injury. Sometimes it develops without any trauma and many women with fat necrosis do not remember a specific injury."

As for the general anxiety you're feeling, I'm still in active treatment and have no great advice to give, only to say "I hear you and I'm with you and this sucks." However, on the off chance you didn't already know, I wanted to share that one of the small silver linings (as if anything in the cancer world is a silver lining?) of Triple Negative BC is that, while the TN cancer itself is a beast, your chance of recurrence drastically reduces once you're five years out or more from the disease. Looks like from your bio that you're right around the corner from that milestone. Maybe hitting it will give you a brief moment to exhale?