skin changes

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arwyn54494
arwyn54494 Member Posts: 8

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  • arwyn54494
    arwyn54494 Member Posts: 8
    edited April 2008

    I'm soo frustrated, I'm not sure what to do. It started in Feb. with pain in my left breast. Since I've had a hysterectomy with removal of my ovaries 10 years ago, I knew it wasn't hormonal. (I'm 39 now) I called my Dr. & he ordered a screening mamo, which showed nothing. On the day of the mamo, a small sore appeared on my skin. Both breasts looked red - like you can see capillaries. I was put on antibiotics for the breast sore & also bronchitis. Neither one got better so they switched meds 3 different times. I had a fever from the upper respiratory infection & also I very high white blood count. They put me in the hospital for a few days on IV meds for an unknown infection. Since the breast sore still hadn't healed, the infectious disease Doc sent me to the surgeon to cut out the sore to biopsy & stitch me up so I would heal. (this was about six weeks after the sore appeared & I got sick) I ended up having a fever for over six weeks. During this time my breast skin looked worse. The areola looks lighter - almost brownish or yellowish instead of pink. There is a reddish slightly raised narrow rash-like border around half of the areola of my left breast. The nurse practitioner who specializes in breast exams said "That's very strange. I've never seen anything like that before." When she went & got the breast surgeon he told me that it didn't look like any inflammatory breast cancer he's ever seen. He said I have capillary prolifferation on my breast skin but he doesn't know why. My biopsy from the lesion came back vascular hemangioma. When I went back to the breast nurse two weeks later for a recheck, my skin looked worse. She made me wait for the doc to get out of surgery so he could look.They agreed I should have an ultrasound. I wanted an MRI because I read about IBC, but I don't meet the criteria for my insurance. The US was also negative. Since then, the skin of both breasts seems thicker with very light pin hole dents on some of the skin. I called the cancer hotline to find out if capillary prolifferation can be a sign of IBC & she said yes, I should get another opinion. On Thur. I went to a breast center & saw a nurse practitioner there. She told me that the IBC cases she's seen were extremely obvious. She said you didn't have to look close to see the orange peel skin. Both my breasts have become harder in the past couple weeks,(& kind of lumpy) but she said the cases she's seen that the breast was as hard as a bowling ball.The blue veins are also really prominent on both my breasts. The edges of the areola also aren't well defined and round or smooth anymore. They took one skin biopsy on Thur. because they didn't know what else to do. They don't think I have IBC, but they also can't tell me what could be causing all these changes. I should be getting the results back on Mon. Does anyone have any ideas for me? Have you had breast changes like this? If the biopsy is normal or some kind of vascular hemangiona, should I just let this go & hope for the best?

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