Reactive Lymph Node??

Viv, I see nobody else has jumped in here yet.  What would cause a reactive lymph node?

A "reactive lymph node" is one that contains extra white blood cells (can I say, "leukocytes"?), and some of those leukocytes appear to be "activated" (they have been stimulated by something).  The list of things that can trigger such a reaction is pretty long.  It includes infections (even minor ones you haven't noticed), allergies, inflammation, tissue trauma, bug bites, etc.

How much time had elapsed between your last lumpectomy/biopsy and your mast?  It was quite awhile, as I recall; so I don't know if the previous surgery was the culprit, but it could have been.  The tissue damage associated with cutting out a lump (or sticking a huge needle through one several times) can trigger enough inflammation to make a lymph node enlarge and become "reactive".

As you know, I had an US-guided core biopsy in mid-January.  A week later, I had another US to check the status of my axillary nodes on the side of the tumor.  I also had a breast MRI that same day, to see if there were other tumors.  The reports from both the US and the breast MRI said the axillary lymph nodes on the side of the tumor were "generally enlarged."  But, everybody decided those nodes were simply reacting to my biopsy, or to something else that had been going on unrelated to my BC.  If those nodes had been removed, they probably would have been declared "reactive."

As it turned out, my sentinel nodes (all 3 of 'em) were lower in my armpit and were not associated with the area of "generally enlarged nodes" that had been seen with the imaging studies.  My sentinel nodes were all negative for BC.

So, don't worry about it.  It's very common to have a reactive node.  As for why they removed a node at all (you didn't have SNB, did you?), it was probably buried in the mammary tissue or over in that "tail" of breast tissue below your armpit.  That's common, too.

otter