Around a year ago, I felt a shooting pain in the upper right side of my right breast. At first, the breast only painful upon pressing with some force on it and was not noticeable unless pressed on. After a few months, I started feeling a lump and it was painful even when not touched and would become more painful if palpated. The pain is non-cyclical and the lump does not change in size before or after the my periods, the size and the pain stays constant throughout my menstrual cycle, and my pain has been increasing over time.
I had an ultrasound and biopsy 6 months after discovering the lump, so 6 months ago. As the radiologist was doing the ultrasound, she was saying it presented a solid mass with irregular edges and she was worried since it looked suspicious, however, after testing the biopsy of the lump, I was told that it's only fibrocystic breast changes. It has been another 6 months since I had the biopsy, and my pain is constant and keeps increasing and I have it most of the day everyday even without touching my breast, and touching it scares me because at this point even lightly touching my breast sends shooting pain.
I had a second appointment at the breast clinic yesterday where they did an ultrasound. While doing an ultrasound, the radiologist found complex cysts (a cluster of cysts with lobulations which had calcifications).
After seeing this, at first she wanted to do a core needle biopsy, then she decided to do a fine needle aspiration because she said she was concerned about the calcifications and wanted to check them for malignancy.
She asked me if I was ok with having a biopsy and I said yes and told her I had one done back in July last year.
As soon as I said I had one done she quickly went to check my records and decided not to do a biopsy because she was saying that the last biopsy I had done was done in the same exact spot so there was no need to do another one. I told her that last time I wasn’t told about any calcifications and it’s been 6 months since my last biopsy, but she kept insisting that it wasn’t necessary because she thought the calcifications were benign since I already had a biopsy in July and the size of my mass hadn’t grown. Last time the mass was 12x7mm and yesterday it was 13x8mm.
I wish she still would’ve taken a sample of the calcifications and had them tested but she kept refusing to.
Afterwards I saw the consultant again to discuss the ultrasound report and she said that my pain is just mastalgia and is not related to my mass and there’s no known cause or cure for it and all I can do is take painkillers.
Should I be worried? Should I ask my GP to refer me to a different hospital for a second opinion? Or is it all fine and I should just leave it like this? I’m scared and confused and I wish they tested the mass again just for my peace of mind at least, but I don’t even know if my GP will even want to refer me again to another hospital. Every time I feel a shooting pain from the area where my lump is, I get a pang of anxiety.
Hi Sharonzzie and a very warm welcome to the Macmillan Community but sorry to hear about your ongoing concerns.
You may want to look at THIS LINK about getting a second opinion……. everyone has the right to get this.
Navigating this journey can be such a stressful and challenging time but getting support from people who have walked or are walking the ‘exact same' journey can help a lot.
This New to Community area is like our reception desk where we look to try and direct you to the best part of the Community for you to get support.
The Community is actually divided into dedicated Support Groups (Discussion Rooms) so can I recommend that you look to join and put up your own post in our dedicated Breast Cancer Support Group.
This group is a safe place to talk to others with a similar diagnosis, treatment experience, to ask questions and get support. To connect in with the group please click on the link below…….
……. and once the group page opens you will see a [Black - Click to Join - Banner] at the bottom of the page, click in this box and this will then confirm that you have joined the group.
You can then introduce yourself to the group by putting up your very own post by clicking [+ Create new post] or [+] in the top right of the group page.
You can copy and paste the text from this post into your new post.
The Macmillan Support Line is open between 8am-8pm (timings may differ across services) 7 days a week on 0808 808 00 00…… this service provides cancer information, practical information, emotional support, benefits/financial guidance or just a listening ear.
We also have our Ask an Expert section but do allow 3 working days for a reply.
Do get back to me if you need further help navigating the community.
