Three or so months ago I noticed that the lumpiness I felt in my breasts associated with menstruation was not dissipating as it usually did when I went back on the pill; in one breast there was a noticeable unevenness and hardening to the structure of it whereas the other stayed pliable and well, breast-tissue-y. There was no change to the skin or nipple. I kept feeling to see what it did, if it grew or moved or went on holiday, and after waiting a couple of cycles to see if it resolved itself today I took myself and my boobs to the GP for a good old feel.
After getting topless for my Doctor she checked out how my breasts looked overall – equal with no outer variation – and got me to rest my arm on hers before she poked around my upper chest near the collarbone and underneath each armpit. Feeling nothing of note there she got me to lie back and sort of pancaked each breast with the flat of her hands whilst poking about with her fingers. She seemed unable to find anything on the left side but when she moved on to the right and started to move her fingers closer around my nipple I knew she’d struck gold, so to speak.
I felt relieved she’d confirmed what I felt, that I was believed and didn’t have to persuade the medical system to work for me as I have had to do in the past. The mass is definitely isolated to the right breast and is around 4cm or so in size but it has been increasing; it is mobile (not fixed to my skeleton or muscle – it sort of slides about) which my GP says is a good thing in terms of possible diagnoses.
My Mum had “pre-cancerous breast cancer” as she calls it – I think Ductal Carcinoma In Situ – around six years ago which resulted in her having a small portion of her breast surgically removed with a five year course of Tamoxifen as follow-up. I believe that her Mum had breast cancer of some sorts many years back and although I was quite unsure about dates etcetera, because of this history and the fact that it has been there for a few months and is not going anywhere I have been referred under the “Urgent” two week time limit to the breast clinic at my nearest hospital.
I have to admit it was fairly weird to be sat there as the Doctor read through the (conflicting!) NHS Trust and NICE guidelines on “Referral For Suspected Cancer” to check whether or not I should be referred as an urgent case; although it is very unlikely I have anything malign going on, there is still a small part of me that thought “Shit” as I smiled through talk of boobs and waiting lists.
Nine out of every ten lumpy breasted women turn out to have benign growths in their breasts- In all likelihood I have something benign that is called a Fibroadenoma, also known as the all kinds of awesome “breast mouse” (!) due to the hard mass sliding about under the skin. I may be nursing a breast mouse. How very odd.
A Fibroadenoma won’t turn cancerous and treatment can consist of either leaving it alone or surgically excising the lump; I am of course hoping it is this “mouse” that I have rather than anything else. The letter for referral is being sent off tomorrow so within two weeks I will probably have been x-rayed, ultrasounded and stuck so that I can find out what the little blighter is.
I teared up a little this evening as I learnt about breast problems benign and malignant, but then I teared up in the car this morning listening to Etta James belt out “At Last”. Sigh…
Image: “Fibroadenoma, Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (Papanicolou stain). The image shows a sheet of epithelial cells in the typical antler pattern.” [source]
