My story is complicated but will try to make it short and hope that someone might be able to give me some insight. I am a kidney transplant patient who has been on immune surpression for 20 years. This makes me more suseptable to some cancers than the general population but not all cancers. I was diagnosed and treated for papillory (sp?) thyroid cancer back in 2000 but have been thyroid cancer free since then. Over the past year I have had several alarming symptoms that I have been seeing several different doctors about. My transplant doctors have been worried for the past several years bacause my white blood count and platlet counts have been persistantly high, 25,000 + and my platlets about 500,000. I had a bone marrow biopsy back in 2001 that showed a mild myloproliferative disorder so the hemotogist said they would just watch my blood counts. I felt ok, back then. Then this past fall I felt a lump on my left breast and went to the gynocologist who did a mamogram that came back negative but she told me they would recheck me in six months to be sure. Before that 6 months came up I had a horrible chest cold and my WBC was 32,000 and I was feeling really bad. I also had several falls and found one day that I had this huge basketball size dark purple bruise on my leg. So my transplant doctors refered me to the lumbardi Cancer Center here in DC. That hematologist examined me and found that I had several large prominant veins on my left breast, neck and ab area. I have had some slight pain in my upper left ab area as well. I told him about the breast lump so with that in mind, he did blood work to first look for Leukemia, thinking that blood disorder had gotten worse and he did a CA level. Well my blood counts did not indicate leukemia, thank god but my CA level was 6.3 which he seemed worried about. He also did an MRI of my chest and neck area which was negative for clots or masses. He felt that we should now look into the breast lump further, so he refered me to the breast center at the Lumbardi center. Since then I have had breast discharge and sharpe stabbing pains in my left breast. I also have developed some sort of lumpy skin on my breast. Not red but different looking and I can feel it. I constantly have a low grade fever, about 99.1 to 99.9. I had a period of night sweats back in 2000 but don't now. I do however sweat really bad during the day which is new. I sweat like a teenage boy just sweeping my small kitchen floor.
I am scared and frustrated. I know my situation is complicated but if anyone can lend any insight I would be extremely gratefull. I am scheduled for an MRI this Wednesday of my breast and I guess I will keep searching becasue as time goes on, I feel more tired and a new symptom pops up!
My prayers to all of you.
Jeannie