Breast Mri

My mother just died last Thursday of metastatic breast cancer, she went every year for her mammogram because her mother died of breast cancer.  The doctors told us mammograms sometime don't pick up everything so I go for mri's plus mammo's.  The past couple of times I've gone for mri's they say they are watching something in my right breast, and I've been going every six months.  I tell my gyno that my right breast is sore all the time, but he assures me he feels nothing and not to worry.  I have had calcifications removed two years ago but they were not cancer.  Should I sit and wait?

Considering your family history and your concerns over this I would ask for a definitive diagnosis.  I had what was classified as an "inderminate" area several years ago and every 6 months they would recheck and it was still "inderminate", 18 months had gone by, then while sitting in the office waiting to get a follow up mammo the ladies starting talking, one asked me about my situation and I told her.  She kid of yelled at and said "what was I waiting for, if they don't know for certain by now".  She continued to tell me a friend of hers that was a nurse who had a questionable area and a colleague (doctor) said just to have it rechecked in 6 months.  Well six months later she found out not only was it malignant but it was aggressive and had already spread to her liver and bones.  Well that is all I needed to hear and I called my surgeon and we agreed to have it biopsied.  It turned out to be benign in my case but 2 years later I was diagnosed with stage 1 in the opposite breasts.  There is no reason to lose sleep just tell them you want to know for certain if for no other reason to put your mind at ease. 

I also wanted to express how sorry I am for the loss of your mother and grandmother to BC.  One day, hopefully, it will no longer have to be that way.  Take care!

 

On 5/30/2008 Graces Daughter wrote:

My mother just died last Thursday of metastatic breast cancer, she went every year for her mammogram because her mother died of breast cancer.  The doctors told us mammograms sometime don't pick up everything so I go for mri's plus mammo's.  The past couple of times I've gone for mri's they say they are watching something in my right breast, and I've been going every six months.  I tell my gyno that my right breast is sore all the time, but he assures me he feels nothing and not to worry.  I have had calcifications removed two years ago but they were not cancer.  Should I sit and wait?

Dear Grace'sdaughter:

Sorry to hear about your Mom...I can relate as I am now battling mets breast cancer although for now I am in clinical remission...  I had no family history of breast cancer, I had been recieving mammograms since I was 40 every year..  I had a biopsy in 95 which was benign so when the same situation came up in 00 I opted not to worry about a suspicious place that did show up on the mammogram..well in 01 my yearly mammogram was delayed a few months and then when I was finally able to have it done the place in my left breast where I had been feeling some discomfort was actually an invasive br. cancer.. they say there is no pain, but for me there was, but as I have understood that there is suppose to be no pain with cancerous lumps I would have just ignored the pain if I hadnt by chance been due for that mammogram in 01..  I went through the whole bit that year.. chemo, radiation..and had gone 6 years without a recurrence in that breast or axilary lymph chain.. last spring of 07 I had to have surgery on left arm..I had a prescreen xray of lungs which showed up the lung nodule which turned out to be breast cancer mets to several lymph nodes in sternum and in lungs..  I have been treated and for now I am out of the woods..and in remission..  point to my story I guess is, I think that at times cancerous lumps can be a little painful...at least it was that way for me...so it is worth getting this stuff biopsied to make sure of what is really there....  I had an oncologist that told me that the only real way of knowing if its cancer for sure is to biopsy...  if they I hadnt had the biopsy last fall its not sure if they would know even now that I actually had breast cancer mets because it didnt follow all of the usual patterns to return as mets without showing up in the other obvvious places first.. this stuff went straight to my lungs..it was SNEAKY...to say the least!  So if you are concerned about an area, keep letting your dr.s know how concerned you are no matter what they say and do your best to make sure instead of wondering... 

My best to you, and again, very sorry to hear about your Mom...every time I hear someone loose their fight to breast cancer now, it hits home for me really hard... because I know that I too will face that eventually since I am already in the 1Vth stage of the disease inspite of being in remission.. I know it may be short lived..although I know I must try not to think that way..

Jodie

I was in your same situation.  They decided to send me to Boston for an MRI assisted biopsy to have clips put in, one in each breast as I had something they were watching in each.  They could not biopsy the area because they had no guidance as to how to get to the spots, which is why they opted for the clips.  Once those were in, they surgically went in, removed the clips and the areas around.  I was Diagnosed DCIS. With my history, I opted for a bilateral mastectomy.  I'm 8 months out and it has been very challenging but I have no regrets.  I'm 46.

I also had to wait periods of 6 month spans.  Don't wait and don't listen to your gyno.......you don't want to wait to feel something!  Insist on proceeding further!  It's your body, take charge and don't be intimidated by anyone as they don't live your fear on a daily basis. 

Good luck!!!