A month ago the roommate was exercising in the living room. As I went to walk past him, he had extended his arm, and 100% accidentally hit me square in the boob. So hard it felt as though he hit the breast bone.
Upon dropping everything, I cried. Of course. He felt horrible. It's one thing to flick my boob as I walk by, but he didn't see me coming, and ended up sore for a few minutes.
A week or so later, I had an itchy nipple. Only to discover a greyish/green discharge weeping from my nipple. ummmm, ya, of course I freaked out. Googled the crap out of that! As it turns out, if you're leaking any discharge from your nipples (hey men, this includes you too!), you're to see the doctor.
A diagnosis of a infected duct ectasia, a weeks worth of a very high dose of a penicillin, well rounded enough to treat a wide range of different infections, a diagnostic mammography & ultrasound was scheduled, I was set, and on my way. Everything seemed apparently fine until two weeks after I finished the meds, my nipple started weeping again. Still green. :( Thankfully my follow up appointment was only a few days away.
Nothing much exciting happens at the follow-up, aside from the GP making note of things. He suggested that the duct is most likely going to be removed. When these things happen, they'll just continue. I'm okay with that... until I googled how they remove it. ugh.
July 3rd. I had my mammography. The techs were awesome! We made each other laugh as she squished my boobs from different angles. I was told to sit in the waiting room for my ultrasound. La...la...la....laaa....
an hour later, it started becoming discouraging as I watched 5 women come and go completely. Finally I'm called.
Ultrasounds are nothing. Kind of cool to see the inside of your boob. She explained what were muscles, shadows etc. I'm there for a good 30 mins, thinking we're done, she mentions she just has to have the oncologist review the pictures before I leave, in case we have to take more etc... apparently my ducts are small and hard to find.She returns after what seems a good solid 10 minutes. She informs me they found something suspect in the mammogram.
I went for a infected duct, and found two cysts, and a lump. Great.
The tech of course couldn't tell me if they appeared to be solid or fluid etc. Surprised I couldn't feel the lump. I could see it on the screen, she had me press the area...nope. I've spend the last two days playing with my boob and I still can't find the damn thing! The oncologist is happy with the second set of pics they've taken, and I'm on my way. 2.5 hours later.
The tech wouldn't let me take any pictures, although said to talk to the girls up front, and I can get a copy of them. I'll have a copy of the pics, and report of findings, and recommendations. I'll have that, before my appointment with my GP on July 14th, 2014. When I find out when they'll remove the duct, and if I'll be having a biopsy of the cysts and lump. I'll post them here once I have them.
I'm not freaking out...yet. I've shared this infor with a few people. The women are great! The few men I've told, did not handle it well at all. Especially the roommate. He felt he caused this.
Spent some time explaining to him, this is all a blessing in disguise. I mean, had this not happened, I wouldn't have gone to the doctor. A mammogram wouldn't have been ordered. And we wouldn't have found the cyst or the lump. Should this turn out to be something unfortunate, who knows how long it would have sat there, undetected, doing whatever it is it may be doing...... for who knows how long? Blessing in disguise!!! I had a small cry after we ended our chat, just from the overwhelming concern, and of how much he does care.
The ex also didn't handle it well, letting out a big shouting "What!? Are you going to lose your boob?!!"
He had a tone of questions, which is great, however, all I could say is, "If this turns out to be something, I'll do what I have to do, to reduce the chances of anything spreading etc... worse case scenario".
While I sit here saying I'm not freaking out... I did manage to have a small "what if" moment. Took a deep breath, and just let it go. It's now Monday, and at the moment, I've read the crap out of the different biopsies. What to expect, will it hurt etc... That has me more freaked out at the moment.
That is it for now. I'll update you all more later. When I know, you'll know, and we'll go from there.
Everything is benign. Woot woot!
I got back in a month to the family doctor for the weeping nipple. If it's still weeping, we'll remove the duct.
I go back for a follow up ultrasound in 6 months, to measure if they've changed in size.
If they have, in any way, shape, or form, even 1mm, I'll have all 3 cysts, and 1 lump removed.
