backfromthebrink
26-03-13, 12:23
Does anyone else experience armpit pain, or a pain which is hard to locate or identify and makes you question whether you're imagining it?!
I went to my GP with some breast pain in my right breast. He said he was 99% sure it wasn't anything to worry about, but he would refer me to the breast clinic 'to take a quick look' because it was only in one breast. During that exam, he pressed on my underarm area - just once, and half-heartedly - but it was enough to remind me of lymph nodes and the possibility of there being something there, as well.
I then had a HORRIBLE 2 week wait, during which I was SO anxious. A couple of days after seeing my GP, I began to think I could occasionally feel a twinge in my underarm area. I told myself it was probably the breast pain, radiating out to the underarm area as I'd read could happen. I was more focussed on the breast pain at this point.
At the breast clinic, they examined all my lymph nodes under arms & in collar bone. The doctor was happy with everything except he felt a 'slight thickening' on the outer side of that right breast. He didn't seem too concerned but wanted to be sure. I'm 34 and they don't send you for a mammogram here unless you're 35+, because young women have dense breast tissue which can obscure the results. (I was quite pleased about this at the time, because I didn't want the pain of a mammogram anyway - never had one and read some horror stories!).
So I got sent for an ultrasound on it, and during that ultrasound they did a thorough ultrasound of my armpit as well (probably spent about equal about of time on armpit and breast). They said it was all normal and I got sent home with a leaflet on cyclical breast pain and they told me to take Evening Primrose oil to see if that helps. (I pointed out it wasn't just happening before my period, but they said cyclical breast pain can happen at any point in the cycle, and can be affected by changing hormone levels over the cycle.)
Since that experience, I've felt much better about the breast pain - which has largely gone. I think I'd been making it sore by poking and examining it.
However the underarm pain has just gone on bugging me. It is not always in the same place and it is not constant - often I'm not aware of it at all. Then I will reach for something and feel a slight twinge deep in the armpit - this can be either the front 'pit hole' or the back one. When I'm in the gym running on the treadmill, with each fall of my right foot (same side), I feel a slight tingling in my upper arm - feels like a nerve pain - it sort of shoots up into my armpit from my upper arm. Sometimes it has seemed that the muscle behind my armpit is sore. This morning in the shower, I was washing myself and found a sore spot which was more on my side, beneath my armpit, I couldn't quite decide if it was in my breast or not - it was on the very edge of what I'd define as my breast!!
Generally it just feels like something's not right in that area, but it is really hard to identify what/where it is. When I get a twinge for moving in a particular way, I immediately repeat the movement to see if it will happen again - but it doesn't. So it's not even replicable. I can't see anything or feel any lumps. I can't go to the doctor and say 'when I do X, Y hurts'. Sometimes I wonder if the ultrasound itself didn't make my armpit feel weird, I mean it does send soundwaves through you, could that leave you feeling a bit tingly and weird??
I feel like I'm going crazy. It has now been about a month since my appt at the breast clinic - 6 wks since I first began to be aware of something.
If I go back to my GP, he could refer me back to the breast clinic - but those tests didn't find anything a month ago and probably won't now. The only other test I could have would be an MRI scan, but the waiting list for a non-urgent MRI is about 6-12 months on the NHS. I don't want to have a CT scan on my underarm/breast, because they are high in radiation. :unsure: From what I can fathom online, if it's not related to the lymph nodes, then it's highly likely not to be anything to worry about.
So at the moment, I'm just trying my best to forget about it and get on with my life. But this is soooooo difficult.
I went to my GP with some breast pain in my right breast. He said he was 99% sure it wasn't anything to worry about, but he would refer me to the breast clinic 'to take a quick look' because it was only in one breast. During that exam, he pressed on my underarm area - just once, and half-heartedly - but it was enough to remind me of lymph nodes and the possibility of there being something there, as well.
I then had a HORRIBLE 2 week wait, during which I was SO anxious. A couple of days after seeing my GP, I began to think I could occasionally feel a twinge in my underarm area. I told myself it was probably the breast pain, radiating out to the underarm area as I'd read could happen. I was more focussed on the breast pain at this point.
At the breast clinic, they examined all my lymph nodes under arms & in collar bone. The doctor was happy with everything except he felt a 'slight thickening' on the outer side of that right breast. He didn't seem too concerned but wanted to be sure. I'm 34 and they don't send you for a mammogram here unless you're 35+, because young women have dense breast tissue which can obscure the results. (I was quite pleased about this at the time, because I didn't want the pain of a mammogram anyway - never had one and read some horror stories!).
So I got sent for an ultrasound on it, and during that ultrasound they did a thorough ultrasound of my armpit as well (probably spent about equal about of time on armpit and breast). They said it was all normal and I got sent home with a leaflet on cyclical breast pain and they told me to take Evening Primrose oil to see if that helps. (I pointed out it wasn't just happening before my period, but they said cyclical breast pain can happen at any point in the cycle, and can be affected by changing hormone levels over the cycle.)
Since that experience, I've felt much better about the breast pain - which has largely gone. I think I'd been making it sore by poking and examining it.
However the underarm pain has just gone on bugging me. It is not always in the same place and it is not constant - often I'm not aware of it at all. Then I will reach for something and feel a slight twinge deep in the armpit - this can be either the front 'pit hole' or the back one. When I'm in the gym running on the treadmill, with each fall of my right foot (same side), I feel a slight tingling in my upper arm - feels like a nerve pain - it sort of shoots up into my armpit from my upper arm. Sometimes it has seemed that the muscle behind my armpit is sore. This morning in the shower, I was washing myself and found a sore spot which was more on my side, beneath my armpit, I couldn't quite decide if it was in my breast or not - it was on the very edge of what I'd define as my breast!!
Generally it just feels like something's not right in that area, but it is really hard to identify what/where it is. When I get a twinge for moving in a particular way, I immediately repeat the movement to see if it will happen again - but it doesn't. So it's not even replicable. I can't see anything or feel any lumps. I can't go to the doctor and say 'when I do X, Y hurts'. Sometimes I wonder if the ultrasound itself didn't make my armpit feel weird, I mean it does send soundwaves through you, could that leave you feeling a bit tingly and weird??
I feel like I'm going crazy. It has now been about a month since my appt at the breast clinic - 6 wks since I first began to be aware of something.
If I go back to my GP, he could refer me back to the breast clinic - but those tests didn't find anything a month ago and probably won't now. The only other test I could have would be an MRI scan, but the waiting list for a non-urgent MRI is about 6-12 months on the NHS. I don't want to have a CT scan on my underarm/breast, because they are high in radiation. :unsure: From what I can fathom online, if it's not related to the lymph nodes, then it's highly likely not to be anything to worry about.
So at the moment, I'm just trying my best to forget about it and get on with my life. But this is soooooo difficult.