Wife - Breast Pain, Inflamed Lymph Nodes and Biopsy

[LDHarv]

Hello all,

Been a while since I've been on NMP with my health anxiety, was a great outlet last time and some wonderful people on here really helped me. Now I am coming on here in the hope someone can help me understand some symptoms my wife has had and what happened today! So not my health anxiety but my health anxiety for some else.

We had two daughters and our youngest is about seven months now. She is being breastfed, as the eldest was. A few times my wife had pain in her breast, lumpy areas and engaged/inflamed lymph nodes. She had this with our eldest daughter, went to the Dr a few times and everything was fine. Even had an ultrasound (I think twice now) and both times, nothing bad was found. All good so far.

Recently, she started to feel pain in the side of her breast and went to the Doctor who checked her over and sent her off with a clean bill of health. She went back the other week, as she was still feeling some discomfort and pain and was referred to a brain breast clinic at the hospital today. We thought it could be something to do with the breastfeeding, maybe a blocked duct or something. Anyway at the clinic today, which we both thought would be a by the numbers appointment, they scanned her and said her lymph nodes were quite inflamed. They asked her how long they had been on and off inflamed for, my wife of course said a couple of years and they also asked her if they they had got any bigger. My wife said she wasn't sure, maybe a little bit.

The individual asking her these questions wasn't sure if she should take a biopsy or not - was apparently really not sure. My wife said it was fine, take it anyway as she'd rather be safe than sorry. They took the biopsy and then left.

My wife is 29 and has issues with her thyroids which she takes medication for.

Should we be worried at all or does this sound pretty fine? What could inflamed lymph nodes over that long period of time mean? How long do biopsy results take? Anyone had a similar story they could share?

Thanks for all the responses and help in advance!

[Carys]

Hiyer,

I'm sorry to hear you have these worries, and I know where you mind is going on this. I have a few questions - when they did the scan the other week, was it only the lymph nodes that they highlighted as a problem, was there anything at all they noted in the breast itself ? Was your wife given a manual examination by a consultant, and if so what were their thoughts ? Has your wife been given any antibiotic treatment during these two breast feeding times ? I will try to answer your question as best I can at the end of your post -

Firstly your wife is 29, that would be a very young age and rare to be something sinister causing the lymph nodes to be inflammed. Its not of course unheard of for breast cancer forms to happen in women of this age, but for it to have been there for a couple of years and the only sign be inflammed nodes would be highly irregular. The fact that the radiographer 'didn't know if to biopsy the nodes or not' is a good sign also, as usually if there is any amount of doubt they will go ahead and biopsy. I am also glad that your wife elected to have a biopsy, as this is the only certain way to know if the nodes contain any unsual cells. What is also good to know is that there have been various checks done over the last couple of years, including last week, all of which have not thrown up anything obviously dubious. The vast majority of referrals to the breast clinic, particularly at your wife's age, are for benign reasons which are too numerous to list here. It is possible that there is a latent infection or some other breast change like the blocked duct you mention, brought about in the last couple of years that arises periodically. Biopsy results can take different times depending on how busy the department is and if they have any backlog of work, it can range from a couple of days to two weeks (from my observations) in breast biopsy cases. Its a horrible wait and can make the most hardened of non-HA person jittery, so hang on in there on that front! There are certainly lots of people on here over the last few years who have had biopsies and breast concerns, but every case is of course highly individual and symptoms are so variable that it is kind of wrong to make comparisons. I will say though, that my assertion that 'the vast majority of breast clinic referrals are for benign reasons' is borne out by the results people have had on this forum. I do think that your wife's vigilance is right though, and she has done the right thing to get referral, as although Breast tissue does change throughout a woman's life one need always be aware to raise changes that don't feel 'normal' to a GP.

Should you be worried ? Not at this point, no, as there seems to be no evidence from any medical professional to say that you should be. I will wait for your reply about the questions and then happy to write some more. If you have more indepth queries, either you or your wife, you can visit www.breastcancercare.org (it is for people who have benign conditions, breast cancers, and are undiagnosed with anything but just concerned). There is an 'ask the nurses' section on the forums that might interest you, and a helpline number.

[LDHarv]

Hiyer,

I'm sorry to hear you have these worries, and I know where you mind is going on this. I have a few questions - when they did the scan the other week, was it only the lymph nodes that they highlighted as a problem, was there anything at all they noted in the breast itself ? Was your wife given a manual examination by a consultant, and if so what were their thoughts ? Has your wife been given any antibiotic treatment during these two breast feeding times ? I will try to answer your question as best I can at the end of your post -

Firstly your wife is 29, that would be a very young age and rare to be something sinister causing the lymph nodes to be inflammed. Its not of course unheard of for breast cancer forms to happen in women of this age, but for it to have been there for a couple of years and the only sign be inflammed nodes would be highly irregular. The fact that the radiographer 'didn't know if to biopsy the nodes or not' is a good sign also, as usually if there is any amount of doubt they will go ahead and biopsy. I am also glad that your wife elected to have a biopsy, as this is the only certain way to know if the nodes contain any unsual cells. What is also good to know is that there have been various checks done over the last couple of years, including last week, all of which have not thrown up anything obviously dubious. The vast majority of referrals to the breast clinic, particularly at your wife's age, are for benign reasons which are too numerous to list here. It is possible that there is a latent infection or some other breast change like the blocked duct you mention, brought about in the last couple of years that arises periodically. Biopsy results can take different times depending on how busy the department is and if they have any backlog of work, it can range from a couple of days to two weeks (from my observations) in breast biopsy cases. Its a horrible wait and can make the most hardened of non-HA person jittery, so hang on in there on that front! There are certainly lots of people on here over the last few years who have had biopsies and breast concerns, but every case is of course highly individual and symptoms are so variable that it is kind of wrong to make comparisons. I will say though, that my assertion that 'the vast majority of breast clinic referrals are for benign reasons' is borne out by the results people have had on this forum. I do think that your wife's vigilance is right though, and she has done the right thing to get referral, as although Breast tissue does change throughout a woman's life one need always be aware to raise changes that don't feel 'normal' to a GP.

Should you be worried ? Not at this point, no, as there seems to be no evidence from any medical professional to say that you should be. I will wait for your reply about the questions and then happy to write some more. If you have more indepth queries, either you or your wife, you can visit www.breastcancercare.org (it is for people who have benign conditions, breast cancers, and are undiagnosed with anything but just concerned). There is an 'ask the nurses' section on the forums that might interest you, and a helpline number.

Hello Carys,

Thank you taking the time to reply and I know you are great member of this forum so really appreciate it.

Sorry, I should clarify. The scan was today - and as far as I know, only quite inflamed lymph nodes were mentioned to my wife (this is what she told me on the phone). They didn't mention anything, again as far as I know (I can ask her more tonight), other than the quite inflamed lymph nodes. She has been given a manual examination a number of times, last time I know of was at the GP's the other week. Think it might have happened today as well, what with it being a breast pain clinic. She said the lymph nodes are tender to touch. No antibiotic treatment given and my youngest has been feeding fine.

Thank you for all of the comments, advice and thoughts. All very welcome and I feel much more informed (though of course appreciate any further thoughts). Used to worrying about myself with my HA, not my wife! Thanks again

[Carys]

Hi Again,

You are most welcome to my thoughts, but just to reiterate I really have no medical background. Well, there are a number of positives to take from the situation. As I said earlier, the fact that despite various manual exams and an ultrasound today ?(not mammogram?) nothing has been noted to either be causing the pain, or accounting for the inflammed nodes. Also, the fact that they 'weren't sure if to biopsy' is positive and the fact that your wife has experienced something similar in the past whilst feeding your other child.

Of course it doesn't mean that the nodes should be inflammed, and I would suggest that if this biopsy comes back 'fine' then you should still be pushing for some further investigation into the causes of the pain and inflammation. If node inflammation, which is painful and obvious, has been there for a significant time and (possibly on and off going back two years) then for the nodes to be inflammed from BC would indicate a later stage disease, and your wife would surely be having many more obvious symptoms and the scans and manuals would be picking them up. I suspect the biopsy is 'just to make absolutely absolutely 100 percent sure' there is nothing dubious in the lymph nodes, as they don't like seeing those much. There can of course be issues hidden within tissue that can't be easily seen or felt, and I don't say this to scare you, but need to say that just because in this instance nothing was seen doesn't mean there isn't a cause - there clearly must be a cause. However, 'sinsister reasons' aside a soft tissue problem like mastitis or an abcess, or lymphoma etc (and there are a number of lactation breast issues possible) can sometimes present a problem to view in cases of dense breast tissue or in those lactating.It is worth checking with your wife whether the whole breast was scanned with either ultrasound or she had a mammogram only, or a combination of the two. In this instance I think asking for an alternative set of images/different view/different scanning mechanism would be in order. I would be interested to hear more about the conversation your wife had with the consultant, you know, sometimes oddities just happen and I've seen people before in and out of clinics with uuuming and ahhing before a final call is made on the cause. I am surprised an anti-biotic course hasn't been given by the GP, as the signs of possible infection might be the first thing to deal with - but then I'm not a GP and what do I know. lol

I think my advice is, at this stage, to stay as calm and collected as you can for your wife and presume that there isn't significant concern from the medical professionals (as that is how it sounds from the phone conversation you had). Biopsy results come in the form of a letter, both to the patient and the GP at the same time. Your wife 'may' have been given a contact number to call if she's heard nothing by a certain date, but I think I would certainly be asking my GP in a week if I'd heard nothing. (Just to keep them on their toes lol)

Happy to help if I can....