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General health

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Original poster

What is the urgency with getting a breast lump looked at?

11 replies

ChutesTooNarrow · 10/08/2014 13:01

I know that breast lumps need to be looked at but I am wondering how quickly you should do so. On Friday I noticed a hard lump in my breast, I'm breastfeeding so just thought it was a blocked duct and made an effort to feed from that side lots. Yesterday I had a proper feel and it doesn't feel like the lumps I have had before. Normally I get the fluey mastitis feeling before I find a lump and sort it out really quickly with feeding, expressing and hot baths. I have no mastitis symptons. The lump is hard and immovable, and feeding and bath not shifting it. I am supposing it may be a cyst?

What do I do? Leave it and monitor for a few days? Or go to gp, if so do I get an urgent appointment tomorrow, or do I wait 2/3 weeks for routine appointment?

OP posts:

LEMmingaround · 10/08/2014 13:06

Go tomorrow. Why wait and worry. Its probably a blocked duct but its best to check. You will have to wait 2 weeks to be seen at breast clinic so you may as well go now. Your dr might say wait and see but that's fine.

insancerre · 10/08/2014 13:10

When I had a lump I got a same day appointment at the gp
The gp referred me and the nurse from the hospital phoned me the same day and I was at the hospital the next day
I had a needle biopsy and a mammogram and the all clear a few weeks later
If the NHS thinks I should have been seen that quiclly them that's good enough for me
Hopefully your lump will be benign bu t it is better to not wait

Original poster

ChutesTooNarrow · 10/08/2014 13:20

Right, I will get an appointment tomorrow. Thank you. I really wasn't sure and didn't want to piss off gp by wasting an appointment. I will have to take my children but I can bribe them into sitting quietly. You were seen really quickly insancerre, it's clearly taken seriously.

OP posts:

LEMmingaround · 10/08/2014 13:27

The protocol for breast lumps is to be seen within 2 weeks. Often cancellations are available and they offer short notice appointments. So yes its taken seriously but most breast lumps are benign.

hellymelly · 10/08/2014 13:33

I think the protocol is if there is any doubt in the GPs mind then 2 weeks, if he or she is pretty certain it is nothing sinister then 6 weeks, or so my GP told me. Anyway yes, get it seen right away. Then if it is nothing worrying you'll know quickly, and if it is then you get treated sooner.

insancerre · 10/08/2014 13:37

I was seen very quickly which surprised me as our go is a bit pants normally.
But he did say he thought it was just bleeding which it did turn out to be.

Original poster

ChutesTooNarrow · 10/08/2014 13:48

Thank you for the info, lem and helly. I was trying to google for that kind of information that was just the facts and procedure and it is hard! I don't want to really be googling as then my mind is going to do overtime in worrying.

OP posts:

hellymelly · 10/08/2014 14:52

I have had three trips to the consultant to be checked, a milk cyst, a fatty lump from a bash to my breast, and inflamed muscle in my chest. Each time I went private for the scan as I wanted to be seen as soon as possible. I am stressy about any health issue and even two weeks would have been a loooooooong wait. With the fatty lump my GP was sure it wasn't in my breast tissue and so couldn't fast track me, but i still wanted it checked just in case. It cost around £150 for a private scan, and saved me weeks of sleepless worry. I was seen within three or four days of my GP visit each time, so that is always an option if you can scrape the money together and you want to be seen really quickly. If you are happy waiting a week then your GP will most likely refer you to be seen within a fortnight anyway. Oh and my consultant said that most of the news he gives is good news. Most of the lumps he sees are not cancer.

Original poster

ChutesTooNarrow · 11/08/2014 11:57

You were all right, they did want to see me quickly and stuck me in a 9am slot (at 8.40 when two children and I were still to shower and get dressed ). My gp thinks it is a fibroid so I have a referral to be seen within two weeks. Now I just need to stop being utterly frantic at the thought of a needle biopsy, urgh.

OP posts:

ClockWatchingLady · 11/08/2014 12:47

Chutes, just wanted to say that in my experience needle biopsies are nowhere near as horrid as they sounds. I've had two and, despite my initial horror at the idea, they were absolutely fine. Pretty much painless.
Hope all goes well.

hellymelly · 11/08/2014 13:00

You might not need a biopsy, each time I have had an ultrasound and the results have been clear enough not to need one.

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