a little scary...

MarcieB

Today I had a routine check-up with my radio-oncologist. She found a small nodule (word she used, for lack of better word), in my right breast. My cancer was in the left breast, but I had reduction surgery on the right in Nov. My breasts are very dense, but I was able to feel what she felt, and it seemed to be rather small, moveable, and smooth. She told me she honestly thinks it is a fat or fluid deposit that often happens after the kind of reduction surgery I had. I believe she is being honest with me. I have a family trip scheduled, with a lot of family company throughout the entire month of May so she wants to get me in for a mammogram before that happens so I will not worry during my vacation with my family. I am trying not to worry, but doggone it all!! Then, on the way home I realized women were being advised not to have a mammogram before at least 6 weeks following their covid vaccination. My 2nd dose was April 1 and I had it in my right arm. I think I need to contact her?

Teachertina

I would ask her, just to be on the safe side.

legaljen1969

Marcie. I would definitely let her know you’ve had your vaccine. I think the biggest thing with the vaccine and what shows up is maybe swollen lymph nodes. That said, you’re already almost a month out. But full disclosure is always best. I hope this turns out to be nothing.

ChicagoSandy

That's why even pre-pandemic I decided against an elective L breast reduction for symmetry (it's about 2 cup sizes larger than my R lumpectomied breast--and very droopy to boot). I'd been warned by my surgeon's first NP that among of the "souvenirs" from breast reduction or lift (mastipexy) can be granulation tissue and fat-necrosis blobs: harmless, but anxiety-producing--especially if imaging &/or biopay is required to rule out a contralateral recurrence.

I'm large-busted enough that wearing a supportive underwire bra can "even things out" if I'm clothed; and at worst I can just strategically pad the outer-underside of my R breast if I truly want to look symmetrical in a bra or swimsuit-top.

Another reason for me to leave "lefty" alone is that all things considered (pandemic, the hassles & pain of surgery & recovery, having had two radiotherapy-necessitated surgical procedures on my eye to slam the brakes on an ocular melanoma) at 70 I'm not about to go under the knife again unless it's to save/extend my life, relieve pain or disability, or correct/prevent disfigurement. (And I don't consider a lopsided but two-breasted bustline to be "disfigurement").

But that's just me: "your mileage may vary."

MarcieB

Interesting...I was advised to avoid underwire bras. I was only about two cup sizes larger, but even a sports bra could not *even me out.* I am a slender person, I seldom wear bulky clothes - the unevenness showed. I do not, for a minute regret my decision to have it done. I can even go braless now if I'm wearing fleece, and my clothes fit so much better. If this is, indeed, a contralateral recurrence, it would have happened whether I chose the surgery or not. If it is what my doctor suspects, it is inconvenient, but she got me in this week so we can rule it out before my vacation.

Bug

Personally, I would want to rule it out before my vacation. Please keep us posted. Good luck!

hscancer

Per my surgeon's NP, it's two weeks after a dose of vaccine that one has to avoid CT scans and mammograms due to swollen lymph nodes. Thus, you should be ok, but I would check.

legaljen1969

Marcie. I see no comments from anyone with a medical degree. It’s always best to check with a real doctor- not just someone who plays one on TV or stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. LOL

Best wishes friend!!

andreacha

Remember ladies ............. I just went thru a "false positive" with a node by my left armpit. Thankfully, it was indeed what the doctor had said was possible. A buildup of vaccine since I had both shots in my left arm. His group recommends mammos BEFORE shots if possible. Don't let it go though. Get it checked out.

Carool

Marcie, I’m glad you’ll be able to get your mammo before your vacation. As you know, breast doctors and oncologists can often tell by touch if something feels like cancer. So her reassurance is reassuring, and the mammo is a good idea.

In August I felt a lump in my right (non-cancer) breast. I had a mammo and ultrasound that showed nothing. Because I didn’t know what the lump was, I had an MRI. That, too, showed nothing. That same day, after the MRI, I saw the breast NP, who felt the lump. She did feel a lump and said it was normal breast tissue. Mine, too, was movable. Doctors can usually tell.

Please let us know.

Jayne

We are all pulling for you, Marcie and hoping for positive results!

MarcieB

Thank you all for your encouragement and well wishes! This morning I am feeling better about it, I am noticing all the details that were present when I had BC that are not happening to me now (like night sweats, for one). anyway, I am grateful that I should know for sure tomorrow afternoon, I will keep you all posted.

Carool

Marcie, it’s good that you’ll know so soon. Looking forward to hearing how you are.

TerriL

Best of luck Marcie!

fiddler

@MarcieB - Hiya ...

Well now, CDC doesn't know what the side effects are; it is asking US to notify THEM about any side effects. At my 1st shot the clinic handed me paperwork that included contact information for CDC.

Another version of the book "1984" ... hahaha

Ashera

Thinking of you Marcie!

ChicagoSandy

The VAERS database is for ALL vaccines, not just COVID. When I got my Shingrix shots I was advised (by the handout my pharmacy, who administered them, gave me) to report ALL effects—from mere injection-site reactions to inflammatory symptoms characteristic of immune response—to VAERS. So it’s not that “the CDC doesn’t know what the side effects are,” but that it DOES know and is compiling a database to research who and how many people experience what side effects. By going to VAERS and listing our side effects (more correctly, post-injection symptoms), we’re not telling them anything they don’t already know, just giving them an insight into how common particular post-injection experiences are. So please don’t diss the vaccines (nor the CDC, for that matter) on this basis! The last thing we need to do is fuel the anti-vaxxers!

legaljen1969

ChicagoSandy, I don't think anyone is fueling the anti-vaxxers. I didn't see anything that was dissing the vaccine. All I saw was some people sharing information that was shared with them when they got their vaccines OR information that has been widely publicized. Does the CDC know every single side-effect and how it manifests? For example, maybe a "headache" is a known side-effect, but for one person it may be a slightly annoying headache like when a person squints their eyes to not look at the sun. For another it might feel more akin to a terrible migraine. Maybe they would like to know if someone experiences something out of the ordinary.
Sure I believe they know most everything and are building a database, but I think maybe just maybe there are some side effects they don't know about yet.
With the Johnson and Johnson one dose- did they know about the blood clots before they released it, but just took a calculated risk? Or did they NOT know about that side effect, and then when they found out about it- they paused production and distribution? I am anxiously waiting to get the full story on that. I am sure you have the story and all of the history to share given your connections in the legal and medical communities.

ChicagoSandy

When a Phase 3 trial is completed, applications for EUAs are not submitted if there are serious side effects that occur in a statistically-significant proportion of trial participants who got the actual substance (vaccine, drug, device, etc.) being tested rather than placebo. None of the blood clots appeared during the trials, which involved many thousands of participants getting the actual vaccine. Therefore, any side effects appearing in the real world--after an EUA is granted and MILLIONS of doses have been administered, are not considered statistically-significant and moreover, could not have been predicted. The clots were SO rare (fewer than 1 per million and limited to a highly specific & narrowly restricted subset of patients--i.e., age & gender) that they should NOT have been cause to permanently stop administering the vaccine.

The problem is that the reports of the clots--which are not only rare but safely treatable without heparin--added fuel to the fire of vaccine skeptics. The fact that the data indicated the clots' extreme rarity, and that there is a specific safe & effective treatment for these atypical thrombocytopenic clots, was the reason (justified) for lifting the pause. Not just that, but there is still no causational link between the clots & the vaccine--just coincidence. These clots appear in the same proportion of the general population, regardless of vaccination.

Another thing to remember is that VAERS is for all intents & purposes "crowdsourced," sort of the "Waze" or "Wiki" of medical databases. It consists solely of reports submitted by individual members of the public who choose to submit them. It is not a database compiled or submitted by members of the medical or scientific community: it depends utterly on observations and subjective interpretations by patients of their own experiences, with the only connection between vaccine & adverse effects being the perception of the patients choosing to report them. Contemporaneous (similar to coincidental) does not mean correlated, and correlation is NOT causation.

Moreover, it is a fact in medical trials & retrospective surveys (and VAERS is the latter) that people tend to be much more conscious of every symptom they have after taking a particular vaccination or drug than they would normally have been had they not taken that vaccination or medication, and therefore tend to attribute those symptoms to the drug or vaccine because that sort of logic is human nature. And that goes double when they are told to be on the lookout for certain symptoms.

I'm not saying anyone here is a vaccine skeptic, but the media are hungry for news--whether factual or speculative, objective or subjective. They tend to treat the "lede" as the whole story per se--and these days most people's shortened attention spans (and sensitivity to sensationalism) lead them to jump to conclusions without exercising the intellectual curiosity and discernment to ascertain the facts, especially facts stated by those with the proper knowledge & training. People hear or read what they want to hear, and often reach conclusions that support their suspicions & biases without bothering to try and get the whole picture.

ChicagoSandy

And life is not foolproof--there are no guarantees that freak occurrences will not happen. There have been plane crashes--does that mean one should never fly lest their plane fall out of the sky and kill them? There have been instances of cars jumping sidewalks and mowing down pedestrians--does that mean one should stay off sidewalks lest they, too, get mowed down by a drunken driver jumping the curb? And almost exactly a couple of months ago, a friend of mine walked out his front door to his driveway, slipped on a patch of blsck ice, fell and fatally fractured his skull. Does that mean one should never leave home on a winter's day lest they meet the same awful demise? I think you know the answer.

Those atypical clots not only occurred about as often as the aforementioned freak accidents, they were fatal in only one case. By contrast, the odds of dying of multiple inflammatory blood clots after catching COVID due to not getting fully-vaccinated are exponentially higher than the chance of getting an atypical clot after receiving the J&J vaccine.

To put things into further perspective, I have ciliary body ocular melanoma--which is so rare that drug companies don't bother to run trials of medications for the metastatic form of it (there have been no advances in treatment since 1987)... yet it is STILL FOUR TIMES COMMONER than the aforementioned atypical blood clots.

MarcieB

ChicagoSandy, ocular melanoma is a pretty heavy duty diagnosis. What are you doing to treat it?

legaljen1969

Marcie, I was reading back through your response posts, and noted you said you didn't have night sweats with this like you did when you had breast cancer. How often did you have night sweats? I have had them a LOT lately and it's starting to worry me a little bit. I thought it was just a side-effect and result of my Arimidex and menopausal stuff. I hadn't given it much thought until you mentioned it. I definitely have a lot of "I've noticed..." things to discuss at my next appointment. Ugh.