My sister has a lump in her armpit??

cmitchell

My sister had a lump checked out that is in her armpit. It is the size of a marble, it is not painful, and is immovable. The Dr. said that it is in her lymph node and that she needed to have a mamogram and ultrasound done on it. She is scheduled for those procedures to be done next week. In the meantime, I am worried that this could be cancer. Does anyone have any insight as to whether or not this may be a cancerous tumor? Thanks....

Future

From personal experience, it's hard to tell if cancer or not. Glad her doctor is aggressive enough to do further evaluation. Does she have anyone who can go with her when she gets the procedures done? Many places will tell you the results right away and good or bad it's already good to have someone with you. Please let us know how it goes.

JUSTAWORD

Althought I am not a doctor i do know that when their is any type of infection between your neck and upper chest these lymph nodes usually swell up. if you had a infection lower bottom portion of your body the nodes by where your upper thigh and torso meet, just like the nodes in your throat area when you have a infection eyes, ears, nose and throat. only the doctor can say. I will pray for you and your sister. Keep your fingers crossed.

Susan956

Try not to worry to much before you get the tests done. They should be able to give the Doctor a good idea if there is a problem or not. Try to get your sister to be assertive and attempt not to leave the facility until they give her results. Normally if you are assertive you are more likely to get the results immediately rather than having spend yet another number of sleepless nights. We will all hope and pray that this is nothing... Also... it would be great if she could take someone with her. I know that when I heard the C word... it got very hard to hear the other things that the Doctor was trying to tell me....

But we will have high hopes and prayers that your sister will not have to hear those words...

Take care... God Bless...

Susan

cmitchell

Susan956 said:

Try not to worry to much before you get the tests done. They should be able to give the Doctor a good idea if there is a problem or not. Try to get your sister to be assertive and attempt not to leave the facility until they give her results. Normally if you are assertive you are more likely to get the results immediately rather than having spend yet another number of sleepless nights. We will all hope and pray that this is nothing... Also... it would be great if she could take someone with her. I know that when I heard the C word... it got very hard to hear the other things that the Doctor was trying to tell me....

But we will have high hopes and prayers that your sister will not have to hear those words...

Take care... God Bless...

Susan

Thank you so much for all of your replies to my message. We are trying not to worry about it, but it hasn't been that easy. I am trying to stay positive and am encouraging her to do the same. Her Dr. appt is Monday morning, I have tried to talk her into letting my mom go with her, but she says "no, I'll be fine". So I hope that mom can convince her that she wants to be there for her. My sister is 37 yrs old, a single mom, just recently divorced and has twins that are sophomores in high school. I don't know what would happen if this turns out to be bad....I will let you all know after we find out the results next week. Thanks again for your encouraging words

Christi

KathiM

Oh, my dear, sorry I was late on responding. I was battling a back pain problem (NOT the beast..just old age stupid...lol).
I saw my rad/onc yesterday, and his nurse said something I will remember for a long time...
"It seems that in times of stress, the body reacts swiftly, sending messages that you need to settle down". It sounds like your sis has been thru alot...how about taking her for a "girl's day out", if you can swing it. And the teens can be a challenge in themselves, but they should be told to help their mom, if they don't already! I FIRMLY believe that my stress let the beast get a foothold...that will NEVER happen AGAIN!

Hugs, Kathi

24242

cmitchell said:

Thank you so much for all of your replies to my message. We are trying not to worry about it, but it hasn't been that easy. I am trying to stay positive and am encouraging her to do the same. Her Dr. appt is Monday morning, I have tried to talk her into letting my mom go with her, but she says "no, I'll be fine". So I hope that mom can convince her that she wants to be there for her. My sister is 37 yrs old, a single mom, just recently divorced and has twins that are sophomores in high school. I don't know what would happen if this turns out to be bad....I will let you all know after we find out the results next week. Thanks again for your encouraging words

Christi

Christi,
I am sorry your sister has had to go through so much since waiting and wondering seem to be the hardest of days.
I was 36 at the time of my diagnosis and was the single mother of an angry teen at the time. The blessing was in my case that it was cancer and I was finally home taking care of this child of mine something that shift work and hard labour left to a babysitter most of his life. There are simple blessings even with such a crisis.
I was dx'd with stage 3 IDC breast cancer with 11 out of 21 positive nodes. In my case the lump in my armpit grew to the size of a golf ball in just one week and it was painful and pressing on all sorts of nerves. I had found that lump and the original lump when they were both the size of a pea. The original lump never changed until a biopsy was done. As it turned out the fibrous cyst diagnosis I got on first lump was wrong and my cancer was left to spread. I was far too young, far to healthy, and too well built to have cancer they would say even though my paternal grandmother died from bone after breast in less than ten years of her initial fight.
They say cancer is not painful but in my case has caused me nothing but pain all my lumps were very painful, reason why I had found them.
Is your sister extremely tired, this was one symptom I could not deny for years. I am writing to let you and your sister know that a diagnosis of cancer is not the end of the world anymore. I have been surviving for 10 years in March of 2007. Our children need us and is often the very thing we need to make things completely clear in our minds when it comes to health and happiness. Your sister is very fortunate to have you by her side to help her walk through all she has to.
I will keep you close at heart,
Tara