I don’t usually post personal events, but after Pat and I had a discussion, we decided to share this leg of our current journey with you. We have many reasons for it, but the primary one is in hopes that maybe it might help someone else someday.
As you know, we have traveled back to Nebraska for Thanksgiving and for a few dr appointments. I haven’t been specific about those dr appointments, and what they were all for. We had an appointment for Carson and Courtney’s well baby checkups and shots, and then Courtney has her one year swallow study this coming Monday, to see if she has stopped aspirating liquids and can go off of thickened liquids. Our hopes aren’t too high for her to pass, but that is a different post. I also had a some appointments scheduled today…
Back in the second week of September I noticed some blood in my bra on my left side. Thinking that was weird, I decided to find out where it was coming from and proceed to check my left nipple. Since it had been 7 months since I had nursed Courtney, and at least 6 since I completely dried up, I didn’t expect anything to happen when I tried to express anything. Well I was wrong, not only did I get milk out of three ducts, but blood came out of one duct. Bright red blood. Yeah, weird… So I watched it over the next week and it continued. Somewhere around day 5 I decided to leave it alone and not check anymore. Figuring I couldn’t be helping matters by squeezing it. I did call back home to my dr in Omaha and ask her what she thought and her response was to make an appointment with my OB Gyn and get it looked at sooner than later. Well, I knew I had a lot coming up in October, and that there would be no way for me to make a quick trip to Omaha for a dr appointment, so I decided to get advice from Dr Google…
After two or three quick searches on bleeding from nipple, I felt fairly confident that I was fine to wait until we headed back to Omaha for Courtney’s appointments and Thanksgiving. The things I read all had me convinced that this was a benign fluke and that I didn’t need to worry about it. So for the month October I continued with life, traveling to Gabe’s Army BCT graduation, To Doha, Qatar for work and doing the Disney parks like usual. I went ahead and called my OB and made an appointment for my yearly and let them know about my Breast bleeding. They went ahead and scheduled me for a left side mammogram and ultra sound for the same day as my dr appointment.
Well those appointments were today, I had my mammogram at 10:30 this morning and my ultra sound immediately after. The mammogram showed nothing, but the ultrasound showed something and the radiologist recommended I meet with a breast surgeon to have the area biopsied. So the tech took me out front and made me an appointment for this coming Monday to meet with the surgeon. Pat and I took the babies and went to lunch after this appointment, and while we were driving, I of course consulted Dr Google, and was left with warm fuzzies. You see I hadn’t seen the report, I was going on what the tech said to me – “there is a dilated duct full of blood” – so I looked that up, and was convinced it was a cyst. No biggie, surgeon will drain it and all will be good.
After lunch we stopped at AT&T so Pat could upgrade to the iPhone 5 and then we headed on over to the Women’s Center for my appointment with my OB GYN. I asked her if she had gotten the report from the ultrasound that morning, and if she agreed with my seeing a surgeon. She said she had, and then opened it up, I of course asked for a copy it. She then said that yes she agreed with me seeing the surgeon. I asked her why, because I thought that the ultrasound showed that it wasn’t cancer. She then said no, that the ultrasound showed no such thing and that we would only know if it wasn’t cancer after I meet with the surgeon. So that surprised me. We finished our appointment and scheduled another test she wants done Monday as well, and I got my copy of the report and we left to drive back to Foster.
So here are the main findings – From the Report:
Ultrasound examination shows a focal dilated retroareolar duct. A definite intraductal mass was not detected, however, there are some debris within the duct.
And I again consulted with Dr Google, and found some interesting reading. One particular study was of interest, and then some random information from several spots. I am not sure how I feel right now about it all. I am pretty sure that what it is, it is going to just be a pain in my ass. I shouldn’t have waited two months to get it checked out. Regardless if it is benign or malignant. Even my dr said today, if there is blood coming out of your nipple, it needs to be checked out. It isn’t a wait and see symptom. It is NEVER normal for blood to be draining from your breast.
After we meet with the Surgeon on Monday, I will update with more information. Here is the link to a study I read today that was very interesting.
http://www.ajronline.org/content/194/2/378.full – – This link was the most interesting read out of everything I read today
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2549563
Update 11/27/12 – From Ta Ta’s to Wombs
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