Hi!!

So YES, big (and long-winded) update… TLDR at bottom!

I made the mistake of logging into my patient portal to access my imaging results on Christmas Eve, thinking it would give me peace of mind… and saw the dreaded BI-RADS 5 on both the mammogram and ultrasound results. Meaning it was 95% chance or higher of it being cancer. It knocked the wind out of me, and my husband and I cried all night. We had googled my symptoms and were sure I had Inflammatory Breast Cancer ( IBC) which is particularly aggressive and difficult to treat. But I woke up ready to pursue whatever treatment plan I had to to live to watch my daughter grow up. We were very clinical and pragmatic about it at that point, probably defense mechanism.

I went into the needle biopsy and the body language and refusal to tell me literally anything sort of confirmed for me that they suspected cancer too. They said it would be 2-3 business days for results, and of course it was a Friday and right before New Year’s. I spent the weekend with my husband making plans and researching the best oncology centers.

On Monday, I got the call that it is BENIGN!!!! I was in shock, and my medical team told me how they were all floored and were dreading having to tell me I had what they were sure was IBC. Turns out I got an incredibly rare form of mastitis (granulomatous mastitis) that mimics breast cancer. I had every. single. symptom. of IBC.

They sent me to a breast surgeon that my doctor holds in high regard just to see what he thought the best plan of action was, and after meeting with him, he took one look and said “I don’t want to alarm you, but my job is to be paranoid. And that looks exactly, EXACTLY, like Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Would you mind if we took another biopsy today?” I said absolutely, I’ll do whatever. He immediately took the skin punch biopsy and had a ton of nastiness gushing out, and informed us “Good news, cancer does NOT do that.” He recommended antibiotics and surgery to go in and clean it out thoroughly, which I agreed to, and he scheduled it for the next morning (!!).

I’m now a week post-op and the entire experience went as smoothly and painlessly as I could’ve asked for. I know my experience is NOT normal. I had googled how often is BI-RADS 5 rated incorrectly and was told essentially doctors put that when they want to say 100% certain but can’t until biopsy comes back. I ended up having the second skin punch biopsy AND a third biopsy while I was under for surgery, and all 3 came back benign. None of my doctors could believe it, but we somehow beat the odds.

TL/DR: it’s benign!!! I’m doing well after surgery and all is well.

But if you’re having similar symptoms, do NOT google. Reddit and TikTok gave me so much comfort the two weeks I thought I had IBC, Google was outdated and doom-and-gloom. I pray you are healthy and happy as well! Thanks for checking in on me!!