I am a 53-year-old, recently menopausal woman, who was diagnosed with cellulitis of the right breast four weeks ago. I took antibiotics for 20 days and all signs of infection had disappeared six or seven days before I finished the medicine. I was left with a hard lump, which does not move and does not hurt. Both ultrasounds I have had do not suggest cancer, neither does the diagnostic mammogram. The mammo report says further testing is required; however, my doctor, a breast surgeon, has decided to wait another month because she says hard tissue can remain after an infection, and she thinks that is what this is. Basically, that means if the lump is still there in another month, I will finally get a biopsy and should it show something, I will have wasted nine weeks of treatment time because my lump isn't usual. To doctors who may read this: Don't torture your patients. If a lump is present without infection, or as in my case, if there is no reason for the infection, do a biopsy right away for the peace of mind it can bring. The Internet is full of stories of women who were assured from a mammogram and an ultrasound that they were fine. Published: September 10 ::

I was diagnosed with breast cancer nine months after I was told I only had cysts. That hospital did not do a biopsy, only a mammogram and ultrasound. Nine months later I was referred by a different doctor to a different hospital that did lots of tests, a mammogram, an ultrasound, and a needle biopsy. I was told they found a total of seven tumors via the biopsy, and I would need to have my breast removed. I wonder if those seven tumors grew in the nine months that I was absent from that first hospital or if they were there previously but misdiagnosed as cysts. Published: September 10 ::