Hi cj 

welcome I'm sorry to hear your worries I don't think anyone here could advise on that only the breast clinic as they specialise in this , I no it's a worry but try not to as it could be nothing to do with breast cancer it could be lots of things we can't help to google and it don't help .

you May wait a few weeks for a appointment about 2 I think but the breast clinic will be so helpful. Unless of course you paid private and go to a one stop clinic who can see you sooner that's what I did as the wait would have killed me for me I turned out the dreaded but I didn't have any rash I hope you will be ok please don't worry to much it could be nothing my lovely x 

love Lara ️

Hi Lara,

thank you so much for your kind response. 
your are very right in what you say. Apparently IBC only counts of 1-5% of all breast cancers and is very rare so there's a 95% chance it's something else but our brains just run away with us don't they and Google never wants to give alternatives only bad news. 

I am staying off google from now on as I wasn't worried until Dr Google diagnosed me. I will await breast clinic appointment and hopefully put a response on here for anyone with similar signs or symptoms.

Lara I was just reading through your posts, I hope your treatment is going as well as can be and I am sending you the biggest virtual hug ever.

Cj ♥️

Cj 

thank you so much 

I really hope all goes well for you and would be lovely for you to report back as not many do report good stories and I'm sure yours will be all ok and others after can see that we all worry and it usually turns out ok it's dr Google that sends us away with the dark cloud , chin up lovely go about your days the same 

big hugs to you too love Lara ️

Said it a million times on here, but Google is not a diagnostic tool. Google search uses algorithms and is driven by money generating ads. Because of this, cancer pretty much dominates all medical searches, because that's what people seek out.

Seriously, type in daily headaches, and BOOM, you have a brain tumour. Type in unexplained leg bruise, and BOOM, you now have blood cancer and so on and on.

Google will only tell you the popular answers, and will only tell you what you may have. It will not and can not tell you what you don't have. It can't differentiate between a group of symptoms, either. Type in breast cancer and back pain, now you have stage 4 BC. It will never tell you that back issue is just that, a pulled muscle or mechanical pain. It won't do that because you have lumped conditions together. So it seeks out a one size fits all answer.

Google is a great tool for when you know what you are dealing with. It can provide you with a wealth of information, it can put you in touch with others going through similar conditions as yourself. But again, it is far and away the worst diagnostic tool out there. Yet a huge number of people treat it as such.

The reason for saying all this, more people come on this channel/part of the forum thinking they have cancer than actual people with cancer. You never hear from them again because all is fine. The odds are heavily stacked in your favour that it is nothing. You said it yourself, 95% chance it's nothing. I'd rather have a 95% chance it was nothing than a 5% chance it was nothing. Even then, the odds are probably higher for it being nothing. You did the correct thing and seen a gp. It's all you can do at the moment. No amount of google searching will calm you. It will stress you out though. Probably needless.

Hi Profbaw,

thank you for your response and reassuring words. Sometimes we need level headed comments like these to take a step back from the internet. 

Could not agree more with what you said. I put in Google about the red mark and shoulder pain and as you said, it's metastatic cancer apparently (when will I learn)

I am going to await my appointment and forget that search engine exist for the foreseable

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. 

Hi KT,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and share your current situation with me, it really makes me feel that I'm not alone in this. Soo sorry to hear you are going through the same thing.

Google really is our enemy in times like these. I really don't think we mean to search for bad answers, we actually look for reassurance that it's something else but it leaves us feeling like we wished we had never looked! when I first had a look I literally just put red mark on breast thinking it would come up with some results relating to dermatology issues rather than cancer but I never got anything derma related. I've made an agreement with myself to stay off Google and leave it down to the breast clinic.

I don't know about you but I am constantly looking at the area for any changes and constantly touching it and prodding it, having a feel. My doctor said this can cause pain in itself because the breast tissue is very sensitive and the muscles in between the ribs can get sore just touching them all the time. We also have lots of lymph nodes in our breast which can get tender if we touch them a lot and this can cause referred pain in our backs and shoulders. Stress also makes us have this kind of pain too so let's hope a lot of how we are feeling is just stress related pain. We are hyper focused on that area too which definitely makes the pain feel more severe in the breast. My pain is similar to when you have a sore lymph node in the neck, you know slightly throbbing and tender, I just know it's there. 
 

We have a higher chance of its being something other than IBC but until we know for certain, we are bound to worry and look for some answers ourselves. I was reading a study about IBC. there were 80 women like me and you that presented with a red mark and tender breast, only two of the women had IBC once seen at the breast clinic, the other 78 had a variety of issues such as milk ducts being blocked, cysts or abscesses and various types of mastitis (some infection and some non-infectious), there were other causes too but I can't remember the names, all of them could be treated anyway and not related to cancer. I will be honest, this has been the only thing to give me slight reassurance as I couldn't find this information just by searching google.

I really have my fingers crossed for both of us. It's difficult waiting but the best thing about going to the breast clinic will be that we should at least have some form of an answer on the day of our appointments. They should do the scans there and we will have our minds put at ease. I went about a lump a few years ago and couldn't believe how quickly I was seen and reassured. If you were referred last week you should have an appointment for anytime between now and next Thursday, it's always a two-week wait appointment. 

Please keep in touch and let me know how you get on. Always feel free to pop on here and or send me a message and I will let you know how I get on too. I think we need to try and breath, relax and stay off google for now. Let's stay hopeful, we've got this!!

Take care, CJ xxx

When my wife was diagnosed with BC or just before she was, anyway, I had been nagging her to see a gp because she had had a horrid cough for months prior, and for around 2 weeks prior to her finding her lump, she was half crippled with her back (she was moving around like she was 50 going on 90). So when the diagnosis happened and before her scans, I was worried it had gone to her lungs because of that cough. No, in fact, I was convinced. Nothing could tell me otherwise. Little did i know, she went down the same rabbit hole as yourself and had convinced herself it had spread to her spine after reading google. Hence, the back pain.

Once all the scans were back, her cough was allergies, her back pain was a pulled muscle. Weirdly, that resolved the day after we got her staging via the scans.

As i mentioned in my first post, if you put all that through google before you know anything. It's goodbye. You have yourself dead and buried before you know a single thing factually.

I'm simply stating all this through bitter experience because i know googling stuff only compounds that stress more than it needs to be. It's natural to worry, we all do it, but google will only pile more needless stress upon an already stressful situation. These forums are littered with similar outcomes. You will never ever find that "No, your problem isn't cancer" magic bullet on google. Only the doctors can tell you that from testing. When you're stressed, you tense up, when you're tense your muscle are more prone to injuries, even doing small things risks pulling muscles.

Thanks for your reply CJ and yes I agree with all you have said I try not to keep checking it only when I'm getting changed into other clothes I will have a quick look it's difficult not too !! 
This morning I have had a call to attend the hospital this Saturday so not too long to wait. I've never been before so did wonder what I would find out on the day of the appointment?! 
I think for me, I just want some answers obviously I'm hoping that cancer is eliminated Saturday and if it is my GP doesn't just leave me to get on with it !! 
Fed up of being a 42 year old who was full of so much energy, being really fit (I'm a personal trainer) to now being so fatigued after a full nights sleep !! It's frustrating if anything not being able to do what i want to do and use to be able to do easily. 
Hopefully Saturday I'll get some answers, keep in touch with what is happening with you. 

KT xxx 

Trini 

i wish you good luck for Saturday 

love Lara ️