I found a lump in my armpit on Thursday. I saw a doctor Friday morning & am currently waiting for my 2 week breast clinic referral. If you are still worried could you ask for a second opinion?

There are NICE guidelines on when you should be referred, maybe give that a Google & see if you feel they have been followed?

Hi, Thanks for your advice, I am glad you got a referral. I will try and get another opinion as the fact she wasn't sure what it was makes me think I shouldn't wait that long. At first she thought it was an enlarged lymph node but she said she wasn't sure. I am going for a full blood count test today and get the results tonight which indicates any inflammation in the body and I am hoping it comes back negative otherwise then it is more tests and she said a biopsy is the only way to know for sure what it is. 
Hope you are ok. Let me know how you get on.

Hi just to say, it could well be an enlarged lymph node, but these often enlarge for no good reason - in response to inflammation etc, as you say the blood test will give more clues about that. So it could just be a reactive node as they are called.

I think the Dr would have told you to wait because that's the protocol, unless the lump feels very hard or very large, in which case you might get a faster referral, but if it feels more like it's just reactive, they will usually say wait a few weeks and if it's still there, then they refer you.

Hope this helps a bit, try not to worry, I hope it does go down by itself x

Thanks AngieK. I just am wondering what the full blood count tells you is it specific do you think in diagnosing anything or an indicator of a need to have more tests? 
 

I think it may be a lymph node but it is fairly large and soft and doesn't hurt.

Hiya,

Soft is very good, that's often what a reactive node will feel like. I imagine that's why she has said wait and see what it does. The other possibility is that it's a lipoma, which is a benign fatty lump, though I can't obviously diagnose! They tend to be soft too.

Usually the sort of lumps GPs get worried about are the ones that feel harder. So I would not worry too much, if you can manage not to.

Bloods at this stage are likely just to show whether there's any inflammatory markers, so things like CRP and ESR and things like that. I can't remember what they stand for but anyway they show up in your blood if you are fighting an infection.

If it is a lipoma then they are very very common and can either be left where they are, or removed very simply if they are getting annoying or there's any suspicion they might be something weird.

Hopefully that's all it is.

Yes, I had the same - we thought mine was a lymph node, but it was much harder and it wasn't a node after all. The bloods were just a routine thing to do when you don't know what a lump might be, it just gives a bit of a clearer picture of things.

I think mine came back ordinary. If it shows infection - white cells raised, or the other things I mentioned - they will obviously try and work out what's caused that, but I think it's just a standard first-line investigation before they do ultrasound or anything like that.

Occasionally if someone has something else going on, you will get other things raised and they will go from there. But I wouldn't read anything into it at this stage.

ETA: I still don't know what my lump is, having had all that in September last year, but no one seems very worried about it! Most lumps are benign, even the hard ones.

Thanks AngieK. It is difficult isn't it when we find a lump and then they don't seem to know what it is and it's like a waiting game. I hope you are doing ok.

 I am pleased with my CBC blood results today from the doctor. She said that my inflammatory markers were negative and my white blood cell count was a little low but not out of the ordinary.

She reassured me somewhat saying that the blood tests flag up if there is anything else going on that needs treatment and as mine were negative she isn't worried. 
I said what is next then and she said wait a while and then go back if it doesn't go down.  I think I will probably get someone else's opinion just to see what they think it is but I'm not going panic as much about it now due to my blood results. 
 

She said that when things are suspicious they are generally shaped unevenly as well and not symmetrical. 
 

Thanks for talking to me I am humbled by the help and kindness shown.

Oh that's really good to hear and I'm glad that you were able to get a bit more info from your doctor. Bear in mind that it could still be an inflammatory node even if the blood markers are normal. That would be a good thing for it to be. But it doesn't sound dodgy, either way.

It helps me too if I can rattle on about this stuff, so it's a pleasure to answer even if I'm not a great source of medical knowledge - just I understand how you are feeling.

Hope it's all good, take care and post back if you find you have more questions or just want to offload. 

Best wishes, 

AK 

Thanks AK I really appreciate that and it helps to confide in someone going through something similar. Yes I read about inflammatory nodes like you said and as I haven't felt unwell I thought it wouldn't be that, but I read that even when you feel fine your lymph nodes can fight infections without us having other symptoms. I hurt my hip earlier in the year and that has been really painful and when I found the lump under my armpit I was thinking I can't take this! I'm also in the perimenopause stage so I don't know if that can cause random lumps.

As I am under fifty they don't do NHS mammograms so I may get one at sometime but the doctor said that would be just to detect lumps not diagnose them, the biopsy is still the way to analyse them.  
 

best wishes and keep in touch with your experience.