Hi everyone, I generally post on the colon and rectal cancer threads, because I have colon cancer, I am newly 29, and they think that they have caught this at Stage I. I have surgery scheduled next Monday, to have my entire large colon removed, as this is definitely genetic-my mom died 8 years ago of it.

Enough back ground info, this is my question, I just went and had a pap done and breast exam, I thought I was only a year out from my last one, but it's been since 5/04 that I haven't had one, I had issues before with having what I thought was a cyst on my left breast about 2 years ago, the ultrasound came back fine. When I went in last week, the 15th, the doc told me that she felt lumps in both of my breasts and that they were very dense-my age is to blame for that, she said the mammo will probably be inconclusive, but she wanted me to get a diagnostic mammo done because of the colon cancer I currently have. I have a mammo scheduled for this Thursday.

I have read online that dense breasts makes cancer very hard to diagnose because of the density of the tissue. Has anyone else had this type of problem?

I don't have any nipple discharge, a few weeks ago, my areolas went from a light brown to a bright pink on both breasts for a few days. I was getting iron intravenously for anemia, caused by the colon ca, so I didn't think anything of it, in fact, I just thought of it now and didn't mention it to her when I saw her. I had some tenderness around the bottom areola on the left breasts when she was examining me.

Do you guys think I should be worried? Do you know anything about dense breasts? I am anxious here, I can't deal with two cancers at the same time.

TIA everyone :)

Hi Christy,
It is hard for me to think of all that you are dealing with right now. Please post and let us know how the mammogram was - we are pulling for you, and quite agree, dealing with one cancer at a time is ENOUGH!!!!
Sending prayers,
Robin

I was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, i have dense breast. This does not mean you're going to get breast cancer because you also have dense breast; it's normal to have them be dense when you are as young as you are. I'm in my 50's and am one of the strange women who still have dense breast, there's really nothing i can do. It makes me worry more, because I get afraid the mammogram will miss something. mammograms aren't 100% accurate for anyone though. Best of luck to you, you are so young to have had to go through what you already have. Try not to worry too much with the breast, hopefully things will be fine for you. How are you doing now?

I had something palpable some years ago and the mamo picked upnothing so they also did ultra sound to double check, can you ask for this, nothing was found. Im so sorry to read your story, I have anxiety and think thats bad enough. You guys sound so strong.