kaye301

I am scheduled to have a biopsy this morning on a weird blister that popped up
on my chest last week. Actually, there were at least 5 lesions, two were clear
liquid blisters and the others were hard and pink. They were in a line towards
where the bottom of my bra/prosthesis were. At first I thought it was an
irritation of some sort but that wouldn't have been in a near-straight line (as
opposed to curved) and wouldn't have been separate bumps. Of course my fearful
imagination initially thought of something possibly cancer related. I had my
husband take a photo of it. He also took video--just in case it was something
that progressed a certain way and needed following.
I had noticed it just before I undressed and went to bed. Soon after I got
into bed the thought of possible shingles popped into mind. However, I would
think from what I knew that shingles were painful. Over the past month I did
have some discomfort in that area which included burning pain and itching. I
had thought back to my initial discovery of the breast cancer which involved
pain in that area of my chest but forgot to mention it to my oncologist and
surgeon when I had seen them.
Anyway, they were still there the following morning when I awoke. I didn't
think it would be a great idea to wear my regular prostheses against them, so I
put them into a pocketed sports bra. My daughter who just graduated from
college out-of-state had come in for the weekend. We were making a party for
her. In addition when she returns to where she is living she will be a nanny
for a newborn who was just adopted. She never had chicken pox although she did
have the vaccine 16 years ago in an experimental program. I was concerned that
if I had shingles that I might need to take some precaution and thought I had
better check it out.
I put a call into my surgeon. She called me back and said it sounded like
shingles except for the lack of pain. I asked her if that area was somewhat
numb and that some nerves?) had been cut, could that lessen or mask any
possible pain. She never thought of that but said that was a possibility.
She said if it didn't clear up then I should call her. I was able to get an
appt. in internal medicine (with someone whom I'd never seen--which was fine
for this). Much to my surprise when I showed him the area which I hadn't seen
since the morning it looked very different. There was one large, fluid-filled
blister but the second blister wasn't there and the other bumps were gone.
After my description of it he said it sounded like shingles but didn't want to
treat only one. I agreed. If I hadn't had the photos it would have been hard
to believe that they had been as I had described.
Meanwhile, my curiosit got the better of me over the weekend. I looked up
breast cancer, shingles, skin metastases and came to learn that there is a type
of skin metastases called zosteriform that resembles shingles. I was a bit
'freaked' when I further read that that should be considered if it appears in
linear form in the chest area of malignant side. Great (not!). I had been
hoping it WAS shingles--something 'normal' that I could relax and not worry
about it being cancer-related--at least for a short while anyway.
My fears I think are reality-based because I did have dermal lymphatic invasion
(inflammatory breast cancer), although I did have a rarer presentation.
However, I am still getting red patches over my back on malignant side and they
(oncologist and surgeon) are monitoring.
Anyway, I emailed an article or two about this type of skin mets to my surgeon
on Saturday and forgot about it. I was surprised when I received a call from
her nurse on Tuesday morning (for those not in the states, Monday was a
national holiday) saying that she wanted me to have a biopsy of that single
lesion. I am guessing she is doing it to be on the safe side. It has been
there for about a week now.
I am also guessing (hoping) that it isn't going to show anything. I would be
more concerned if there were still 5 or 6 there. It was weird, though, how one
of the blisters just disappeared as if it had never been there. If we hadn't
taken a good picture it would have been hard to believe they had all been
there. I wasn't as surprised that the other separate hard red bumps
disappeared so quickly--it was one of the blisters that was completely gone.
It had been there before I went to bed and they were all the same at 7:00 in
the morning. Except for the larger (about 1/8 in cir***ference) remaining
blister all the others were gone by 5:00 that afternoon.

a. p. thorsen

I had a mild case of shingles a few years back that didn't hurt much,
even without nerves being cut. "Burning, itching" sounds about right.
I was told that they're often less painful in younger people (vs. the
elderly; I know that both you & I are more like "middle aged" rather
than post-adolescent <g>). As you doubtless learned in your readings,
shingles do sometimes appear in lines.

Since some of the lesions have disappeared, that doesn't seem
particularly consistent with what I understand to be usual behavior of
malignancies. (?)

Any chance that it could be an allergic reaction of some sort? I'd been
having some hives outbreaks that seemed to be more frequent in areas
where clothing was held right against my body (waistband, lower edge of
bra). I finally theorized that maybe my laudry detergent was
reformulated or something, switched detergents to a hypoallergenic one,
and have had little trouble since.

Hope you get good news from the skin biopsy!

Ann T.
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mary fisher

I occasionally have that but changing detergents has no effect. I get
instant relief by applying corn flour/starch, it absorbs all the sweat and
that does the trick.

I'm a very sweaty person ...

Maybe you have heat-rekated hives? I'm allergic to my own sweat and
get hives from it. It only happens if I have a temperature over 103 or
if I exercise too much and am dripping with sweat, but I do get itchy
after about ten minutes on the treadmill. And before my lumpectomy I
got hives all over my chest from the 8 or 9 mammograms I had to have
for them to do the needle biopsy.

Marilyn, crossing my fingers for you

kaye301

<< Any chance that it could be an allergic reaction of some sort? >>
At first I thought it might be an irritation, even an allergic reaction to the
prostheses. However, if that were the case it would have been more widespread
rather than along a single line. I haven't changed anything re. soaps,
fabrics. The initial reaction was under the area of the prostheses.
Any thoughts of possible malignancy were reinforced by the following:
Zosteriform Metastatic Skin Cancer: Report of Three Cases and Review of the
Literature
Y. Kikuchi, A. Matsuyama, K. Nomura
Department of Dermatology, Aomori Prefectural Central Hospital, Aomori, Japan
Vol.*202,*No. 4,*2001*
Free Abstract *
Case Report
Zosteriform Metastatic Skin Cancer: Report of Three Cases and Review of the
Literature
Y. Kikuchi, A. Matsuyama, K. Nomura
Department of Dermatology, Aomori Prefectural Central Hospital, Aomori, Japan
Address of Corresponding Author
Dermatology 2001;202:336-338 (DOI: 10.1159/000051670)

kaye301

get hives from it. It only happens if I have a temperature over 103 or
if I exercise too much and am dripping with sweat, but I do get itchy
after about ten minutes on the treadmill. And before my lumpectomy I
got hives all over my chest from the 8 or 9 mammograms I had to have
for them to do the needle biopsy. >>

It wasn't that itchy. In fact if anything there was a mild burning. However,
that side of my chest has had some discomfort and internal itching over the
past several weeks. These lesions, however, were not that uncomfortable--if
anything there was a slight or mild discomfort in that area. I was very
surprised that they were even there.

guesswho

glad to see that you had it biopsy --wishing you quick and neg. results.

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kaye301

<< glad to see that you had it biopsy --wishing you quick and neg. results. >>

Thanks, but when I saw her she said that it would be hard to biopsy since it
was fluid-filled rather than a lump. I am confused because I have read
elsewhere that something like this could be biopsied. She referred me to the
dermatologist to have it checked.

a. p. thorsen

<snip>

FWIW, I hadn't either. I finally concluded that perhaps the formulation
of one of my long-term-use products had changed, and/or I had developed
a new allergy to it.

FYI, I know you're concerned about potential for abdominal/digestive
system mets from lobular BC. A woman in my RL support group has such
mets, and they seem to have been put in a so-far-quite-lengthy
remission. I don't know details of her story (don't know her extremely
well) but believe the treatment for the mets included radiation. She's
well enough that she's taken some long-distance driving trips on her own
(cross-country!), and you wouldn't know she had metastatic BC to meet
her, as her energy level and such seem very much in the normal range.

Take care, Kaye -- hope things work out well for you.

Ann T.
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guesswho

Dermatologist 's will know what to do. It cracks me up when I go with my
husband, to see the doc with a thing that looks like a jewelers loop.
Usually can tell you if it cancer or not by the look and feel but they have
all the equipment to do a biopsy. Alex

results. >>