Help! Now I have a swollen lymph node in my under arm!!!! (using Thermography technology to assess breast issues)featured

My mother had breast cancer years ago, so as a result of this family history, you can understand why I ABSOLUTELY freaked out when a very hard and painful lump shaped like a kidney bean magically appeared in my left under arm out of nowhere.  This fun little event happened exactly one week after I ended my chemo/radiation.

A photo of my bump when it first appeared, versus weeks later

“How could this be happening to me?????” I thought. I was crying and touching the bump constantly. I of course immediately thought the worst.

I GOOGLED “lumps in the under arm” and found all kinds of stuff.

It could be a swollen lymph node

It could be an ingrown or infected underarm hair shaft

It could just be a benign cyst like a pimple, OR

It could be a breast cancer tumor

Well, after sifting through all of this info….I concluded that I must have a swollen lymph node. The reason why I chose this option is that everything I read said lymph nodes are shaped like kidney beans, and that is exactly how  mine was.  It was hard as a rock and very painful too.

I called the cancer center and spoke to my nurse navigator (case manager) to share this new news, and she said “hmmmmmmm, do you have any injuries/cuts near your arm? It could be an infection from that or an infected hair folicle.”

I said, no I have no cuts.

Then she just said, “well, I’ll let the doctor know but maybe you should go see your GP doctor. Let’s talk again in a bit and see how it goes.” She didn’t seem concerned at all. I said, “ok thanks”……. for nothing 🙁 Of course I didn’t say that, but I sure did think it.

Then, I e-mailed my functional medicine doc in Michigan. She of course was more concerned, especially since the bump was hard and not soft. She asked me to take a picture of it and send it to her. She didn’t like the look of it, and said we need to watch this. I should take another picture and send it in a week to see if it is growing or going away…since a cancerous tumor will grow quickly and won’t show signs of shrinking on its own.

This was a much better response to me! At least SOMEBODY cared enough to look at the damn thing.

But, I wasn’t fully satisfied. I wanted to be proactive and do more than just wait. But ……..I absolutely REFUSED to get a mammography and have more exposure to radiation after what I had just been through.

I have read and heard from the functional medicine community over and over that mammography is very damaging to the breasts, and can actually squash and spread a cancerous tumor if you have one in the breast tissue! PLUS…..guess what??? If you have dense breasts, mammograms are not very reliable! You need to get an ULTRASOUND in order to take a look in there and see if there is a tumor or not.

In fact, there are countries out there that have actually done away with annual mammography screenings for women ….including Switzerland! Check out this article from Dr. Joe Mercola (one of my favorite alternative docs) on the study done in Switzerland : https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/30/mammography-screening-programs.aspx

My question to the American Medical Association is WHY NOT LET WOMEN JUST GET AN ULTRASOUND ON THEIR BREASTS EACH YEAR TO SEE IF THERE IS A PROBLEM?  It is harmless, painless, and more effective.

Hmmmmm, I’ll let you ponder this point for yourself, but all I’m saying is that perhaps it is a nice big easy source of $$$$$ for doctor’s offices.

Well, I then immediately recalled previous research that I had done on the science of Thermography. It measures heat in the body to see where there are active zones. If there is a red zone on the picture where it doesn’t make sense, this could suggest that there is a high amount of blood flow and activity (which is what tumors are, they have extremely high levels of blood flow) which may be a problem.

This technology is being used successfully to assess breast tissue activity and to establish a baseline to see if there are unusual red zones, or growing red zones (tumors often double in size within 90 days…..so that is why you need to get a follow-up Thermography to see if changes occurred) that warrant you to go see a specialist.

AND……you know what????? It is 100% safe and has NO radiation or harmful exposures to anything!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should NEVER get a mammogram. They have their place when you think you might have an issue and you need to take a deeper look into your actual breast tissue. But for year to year general monitoring…..perhaps Thermography is a better and less damaging way to go.

So, I found myself a Thermography practitioner in NJ on GOOGLE (Lisa’s Thermography and Wellness) and called to book an appointment.

When I spoke to Lisa, I mentioned that I was doing this because I have a suspicious lump under my arm…..and I’ve just finished 5 1/2 weeks of chemo and radiation therapy two weeks prior. She said that generally you need to have a 6 month wait if you have been on chemo before you can do a Thermography report (due to inflammation), but she would contact a Dr. she works with to ask if we can do it anyway given my circumstances.

She called me back and said we can go ahead and do it. So, I booked myself an appointment for March 16th.

***

I went in for my appointment on a cold March morning, and wasn’t totally sure what to expect. My brother went with me.

This particular practitioner rented a small office room in a big fancy business complex, so she did not have her own official clinic per se. She actually travels around to different locations in NJ to do her thermography scanning. This makes sense since nobody really knows about this and the volume must not be too big.

I was just thrown off a bit when I overheard some insurance guy talking on the phone about conducting risk and fraud assessments in the office next door. Boy, this building has quite an eclectic group of individuals in here, I thought! 🙂

Anyway, I went in and she explained what Thermography was (which I already knew all about). She then asked me to remove my shirt and bra and asked me to acclimate to the room’s temperature for at least 10 minutes with my skin exposed.  She put up a fold away screen so that I could have privacy during this waiting period. So, I sat on a stool for about 13 minutes, and then she said we can start.

She removed the screen and proceeded to take pictures of me from different angles. I had to put my hands on my hips, then I lifted my right arm and put it behind my head as I turned to the left side, then the did the same on the other side, then got a picture of my back.

It took about 15 minutes or so.

She took the digital photos and saw them immediately on her screen…..but she is not the one who reads them and interprets the results. This has to be done by a doctor.

She uploads the photos to a database and works with a licensed Naturopathic Doctor from Canada who would actually review it and write my report.  In about a week, I’d get a log-in to the database to view my results and get a download of the files.  After getting the report, I’d have a free phone consult with someone to discuss my results.

That was it! Simple enough. It cost me about $240.

***

So, on March 23rd, I received my report and it was a bit hard for me to interpret myself. I sent it off to my Functional Medicine doctor in Michigan immediately…..but I did do the consultation with the medical professional in Canada too.

She explained that what I am showing is lymphatic congestion in my breast area. Blue areas mean no heat activity, thus low to no blood flow (congestion).  I did have a few spots of red, which shows high heat (thus blood activity), but nothing of significance was noted (see my photos below).

A woman with breast cancer will show LOTS of red all over the breast. The ideal you want to see on these photos is all green. This means that there is normal body heat in the breasts.  Here is a helpful website that has some case studies to show you what a suspect breast looks like: http://www.breastthermography.com/case_studies.htm

***

Thank GOD my report showed no suspicious activity. This gave me some peace of mind, and I held my breath and watched this damn lump like a hawk for the next several months.

I did rub some frankinsense essential oil (yes, the stuff that one of the wise men brought baby Jesus) on it a few times, which is a well known natural remedy that has even been acknowledged by the mainstream medical community to help shrink cancer tumors, but it irritated me in many ways so I stopped. I will write a separate post all about my experiences with Frankinsense.

EVENTUALLY……after several months, this bump turned into a huge pimple and busted open and healed on its own.  It was gross, but it turns out it may have been a cyst all along.

Phew! THAT was a close one. Onto the next drama.

***

Hope this helps anyone out there who may want to have another alternative to an annual mammography.

PS – there are full body thermography reports done as well, thus men can benefit from this technology too! A full body thermography may run about $500.

This is not covered by insurance at this point in time, but I hope that does not stop you from considering this technology as a proactive way to assess what is going on inside your body.  Here is a link to the International Association of Medical Thermographers for more information: https://iamtonline.org/for-patients/