Yes, Callaloo it’s an incredibly scary statistic that 10% of BC is not picked up by mammo nor, apparently ultrasound ( which was my “ safety “ add on screening as I have dense breasts). Your mother is wise to suggest trusting your own body when something is “off” .

So, my symptom was loss of color to the otherwise pinkish areola when I raised my arm ( I was innocently and thankfully applying deodorant in front of a mirror one day). The areola became whitish, yellowish with arm raised but returned to my normal pinkish immediately when I lowered my arm.

Neither my extremely experienced breast doctor and surgeon nor her colleagues had ever encountered this. I was given an immediate mammo, ultrasound and breast exam which all turned up “ normal”.

I persisted until an MRI was performed and within two hours the radiologist called me in for a targeted ultrasound ( code for you are getting a biopsy… or two!) the MRI also picked up on an enlarged sentinel node ( which was biopsied and positive ). I had hoped that enlargement was from my recent Covid booster.

What was causing my symptom is that one of the tumors was occluding ( kinking) a blood vessel when I raised my arm. With no blood flow the areola lost its “color” . The plastic surgeon, who is also a micro surgeon, knew immediately.

My advice for dense breasts … GET AN MRI!