Patient and Carer Stories
Kelly’s IBC Story
In November 2019 my periods started playing up: stopping and starting again etc. At that point I noticed a small lump in my left breast. I put this fully down to being 47 and believed I was peri menopausal. I’d had a mammogram less than 12 months before and had been recalled for further investigation and at that point I was told everything was fine. I went on an 8-week overseas holiday and came back to my busy life but in March 2020, the lump became much more noticeable, and the skin was also...
My Beautiful Pineapple
by Fiona Edwards Up until 2014, I had never heard of Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). That all changed one October evening. I was on skype to my best friend Marianne when she delivered the news that she had IBC and was gearing up to have a mastectomy. Hot tears filled my eyes and my mind darted to the worst-case scenario. I felt sick. I couldn’t even start to imagine how she felt. I first met Marianne at university in Scotland in late 1999 through a mutual friend and we quickly bonded over...
Men Can Get IBC Too – Rod, QLD
IBC is not a common diagnosis for women, but almost unheard of in men. Five years ago, after feeling a lump, I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma with dermal lymphatic invasion, Stage IIIB, Grade 2, ER+/PR+, HER2-, and referred to a breast surgeon. On examining my inflamed and enlarged left breast, with its inverted nipple, the surgeon determined an IBC diagnosis and an inability to operated on the left breast in that condition. She sent me to the oncologist to start neo-adjuvant...