My wife recommends going to Gambellas, Faro, if you want to go private and as it's urgent. The problem with Radis is that they are always very booked up and not very sympathetic at reception. Getting an appointment for an annual mammogram can take ages.

Thank you. I have just managed to get an appointment with Algarve Breast Care (it's Private) - I think it's part of the same group. GrupoHPA.

Thank goodness you are now set up. Positive vibes sent to you..

Rosemary

When is your appointment? Still thinking of you.

Thank you Rosemary. xx

Wednesday evening. xx

Excellent. Good luck for Wednesday and remember, the vast majority of breast lumps are harmless. Will be thinking of you.

Thank you Lou71

I hope that anyone going through something similar finds this information and finds it helpful, so here's my update:

Saw Dr Valadas at Hospital São Camilo and wow, what a difference. Empathetic, knowledgeable and very detailed in her examination and questioning. I have been referred to LagoaCentro, as they are apparently very good at getting to the bottom of issues. She did try to get me an appointment last night but they had closed, so my details have been sent on and I'll be calling them this morning. I am likely to have to wait a little for an appointment but as she doesn't view it as 'urgent' (a relief to me), she doesn't feel it necessary to send me to Lisbon (so that option was on the table). I have been prescribed some anti-inflammatories (it basically looks like I injured myself moving furniture - torn muscle/tissue, which accounts for the swelling but she wants to make certain there is nothing else contributing).

I will update on LagoaCentro, when I can.

So glad that you had an informative and empathetic appointment. I know that you will not settle until you receive the results of the next appointment but it sounds very promising. Semi relief, time to breath.

Rosemary

I cannot help you at all sad to say but I did want to swing by and wish you all the very best of the best of the best with this. I know just how worrying such issues can be and the wait and unknown and the difficulty in seeing someone is all rather more hard than one could expect.

All my fingers and toes are crossed for a strain with pain and no other reason.

Thank you Rosemary & Bevs.

Thanks for the update, it's good to hear that the doctor thinks it's non urgent and that you are now in the system. Hope you get the appointment for the mammogram and ultrasound soon.

This does sound promising. I had a lump in my neck a few years back when living in Spain, the doctor said it could be stomach cancer. Turned out a bone had pushed up into my neck when I fell and jarred my body, so hoping moving the furniture has caused this. Keep us posted, still thinking of you.

Good to hear about the likely diagnosis - I like to hear about a medic who takes a holistic view of things.... and who has presumably checked for all the tell-tales of anything more sinister, rather than jumping at shadows. Unfortunately, in the UK we seem to have developed a breed of box-tickers and quota-fillers, egged on by whatever is the latest government focus. When my blood-test a couple of months ago showed high blood/glucose level (for the first time in God-knows how many blood-tests over the past 7 years since my cancer diagnosis), I was suddenly being contacted by some private third-party company (paid from NHS funds) encouraging me to go on all types of Type-2 training, etc. (paid from NHS funds).... due to the current focus on Type-2. I refused the offer on the grounds that I didn't trust the results of one test and, in any case, pre-diabetes is not diabetes (not that those being paid per case actually care). Sure enough, a second blood-test a month later saw my blood/glucose miraculously back within the "normal" range (although admittedly near the top-end).

The main thing is that you are right to have all the checks carried out - and you need to keep focus on the issue - but there is often as much danger in the stress and worry as in the actual causation and you have to trust specialists to help you reach your own conclusion. Good luck getting to the bottom of the problem..... and (unfortunately) welcome to the world of self-monitoring.