A woman who visited the doctors to investigate a 'cancer scare' was left red-faced when she had to admit the lump was actually a love bite. Annabel Fisher was referred to a specialist after she found a 'rock-solid' bruised mass about the size of a 50p coin.
'Freaked-out' Annabel, from the Limestone Coast, South Australia, forked out around $400 (£225) on tests and soon doctors confirmed her 'weird' lump wasn't cancer and was in fact made up of dead cells formed after 'trauma'.
While she was waiting for results, Annabel remembered a 'friend' had given her a 'love bite' or 'hickey' in the exact same spot two months earlier - and she was forced to admit the racy truth to laughing specialists who told her the love bite had caused a bruise and a circle of breast tissue to turn 'necrotic', or dead.
Have you ever made the same mistake as Annabel? Let us know in the comments...
Annabel described the appointment as 'an experience she can't forget' and almost seven years later the now-29-year-old has revealed her blunder on TikTok.
Warning those who enjoy trading love bites or hickeys, Annabel pointed out that doctors said if they are repeated in sensitive areas they can cause long-term damage.
Annabel said: "I'd completely forgotten that I had a hickey at all.
"I was really embarrassed [upon] realising because I didn't even think about it. I didn't even think that could be possible.
"I was by myself in the room getting the scan when I remembered. I was on the table and they asked me if anything happened and if I'd been hit - and that's when I thought 'oh my god'.
"They asked 'what?' and I said 'I think it's a hickey'. The radiologists all laughed and said it's more common than people think.
"It was like a bit of trauma from the hickey. It was probably in there, solid, for a month or two before I booked the doctor's appointment.
"I felt it one day and got a feeling I needed to go to the doctors. I told my friends, and we were all freaking out. I'd got everyone to feel it and they all said 'you need to go get that checked'.
"The lump got harder and harder over time to the point where I thought 'oh sh*t, I better go get it checked'.
"When I got a doctor to feel it and he said 'oh no, you've got to book in to get an ultrasound'. That freaked me out and made me more paranoid. I was very scared.
"I saw a private radiologist and the scan was around $390. It was the only option to go to where I live because I live in the country.
"During the tests I asked if it was a cancer lump and the people doing it said they weren't sure, because it was like rock solid.
"[I was] very relieved to find out it was just a clump of tissue where the bruise was. I went home and told all my friends, and everyone thought it was hilarious."
Annabel's fears were heightened when her doctor referred her to a specialist clinic and she says even a test which included a needle and tiny camera couldn't rule out cancer.
After finding out the cause she was told not to get a love bite on the same spot again because the skin cells were so damaged.
Annabel said: "The doctor that I spoke to said that if hickeys are repeated in sensitive areas, they can actually cause longer-term damage. It's just something people should be careful with and think about more."
Despite returning home embarrassed, the 29-year-old, who is now a social media manager, says she still laughs about it with her friends - and even the friend who gave her the love bite.
Her short TikTok post in November has been viewed more than nine million times and has earned more than one million likes.
It said: "One time I found a lump on my breast so my doctor gave me a referral to get an ultrasound.
"One needle, a trip to the city and $400 later the very experienced radiographers told me it wasn't breast cancer it was an old hickey that was so bad it caused a solid lump of tissue to die."
One commented: "I bet they still tell that story in the breakroom."
Another agreed and said: "You are absolutely someone's party story from work."
A third said: "Whilst I did have a little giggle at this... Good for you for getting it checked out!"
A fourth simply added: "New fear unlocked."
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