I had a core needle biopsy on 12/13/13, which was moderately painful, and received a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma, invasive but very small. My breast was still painful at time of my surgery on 01/17/14. When the wire localization was done I was stunned at the amount of pain. It was done under mammography, which I thought might have been the reason for such pain. Then the dye injections were done, and once again I was in agony. The radiologist apologized, saying: Some women feel this more than others. The surgery was done, lumpectomy with clear margins and 3 clean nodes; stage one cancer, grade 2. I was very thankful and expected a normal recovery. At 10 day post-op checkup, I told my surgeon that I was still in a great deal of pain, swelling, redness, lumpiness/hard areas. She looked briefly at the incision, said I was healing up nicely and that was all. For the next month, a number of visits with chemo/radiation specialists, ct scan, labs, etc. I mentioned to everyone who asked how I was, that I was still in a lot of pain, etc. Noone seemed to hear my answer, and I moved down the conveyor belt of treatment plans until my first radiation treatment one month after surgery. Face to face with my radiation oncologist, I again told my symptoms, which by this time were even more severe, and mentioned that I felt I might have an infection. He actually looked at my breast, and diagnosed an infection. Yay! I was rx d an oral antibiotic (clindamycin) which I have taken every 6 hrs around the clock for two wks and two days, with another 8 days to go. I ve had 12 radiation treatments of the 33 planned, and am feeling some new effects which seem to be from the rad; but the swelling, tenderness, and pain are still present, altho improved. The breast looks much different from my normal one; other women say they have had very little pain with lumpectomy, wire loc., or dye injections - am I expecting too much here? If a doctor looks only at the abnormal breast, can he really judge if it is normal? He seems to be satisfied with my progress; I am really tired of all this pain, especially since the real effects of my radiation treatments will soon begin to kick in. Is it usual to take so long to clear an infection? I only see the radonc once a week, so discussions are few and short. I feel I must have gotten an infection at the time of biopsy, and I do not want a lawyer!! I just need to put my mind to rest on this so I can either wait patiently for the meds to fix it, or if necessary, look for more help and if so, where? And why, oh why, does nobody listen unless you yell?