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DENVER (CBS4) – Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a relief for most people, but some women are discovering a worrying side effect of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The vaccine can cause swollen lymph nodes and this can reflect the signs of breast cancer.
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Even a radiologist specializing in breast imaging was alarmed.
“At first, I panicked, I admit,” said Dr. Bridget Rogers, a radiologist at Solis Mammography.
She knew that swollen lymph nodes could be a sign of breast cancer. Then, in early January, she was alarmed.
“I had a big, visible and painful lump,” she told CBS4 health expert Kathy Walsh.
The day before, Rogers had his second COVID-19 injection, the Pfizer vaccine. She knew that a possible side effect was an increase in lymph nodes.
“I tried to reassure myself by remembering that this is actually a sign that the vaccine was doing what it was supposed to do, activating its immune system,” she said.
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Rogers admits that she looked at it with an ultrasound.
“It is always different to be on the patient side of the experience,” she said. “It was a sigh of relief the second day, when it started to get better instead of getting worse.”
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Rogers is not alone. She showed CBS4 the mammograms of another doctor who had taken the vaccine.
“So, this is last year. These are the lymph nodes that are enlarged this year. “
“I’ve been trying to warn women in advance,” said Dr. Stephanie Miller, a breast surgeon and medical director of the Breast Program at the Rose Medical Center.
“We don’t want to stop anyone from being part of the vaccine process,” said Miller.
She said breast cancer did not subside during the pandemic. She tells women to have their mammograms and notify the mammography center if you have recently had a vaccine.
“So that we can have the right explanation for what we are seeing,” she said.
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Miller said that delaying mammograms this year had consequences.
“Women are developing and getting breast cancer a little later in the game and we want to minimize that to the maximum,” said Miller.
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She doesn’t want women to panic. Her message is to get the COVID-19 vaccination and mammography, both important for your health.