So I am just trying to educate and re-educate doctors in my case. Maybe you don't know what it means when I say "pain" and maybe before dismissing it as a non-cancer issue, you should ask more probing questions. And maybe as a patient, long time ago, I should have demanded an ultrasound. Maybe it's my fault for being too trusting of my doctor. Before this exeperience, I always trusted my doctors and figured they knew what's best for me. That's why they make the big bucks and that's why they go to 15+ years of school.
But in medical school, when docs experience "pain" and what that means, I think they still think that pain is a gash, wound, cut, scrape, or contusion. Not a vague sense of heaviness, or itchiness. I felt like there was a needle in my bra. I even took my bra off at work to try to find it. I thought maybe it was a little splinter from my vintage armoir that got into my bra. I looked and looked and found nothing, but I kept feeling this prickly pain in this tiny spot. So when I said to the very first doc, "this hurts", she just said, it is not cancer, and she moved on. She did not ask me to describe my pain in detail. If she would have, maybe we would have gotten to it sooner.
Doctors and patients need to be clearer with one another about what "pain" means to them. More importantly, as a patient, I now know that when I say "pain", my doc does not automatically understand what I mean and I must describe it in metaphorical terms so that they may get a better idea of what I mean.
Describing "symptomatic pain", tracking its "frequency", and its "severity" is a good way to show a doctor what you mean when describing your type of pain.
Essentially, I know what my pain means. It means that something is wrong. I won't let anyone dismiss that again.
(I know that some breast cancers have no symptoms at all. And not to be an alarmist, just because your breast hurts, does not mean it is going to be cancer, but it is good to get checked out. This was just my experience)
-Peglove
Eight Breast Cancer Symptoms: When To Worry 
Ten Breast Cancer Myths Debunked 
Eat to Live: 10 Things to Know About Breast Cancer and Nutrition 
Breast Cancer Survivors: 10 things to guard against 
Thank you so much, Peg, for this informative sharepost. My breast cancer hurt too, and I was hesitant to consult the doctor because I also believed the myth that breast cancer doesn't hurt, and in my case, I had no lump. With only a vague pain at first, I didn't want to sound like a hypochondriac. Cysts tend to be tender and painful to the touch and cancerous lumps are usually less sensitive, which is probably the basis for this myth about breast cancer not being painful. But as you point out, the lump may be pressing on a nerve or might be causing pain by displacing and rearranging the other breast tissue. In the case of inflammatory breast cancer, which is what I had, pain caused by breast swelling is often an important first symptom that should not be ignored. Of course, most breast pain isn't cancer, but if a doctor decides not to do a mammogram or ultrasound because he or she believes that breast cancer doesn't hurt, the patient needs to speak up. That pain is a sign that something is wrong.
Peg: Good blog. My breast cancer on the left side was sore. I had hit that side with a piece of wood working in the yard and thought it was that, but no, two weeks later at an annual physical the doctor felt it and thus started my journey.
Candy, I'm so glad your doctor found this sooner rather than later. I hope you're doing well - PJH