Feeling off and then finding out you have cancer

[Anonymous]

OP -- Call today to schedule a mammogram. That alone should soothe your nerves. Knowing you'll have it checked out on a certain day in the relatively near future is calming.

In the meantime, try to sleep more than five hours a day. That may have been sufficient when you were younger, and maybe you're someone with a relatively low need for sleep. But a lot of what you describe (including low level anxiety) is consistent with basic fatigue. Aim for 6.5 hours a night and see how you feel in two week.

GL.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my very close friend. Age 35. She knew something wasn't right but put it off. Pretended it was just anxiety giving her physical symptoms. Finally the "off" feeling was combined with enough pain that she went to doc. Hodgkin's lymphoma. Surgery and a lot of chemo, and basically all the side effects her team had only read about in books, not seen, but now she's cancer free. I understand the concern about being a hypochondriac, but . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone just felt "off" and yet not be able to explain why, only to learn later they had cancer? I have been feeling extra tired lately. I used to be able to work for hours on end, sleep just five hours a day, and keep going that way. Not so anymore. I also feel a slight tugging sensation deep in my breast. I have never felt that before. I do have fibrocystic breasts. I always ate a healthy diet, almost no meat in my diet and lots of organic produce. But I don't have any time to exercise because I have two small children. Five years ago, I had a benign lump in my breast removed so I'm always on edge about getting cancer.

If you felt off and later learned you have cancer, what exactly were your symptoms?

I felt great and then found out I had cancer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone just felt "off" and yet not be able to explain why, only to learn later they had cancer? I have been feeling extra tired lately. I used to be able to work for hours on end, sleep just five hours a day, and keep going that way. Not so anymore. I also feel a slight tugging sensation deep in my breast. I have never felt that before. I do have fibrocystic breasts. I always ate a healthy diet, almost no meat in my diet and lots of organic produce. But I don't have any time to exercise because I have two small children. Five years ago, I had a benign lump in my breast removed so I'm always on edge about getting cancer.

If you felt off and later learned you have cancer, what exactly were your symptoms?

OP, I had another type of cancer, but I'd had symptoms for a while and actually brought them to my GP's attention.. simply to be told I was fine. It was only when I felt actual pain that I was referred for a scan, and then all hell broke loose.

My symptoms were extreme tiredness, terrible night sweats and slightly elevated body temperature that just didn't subside.

If I were you, I'd run, not walk, to a doctor, and insist on a full check-up. Don't take any chances!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh and 7:01 those feelings of guilt are exactly why this is a really bad way for people to think about this. I hate the idea that you think you somehow failed and thats why you have breast cancer. That is absolutely 100% not true.

7:01 here. Thank you PP for your two posts. 10 years out; that's great.

[Anonymous]

OP, this thread makes me laugh. I have been worrying for a couple of days about the same thing. I've been struggling with a pulled muscle in my shoulder and one in my back for a couple of weeks. And over the weekend and today I felt tired so I've started to worry a little, as is my tendency.

But dh pointed out that his seasonal allergies are really bad right now and probably it's affecting me too even though I don't have a history of allergies. So maybe you're suffering from allergies?

Anyway, hearing that some folks felt great and got cancer makes me realize that maybe I need to stop worrying so much and just live my life. Hope you feel better soon, OP!

[Anonymous]

I say it is likely low iron or ferritin. You would be exhausted w either.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks to all for the concern and sound advice. I just had a mammo three months ago but they said all was fine - EXCEPT I got one of those CYA letters that said my breasts were dense and so they recommended an MRI also.
A prophylactical mastectomy was recommended to me after my breast surgeon learned about my fam history and the last benign tumor. You folks are perceptive. I am an anxious kind of person. As such, I fear pain and am avoiding the mastectomy. Plus, I worry about all kinds of worst case scenario's. Death, for example. I have very young children who are so attached to me. I'm a SAHM. So I worry about dying during the mastectomy. I know thats paranoid but I always entertain those what if's…

I am a bit of a night owl. I know I should sleep more. But I suffer from insomnia. Regardless, I need to be up when my children wake up, which is relatively early. I tried taking melatonin but heard it could mess with my hormones so I stopped. Without melatonin I don't feel sleep until at least 2 am.

I would like to also talk about how we can prevent breast cancer. Is it true that there's no possible way other than a mastectomy? What about a high antioxidant diet or a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables. I thought studies showed cruciferous vegetables help to elminate excess estrogen from the body and can reduce the risk of cancer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to all for the concern and sound advice. I just had a mammo three months ago but they said all was fine - EXCEPT I got one of those CYA letters that said my breasts were dense and so they recommended an MRI also.
A prophylactical mastectomy was recommended to me after my breast surgeon learned about my fam history and the last benign tumor. You folks are perceptive. I am an anxious kind of person. As such, I fear pain and am avoiding the mastectomy. Plus, I worry about all kinds of worst case scenario's. Death, for example. I have very young children who are so attached to me. I'm a SAHM. So I worry about dying during the mastectomy. I know thats paranoid but I always entertain those what if's…

I am a bit of a night owl. I know I should sleep more. But I suffer from insomnia. Regardless, I need to be up when my children wake up, which is relatively early. I tried taking melatonin but heard it could mess with my hormones so I stopped. Without melatonin I don't feel sleep until at least 2 am.

I would like to also talk about how we can prevent breast cancer. Is it true that there's no possible way other than a mastectomy? What about a high antioxidant diet or a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables. I thought studies showed cruciferous vegetables help to elminate excess estrogen from the body and can reduce the risk of cancer.

The funny thing about cancer is it is usually has no symptoms or vague symptoms. Those symptoms can be caused by many things. In my case, I was tired, my back hurt a bit, and I was losing weight -- 20 lbs over 4 months. I was 48, and 60 lbs overweight, so weight loss was good, back hurting and tired could be age and weight. I was going to mention it to my internist, but two years ago, I had another problem that required a CT scan to diagnose. The CT was negative for my appendix, but found a 6 cm tumor on my kidney.

8 months later, I was shocked to find out that I had a metastasis on my lung, which was removed. Since then, every weird thing I have felt I assumed was cancer spreading. But, I have no evidence of disease.

My point is, cancer has a lot of vague symptoms which are shared by a lot of other things.

If you are worried about the brest, get the MRI

[Anonymous]

Do they always send a letter notifying you of dense breasts?
OP, was this at Washington Radiology?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to all for the concern and sound advice. I just had a mammo three months ago but they said all was fine - EXCEPT I got one of those CYA letters that said my breasts were dense and so they recommended an MRI also.
A prophylactical mastectomy was recommended to me after my breast surgeon learned about my fam history and the last benign tumor. You folks are perceptive. I am an anxious kind of person. As such, I fear pain and am avoiding the mastectomy. Plus, I worry about all kinds of worst case scenario's. Death, for example. I have very young children who are so attached to me. I'm a SAHM. So I worry about dying during the mastectomy. I know thats paranoid but I always entertain those what if's…

I am a bit of a night owl. I know I should sleep more. But I suffer from insomnia. Regardless, I need to be up when my children wake up, which is relatively early. I tried taking melatonin but heard it could mess with my hormones so I stopped. Without melatonin I don't feel sleep until at least 2 am.

I would like to also talk about how we can prevent breast cancer. Is it true that there's no possible way other than a mastectomy? What about a high antioxidant diet or a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables. I thought studies showed cruciferous vegetables help to elminate excess estrogen from the body and can reduce the risk of cancer.

A couple of things:

1. Have you had the genetic test? With a strong family history thats really where you should start. Sometimes women test negative for the BRCA mutation but because of the strong family history they just assume they have a mutation that hasn't been identified yet.

2. You absolutely should be having MRIs. At GW Hospital they also do 3D ultrasounds for women with dense breasts. They aren't yet approved and therefore covered by insurance so you have to pay out of pocket (its about $100) but studies show it catches 25% more cancers in women with dense breasts. At GE alone they found 11 cancers that didn't show up with other imaging. By the way, GW is the BEST place to get breast imaging in the DC area. if you are high risk especially, I would recommend it.

3. You need to treat your anxiety. You have insomnia, you are constrained in making medical decisions and it may be fueling your exhaustion. Its really past time.

4. You cannot prevent breast cancer with diet, especially if you have a strong family history. Avoiding obesity might help some because estrogen hangs out in fat cells, but that only has an effect around the margins.

[Anonymous]

I meant at GW not GE, but GE would probably love to take credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they always send a letter notifying you of dense breasts?
OP, was this at Washington Radiology?

Not OP but Washington Radiology stated in my letter that my breasts were dense. After being diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer, my breast surgeon said I should've been gettting an MRI all along due to the density. I did opt for the 3D mammogram which detected it; it was not a lump but a thickening that was not detected by a physical exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had breast cancer, a fairly big tumor, and when I was diagnosed I was feeling fantastic. I should add that a healthy diet isn't going to prevent breast cancer but thats another thread.

First of all you need to see your PP for a checkup including blood work. There are so many things that could be going on that have nothing to do with cancer. You could be anemic, you could have a thyroid issue, you could have two young children (and who wouldn't be exhausted).

Get the tugging in your breast checked out but don't get overly worried about it. You sound like a very anxious person. If thats the case, perhaps you should address that as well.

What prevents breast cancer, 6:48?

Correction:
What HELPS prevent breast cancer?
We know life has no guarantees.

I am recently diagnosed and from everything I've read it seems like regular exercise, avoiding alcohol and eating lots of fruits and green veggies can help prevent. All things I didn't do and now along with going through cancer treatment am dealing with extreme feelings of guilt. I have now implemented these lifestyle changes to prevent recurrence; hope it's not too late.

I'm the PP and I just have to gently say that these things really don't prevent breast cancer. Perhaps they help reduce the risk slightly, but tis really a myth that you can prevent breast cancer. If you have a family history and/or the genetic mutation, a prophylactic mastectomy can prevent it, but if you don't fit those categories its not an option. Nor should it be. I think everyone wants to think there's a way to stay safe and there just isn't, as long as you have breasts. There's other reasons to eat a healthy diet and exercise, so you should. But don;t think there's a magic talisman for preventing breast cancer. There isn't.

When I was diagnosed I had been a vegetarian for 25 years. I am a runner, physically fit. I have NO family history. Shit happens and no one is safe. I get really sick of this idea that breast cancer can be prevented because the flip side of this is the diea that I somehow failed to prevent it. I've had women quiz me on how I gave myself breast cancer. Please.

PP, I am coming up on the 10th anniversary of my diagnosis. You'll get there too.

Actually studies have shown that controllable things can significantly reduce cancer rates. Excess weight, poor diet and inadequate physical activity, together are linked to between a quarter to a third of cancer cases. It's not an absolute as seen in your case, but people can take steps.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-evidence-on-how-weight-diet-and-exercise-can-help-reduce-cancer-risk/2014/02/18/87bbc62a-8cdc-11e3-95dd-36ff657a4dae_story.html

[Anonymous]

That Washington Post article is about the American Cancer Society guidelines which they harp on even without a lot of evidence to support them. I remember an ad they did years ago with Ferigie (the former royal, not the singer) saying she doesn't have to worry about getting cancer because she eats lots of fruits and vegetables. That was bunk then and its bunk now and I wish the ACS would be honest about the evidence, discussed here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/science/an-apple-a-day-and-other-myths.html?ref=science&_r=1