Reply to Feeling off and then finding out you have cancer

Forum Index » Health and Medicine

Reply to "Feeling off and then finding out you have cancer "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

PP, YES, I have had the BRCA test and it was negative for both 1 & 2, however I was told I probably do have a genetic mutation that has not been identified yet. My mother has ovarian cancer. My grandmother died young of breast cancer. My maternal cousin died at age 29 of breast cancer.  
I am curious though, what's so great about GW as compared to anywhere else? i usually get my tests done at Fairfax Radiology.
It is terribly disconcerting to know diet does nothing to help. I can't tell you how much I do to avoid getting cancer and now to learn it won't help anyway. :([/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics