I was just wondering if anyone had had any other symptoms apart from finding a lump before being dx. I asked my onc this because about a year before i was dx i started having these “funny do’s” simular to how you feel when your going to faint, Id have them sometimes twice three times a day then i could go a while without having one but they would make me feel sick and some of the time i was. When i look back i can see that about 4 months before being dx they got worse i did go doctors he said it was a bug but my onc said yes it could possibly be a symptom, i know sometimes there is no symptoms at all, im just curious if anyone else had any.
I fel unusually tired and had occasional dizzy spells when out shopping. The bright lights in supermarkets were the worst.
My GP said it was the result of low blood pressure and stress due to my husband and mother dying within the same year.
After surgery and treatment they disappeared but am on femara and they have returned though not as frequently as before. Interesting to see how others fared.
Trish
hi everyone, I had several dizzy spells for several months, but just thought it was due to low or high blood pressure, didn’t have it checked out though - mmmm interesting.
I went part-time in June as I was feeling so tired, and then found the lump four weeks later
Had a dx on July 17th and felt fine until September when I started chemo. Have now finished radiotherapy and just started on Herceptin.
Have also just gone onto half pay, which is only a quarter of what I was on this time last year - but am lucky to have that.
Until I found the lump, everyone just assumed tiredness was due to getting older! If only!!
Prior to my diagnosis, I had lost weight, sometimes had no appetite and felt very run down, but I thought it was having a young child, my husband worked away from home and I was working at the time. So alot of stress but I just thought things would sort themselves out, never in my wildest dreams did i think at thirty one it could be cancer, even when I found the lump I thought it was related to having my son just over a year before, perhaps a blocked milk duct or something ! Little did I know …
I found my lump in Feb 2006 but before this, going back to Sept 05 I used to get very tired on and afternoon and fall asleep on the sofa, then wake up in a panic thinking it was after 3:20pm and I hadn’t gone to collect my daughter from school.
Then in Nov 05 I got prickly pain in my boob so I started checking myself but there was no lump until Feb 06.
Now I know the prickly pain was the dcis becoming invasive.
No! I had no other symptoms…well other than an aching armpit which was cancer in my lymph nodes.
Most women get no general symptoms of breast cancer…initially it is a local disease. It is easy though after the event to ‘remember’ other strange things hapening in our bodies…as though trying to find other signs of a very serious diesae…it is so hard to realise that it can possibly be cancer when you feel perfectly ordinary.
I replied on the other thread of the same title.
It seems as though tiredness is a common symoton. I suppose its because our body its having to works extra hard at trying to attack the cancer leaving the rest of our system to feel tired or 'funny turns.
I really strugled trying to swim my normal amount of lengths - in the end i could barely manage half the norm and also used to fall a sleep on the settee in the afternoon. Something i havent done since.
I too experienced extreme tiredness for a few months before my diagnosis, dragging myself to work in the mornings and falling asleep in the evenings. I was diagnosed in February 2005 and I remember in December 2004 making a new year’s resolution to start having earlier nights but it didn’t make much difference. Had mastectomy, chemo and rads and when it was all over I felt so much more energised. When I went onto Aromasin the initial joint pains slowed me down a lot but they did ease eventually and I think the tiredness I occasionally feel now is probably due to advancing age!!
Never had any symptoms before being diagnosed with bc and mets together, and have hardly had a days illness since. 1 day in bed, if I recall rightly (over 3 1/2 years on).
I also went through a few months where i kept having dizzy spells… I also found that when i was typing i would look back and see i had put in an extra word that was totally out of context…
eg
“Glad to stripped hear you got the car sorted…”
i know i am not “false remembering” it as i mentioned it at the time to a friend who works in neurology… but since i was diagnosed it stopped…
Also the texture of my hair changed… infact the day before i noticed the problem with my breast i had my hair cut… and even my hairdresser was agreeing how weird my hair had gone…
hi All,
I had similar symptoms before Dx, tiredness, caught every bug going, had ongoing ear infections, cystitis and thrush. i also remember having a wierd thing in my left arm about a year before dx, where my elbow swelled up for no aparent reason and was really painful for about a week. doc put it down to tennis elbow, but never had it before or again. Was dx with Bc on left side, can’t help thinking there was something there.
im really shocked at how many people seem to have simular symptoms prior to being dx, seems tiredness is the main thing along with dizzy spells. There surely got to be something in it.
I had no symptoms either before my primary or my secondary dx. In fact just before my secondary dx, had spent the Easter week walking 84 miles along Hadrian’s Wall. Felt fitter than I had done for some years despite the large cluster of tumours in my liver.
Hi
i had a ache in my left arm and also had dizzy spells before dx this has stopped now we went on holiday the week before and i spent most of it sleeping as i just had no energy.