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 used to have these “funny do’s”, simular to the feeling when your going to faint, Id have them 2-3 times a day then would go a while not having any. They would make me feel sick sometimes i was. When i look back i can see about 4 months before being dx they got worse. I went doc’s who said it was a bug but my onc said yes it could possibly be a symptom, i know sometimes there are no symptoms at all im just curious if anyone else has had anything.
I had a feeling of great tiredness and kept falling asleep after work before dx in Feb 08. I had the ‘fainting’ spells too. I had pain in my left arm. Despite all of this a few months before dx. , I could not feel a lump. It was in my left breast and had grown from deep in the breast. i also had lost weight. i wondered why i could eat so much and never put on weight.I do feel better now.
Thats a good question. Many people have asked me this -i suppose so they can see if they have any tell tale signs.
I used to live at my local pool. Three or four times a week i used to really ‘go for it’ doing anything up to 80 lengths a session. I used to try to beat the seconds clock and manage constant lengths (all 80 !)at 38 seconds per 25mtr length in breast stroke.
The year leading up to DX i really stuggled and often couldnt manage more than 40 which i thought was strange but put it down to my age and just over doing it or my usual ‘obsessive’ behaviour. All or nothing type of thing. It got more of a strugle as the months went on then when i was DX could only put it down to this.
Two years before DX i had a hysterectomy because of massive fibroids. I looked 8 months pregnant and couldnt lay on my back. I used to get these horrible nausea spells, several a day and thought that after my hysterectomy it would go. For the following year i still had them for sure but i cant remember if i had them for the following year (that was the year i was DX) so maybe this sympton as well. But thats all.
So i think tiredness really was my main sympton.
When I think back now, I was very tired prior to my diagnosis. At the time I put this down to having being diagnosed as perimenopausal (my periods had become extremely heavy and I was on medication for this). 12 months before I was diagnosed my dad had died in a nursing home and I was the executor of the estate, so I was busy with that as well as starting our own business. I now think the fatigue was down to what was going on with the cancer. My oncologists told me that they often get people telling them at the end of their treatment that they were very tired prior to diagnosis, so I think there must be something in this.
Hi all - I too felt extremely tired prior to being diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005. At the time my 19 year old daughter was studying for ‘A’ levels and working part-time at Starbucks at Meadowhall after school. She had not passed her driving test at the time and I would drive over from home (which is about 5 or 6 miles to pick her up around ten o’clock at night. Sometimes I felt that I would literally fall asleep at the wheel. I had another strange symptom in that a couple of months before being diagnosed my breast smelt of breast milk - like when you have just given birth and the smell was quite strong. Never heard of anyone having this symptom but it went as soon as I had my treatment - it is one of the signs I look out for now (strange I know ) Sandra
I had never thought about it until now - but I fainted 3 times in an hour at a persons house about one month before diagnosis. I had never fainted before and I have never fainted since. I was also feeling very tired.