Hi, I’m new to posting but have often found lots of useful information on this site over the past few years and am hoping to find some good advice.
I was diagnosed with stage 3 lobular breast cancer in 2012 (large tumour and spread to 11 lymph nodes). Had usual treatment followed by tamoxifen and zoladex. I’m now just on tamoxifen.
After coping quite well with the fear of recurrence, the worry is now back with a vengeance. I think this has been triggered by the unexpected death of my mum earlier this year. She became unwell very quickly and died a few weeks after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
I’m obviously still grieving and also suffering with general anxiety since her loss. The thing is I feel physically unwell and keep putting it down to symptoms of stress.
I’m basically exhausted all the time, my balance is off, keep getting tingling sensations in my scalp, face and mouth and have a lot of aches and pains, particularly in my back and ribs. My balance has never been right since I had vertigo several years ago, but has been worse this past couple of months and I also have a gallstone which could be causing some of the pain.
I saw my oncologist in September for a yearly check up and because the first thing she did was tell me that my blood results were OK I didn’t tell her how I was feeling because I assumed everything must be OK (silly I know). A recent ultrasound of my abdomen was also OK, other than confirming the gallstone hadn’t magically disappeared!
I don’t want to keep bothering my GP or instigate a raft of tests unnecessarily, but I 'm struggling to stop thinking the worst and keep worrying that the cancer may have spread. Can I trust that my blood test results are a good indicator that my symptoms aren’t due to cancer? Any advice would be greatfully appreciated. Many thanks in advance.