Let's conduct our own study on how we all got breast cancer

coraleliz

I'm pretty sure housework, even in small doses puts us at risk. I'd hire a housekeeper but then I'd feel bad if she came down with BC. OK, so maybe I really can't afford it....

Anonymous

coraleliz, you are so caring to think of not getting a housekeeper to keep her safe.  Hmmm, maybe being nice gave you BC because I'm nice too and, here I am!

Then again, I always loved to read zumbagirl so maybe that's also one of the culprits, the written word.  Guess we need to turn BCo into audio so we don't have to read posts.

Ouija board, yeah, I played with that and it can, in some respects I think, be thought of as voodoo?  Oh, so many things - no wonder I got BC! 

Leah_S

Well, my goodness, if it's reading I'm doomed. Considering the amount I read, it's no wonder I got BC and then got mets.

Pleasepleaseplease Patoo tell me it's not reading.

Leah

cinnamonsmiles

It probably came cuz of all the guys I had sex with (I was quite promiscuous back in the day)...Or maybe it was the peanut butter cookie diet I went on the summer before 6th grade..maybe it was the rotten Skoal I tried in 8th grade and threw up...My partner believes in Karma ( a little more than I do). We were talking the other day and with all the bad things that has happened in my life I told him, "Man, the universe has GOT to be DONE with me soon." And I sooo related to maybe it was the all the Aqua-net hairspray and mousses I used in the 80s..ha ha ha

Anonymous

Okay Leah, set your mind to rest because my entire family are readers and I'm the only one who got BC.  I'm also the one who did the most housework cause many of them are borderline hoarders so, again, it could be housework.

lassie11

Now I am kind of worried about the lovely ladies who clean my house. Is housework for which you are paid exempt from causing BC? I was feeling a bit smug about never vacuuming again but if it is going to hurt someone else, I may have to rethink things.

zumbagirl

Maybe it is from touching all the dirty U.S currency. I work in a bank as a teller and touch it all the time. No one escapes touching money, so it can't be that, or everyone would have BC. It may be a certain clothing style?

survivor11

I had to chime in. Has to be housework. Don't want anyone else hurt so guess I'll be on the next episode of hoarders.

Maybe it's all the people we take care of? As a nurse I've cared for thousands of patients and pathetic exhusband and three wild little boys, plus an array of friends, co-workers and animals. That's why women outnumber men with this diagnosis.

Leah_S

Whew, Patoo, I am so relieved!

I can give up housework easily but giving up reading?

Leah

sas-schatzi

Thought this had gone dormant and was going to bump it. ------------duh--------- quite active-

I got cancer b/c my maternal grandmother lived in a farm community early in the last century and the unfettered use of pesticides and fertilizers affected her family. The amount of Cancer in that family tree is highly unusual.   Now those broken genes have been passed on to my generation. Of 19 female first cousins on that side 11 have had cancer--------9BC, 1 liver, 1 ovarian. The boys got off easy------24 male first cousins that side ---------1 with prostate ca.

GmaFoley

Just found this forum... wow... there are a few ideas... could it have been the fumes from me and my friend burning crayons on the radiator heater in 4th grade or eating the peppermint flavored glue paste??? I heard that long term use of my antidepressant (in my case, prozac)  or sweet n low sweetener that I have been using since I was a teen??? The last two were actual REAL questions...

Denise2730

Personally I think it's caused by cooking dinner.

Kathy36

I'm pretty sure it was all the Creepy Crawlers I made and consumed. (I can't believe they sold edible goo!)

sas-schatzi

I know I made mine sound horrible, But I had a  full second cousin trace roots back to Ireland for the paternal side grandfather, it was for him a genealogy hobby. His only finding was there was heart disease. No cancer. Cancer didn't become an issue until grandmother and grandfathers  issue of ten children became older. Then in 1996 an aunt, cousin, and my twin all were dx'd with BC. Then we found out another cousin had been dx'd in the 80's . She was embarrassed and kept it silent. BUT when I did a cancer tree for a geneticist-------out of ten there were many, The other scary factor was how many had Alzheimer's or dementia. Technically Alzheimer's can't be definitively dx'd until autopsy. My one last Aunt on the paternal side who is in full dementia, will respond that her good health is do to good genes. OH my. She's happy in her own world and has moments of lucidness. She has a couple of Doctorates. Is a NUN ----is being very well taken care of in the convent.  Since both Cancer and Dementia showed up on her generation to the extent it did, you would think the geneticist would have said ----we should take this further. She read from a chart produced by someone else and her eyebrows never elevated. If she was truly scientific, her reaction should have been "OH shit we have something here to study"

justagirl

I think it was all the drugs injected into me: estrogen and progesterone - whil trying to get pregnant on an IVF program....or the menopause drug I was on for 5 years, or drinking a diet coke every day....or stress, lots of stress...........

GmaFoley

Justagirl??? Just one diet coke a day??? - I drink like 6 a day since i was about 15 - mom put me on weight watchers then and switched to diet soda....

AStorm

Since my mom and I both had bc, it must be something we have in common... but then my bff also got bc a year after my dx, so it must be something we have in common... and then there are the thousands of women of all shapes and sizes and ages and lifestyles who got bc... it must be something we have in common... breasts?

justagirl

GmaFoley - Well, may more than one diet coke a day when I had to work 24 hour shift in the ICU.  My stomach could only take so much coffee so I guess on those days it was more like 3 cokes in a day.  Oh course, diet coke so I could have a candy bar with it and still keep my weight down!

I truly think if anything I did gave me BC it was all those hormone injections while on the IVF program....but then I don't regret doing it as I now have a beautiful 17 year old son.

I also spontaneously lost 100% of the hearing in one ear overnight 7 years ago.  Went to bed, feeling fine and hearing.  Next morning terrible dizziness, pain and total deafness in one ear.  No cause ever found.  MRI normal.  The specialist said it was probably a virus which damaged the auditory nerve. A hearing aid won't help.  This also happened to another nurse I worked with but for her it was about 20 years ago.  I still wonder if we were exposed to something?

Are we being exposed to something which stimulates dormant bc cells in our body to become active?

zumbagirl

Reading some of the earlier posts, The color pink may have something to do with it. I also, used Love's baby soft , and ate pink cotton candy, and used those pink spongy rollers in my hair, and I even at those pink dot candys on the paper. wow, it is all making sense now.

zumbagirl

ate those pink dots LOL

mumito

Oh no I did, ate and used all the same pink things that zumbagirl just mentioned.SCAREY

Hindsfeet

I never liked the color pink so I can't blame it on that...

Rather Premaritan (horse urine) and stress...maybe my sweet tooth added to my demise

Anonymous

Great to see this thread still alive and well!!

AHHHH, pink sponge rollers!! Oh yea and kiss curls! With tape on them to make them stay.......musta been the glue on the tape, my mom made me do that!

The nieghbourhood kids, I blame them, they always called me "flatsypatsy" well........looks like they were right!

Anonymous

Actually we couldn't afford the pink rollers and just tore up brown paper bags and made our own so maybe it was sleeping on brown paper bags tied into our hair.  Or Dixie Peach hair grease.  Black children got that stuff slathered into our heads.  Clogged the pores in our scalps so any dead cells just went the other way, down to our breasts. 

Birds

I'm fairly certain I brought my breast cancer on myself by open mouth breathing.  You know, instead of keeping my mouth closed and breathing through my nose.  That has to be how it got in, doesn't it? 

Stanzie

Perhaps it is cooking endless meals no one eats but you of course, driving carpool with fighting kids who actually look at each other or gasp breath! ,making kids practice piano lessons, ironing - you know that is terrible for you! load after load of laundry, changing diapers, those late night - Oh Mom, I forgot I have to make a Volcano by tomorrow morning, can you help me?

Or maybe it is taking all the family pictures where for some reason the only person never documented in the pictures is You. Well of course till you get all the wrinkles and lines and such then they take the close up pictures!

Great thread - thanks for the laughs!

 

zumbagirl

How many of us have teenagers, I am thinking the extreme stress they cause may have something to do with it. I have a 16 and 18 year old, and the last two years have been extremely stressful.

thepinkbirdie

Little Debbie snacks.

Leah_S

Zumbagirl, I think you're on to something. I have 6 kids so that's a lot of teenagers. My youngest is now 18 so this could mean NED's around the corner!

Leah

sas-schatzi

Leah-S----------how wonderful, six children, I so dreamed of having more kids than my wonderful one son. I always love your posts, your insight from serious to funny. Your kids are lucky to have such a mom. I would hazard a guess they are pretty amazing young adults sas