Exhaustion Before & After Diagnosis

Margot62

Hello To All You Heroes Today!

I marvel at all the resilience and bravery stored in these posts. It’s almost palpable when I log in. You are life’s soldiers, and don’t believe for a second that your journey hasn’t inspired and touched all those who know and love you.

My fatigue started a year ago in earnest. Even longer. Probably about the time the cancer left the duct and set out on a northern road. I haven’t been able to get out of my own way for months and months and months. A full year or more before diagnosis!

I don’t know how such a little tumor could make me so exhausted, but it has. I also noticed a lot of aging in my face this last year. Granted I am 56, but it’s been these last 12 months especially that there were days I literally said outloud that I felt 80.

I went to a doctor in December and had her look into it, but we didn’t come up with “cancer” as a possibility, and I marched home with a list of dietary changes. Looking back, unusual fatigue is one of the seven signs of cancer,and it did cross my mind, but only in a half-measured way.

I’ve done some research and apparently, this is a real thing with other woman with breast cancer, too. Lots of them. They feel weird, tired or unwell a year or more before diagnosis. I found a post on another website by a woman that literally took my breath away. I found her description of her pre-diagnosis symptoms to be exactly like mine and I didn’t feel so alone! She said that a year or more before her cancer was discovered, she gained twenty pounds, her boobs suddenly got big and she was always exhausted.

I feel as if I have chronic fatigue. Thankfully, I can stay home and do nothing as my husband is the main bread earner, and I have all but stopped my freelance writing from home. Each day, I can get up and do a few things but then I’m right back on the couch.

It seems strange even to me, but then I’ve always had the weirdest reaction to everything my whole life.

Wondering if anyone else dealt with something similar?

Best to you all!

Diagosed Feb. 4, 2019

IDC 8mm, PR+ ER+, Her-, Grade 2

Surgery April 22nd. Undecided.

AliceBastable

Gosh, I guess everyone's different. I never felt better and more energized than I did last year, before and during diagnosis and treatment.

Rah2464

Margot62 unremitting fatigue is what helped get me diagnosed (finally). After years of "clean" 3D mammograms and letters saying come back next year for your annual, I made an appointment with a breast surgeon and described to her my concerns. I had markedly different fatigue for the past year and my left breast felt off somehow. Heavy was the only way I could describe it. No one could find my tumor as my small breasts were very dense and the mass was close to my chest wall.

I think as well that when my cancer moved from DCIS to IDC, my body was fighting fiercely to contain it. I live on a farm and do a lot of physical work at times. I would literally work for an hour then have to come inside and lay down for 15 minutes to recharge. I knew something was seriously wrong. This newer level of fatigue was occurring the two months leading up to my diagnosis. That little voice inside my head was screaming at me to do something! I am so thankful that I found a cautious doctor who listened to me and reacted by setting me up for an MRI.

My recovery from the BMX has been longer than I thought it would be. My energy levels I am happy to report are beginning to crank up again. I am doing (gently) work outside and painting in the house. Tasks that I couldn't have done last year. The anti hormonal meds definitely slow me down. I would say I am running about 70% of my old energy level. So I am focusing on nutrition and proper exercise and feel I am making headway. Just remember this is a marathon, not a sprint. There is a lot of emotional upheaval that comes along with this experience and you have to find ways to work through that. I found that yoga with a group of cancer warriors and meditation have been extremely helpful along with some acupuncture.

So get the rest you need, when you need it. Be gentle on yourself and allow things to flow. You will be feeling much much better as time goes by. Good luck on the April 22 surgery. It will be here before you know it.

lightningblue

Margot62 -- wow. I feel so validated reading this. I have been so fatigued, I found myself google searching for whether cancer itself can cause such exhaustion. I know that post-diagnosis the depression-like feelings caused some kind of tiredness, but it was definitely there before.

I'm 32. I used to run 5 miles a day and weight train. Over the past year I've become all but useless. My diagnosis is almost the exact same as yours (IDC, ER/PR+, Her2-, grade 2) but my tumour is 5 cm. It makes sense to me that the body would be fatigued if it's trying to fight cancer, but I couldn't find any science backing this up. Thank you for posting this... you're definitely not the only one!

JaBoo

I got diagnosed in May last year. That spring, I was unusually tired. I said to my DH on several occasions things like "my springtime fatigue is unusually heavy this year!" and "I hope I am not developing chronic fatigue!". My unusuall fatigue set in just 2-3 months prior to diagnosis. The tumour grew very quickly. I had been going to yearly US checks because of family history and they were always clear. The tumour was clearly visible on ultrasound and it hadn't been there just a few months before.

JulieSim

I was recently diagnosed with DCIS which is not even considered a cancer. And I was trying to ask Dr.Google so many times and in so many ways - is there any chance that my exhaustion was related to DCIS?..

I have always been very energetic, waking up early and going to bed late, and for the last few months I can barely wait till 9pm. I do work and continue doing all the chores and what not, but sometimes in the evening I literally feel that my battery dies and I cannot play with the kids. I have some on call weeks scheduled at work, and I am totally unsure how to handle it, I am afraid I won't be able to do my work properly..

Rah2464

JulieSim I prefer to think this way - your fatigue is/was generated by your body fighting that DCIS and keeping it contained in that milk duct. So once you get it out of there and get your primary treatment completed, your body will have all that energy that was working so hard for you behind the scenes. For me that recovery has been a little slower than I would like but remember you expend a lot of emotional energy with this diagnosis as well. I know at least I did and sometimes still do. It will get better but you are still in the center of the storm. Take it easy on yourself, you are processing a lot right now.

60notpretty

Margot62,

I too was feeling exhausted most days about 8-12 months prior to the diagnosis. I kept thinking something must be wrong, but never could figure it out. I now know that is what it was. I have completed my surgeries and am waiting to start radiation, so I will probably continue the fatigue for awhile. I've started anastrozole and my body aches. Not sure if this is just a side effect of the Als or not. 

Flynn

I was taking meds for migraines before I was diagnosed. We attributed my daily naps to the meds. In retrospect, we probably missed an early symptom. Otherwise, I was exercising and in good shape but I did feel an unusual fatigue. No way to tell now for sure what caused it but my b/w wasn't ideal from my 1st MO appt.

purplestargazer

With my fist DX, in 2017, I felt healthier than I ever had. It was a shock. About a month before my second DX, last month, I felt intense fatigue. Coincidence? I have no idea.