Ever had that feeling deep inside of just knowing?

Not quite the same but here's my story.

Failed my first mammy and was sent for biopsies on both sides. Left cancer, right calcification cluster currently B9. Was given my options of lumpectomy UMX or BMX. Chose BMX because I just knew the right would eventually go bad and I do not want to do this again in 5-10 years. At my initial Med onc visit, he confirmed that in his experience, my gut was completely accurate. I know that my decision was the right one.......

Yes, I have been right a few times now. My DX was on the right breast. The left had a few small cysts. All the scans showed those cysts benign. The docs were all convinced that the left breast was fine. I chose to have it lopped off, and the biopsy showed early stage cancer.

I refused tamox, because I was convinced that the large fibroids on my uterus were bad news and tamox can cause endometrial cancer. Onc thought I was being hysterical. Had hyster and biposy showed hyperplasia of the cells of the endometrium. Not cancer, but getting there. 

So, yes, I would bring it up. 

No. I was totally oblivious to reality each time. Over the last 10 years, I had numerous call backs for suspicious mammos and each time, until the last time, they were negative. I got the surprise of my life when this one turned out cancerous. Then, every doctor and every scan indicated no nodes. I believed it 100% until I woke up from surgery and my husband told me that I had two with micromets. So, I hope you are wrong and this time it is B9. Believe me, we CAN be wrong. (((HUGS)))

I knew when I got my inflammatory breast cancer.  As soon as the rash presented and with the other symptoms I was having, I knew.  So thankful for a breast specialist that was able to diagnos and save my life. 

Thank you for your post. Yes, my instincts did let me know there was something "wrong" before any signs occurred for cancer; yet I knew. I did not have a lump, as I had ILC, which presents as a flat pattern across tissue, so there were no signs, but I knew. So, I would say that your gut always knows, and that is Ok. The only issue with that has been for me is that one does not know what to do when the boundary between inuition and science is too wide. This can make us feel helpless, but I am not sure we have to. The good news is that if we catch it early by advocating and continuing to go to the doctor and say, "Something is wrong." The liklihood is very high that it will be caught early. What I have been trying to do with these "gut" instincts is to know that there are things I can do and things I cannot. For example, with or without scans, if I have that feeling I switch to a vegan diet, bump up the CoQ10, Vitamin D3, and exercise more than usual in an attempt to strengthen the cells in my body. It is all I can do. I check for other issues in my life that are unhealthy and try to mangae them. For example, are you under stress? Can you meditate or go to a therapist or support group or get acupunture? I think the hardest part is: When one knows they must trust these feelings no matter, what is it that is within one's control and what is not. What I have found is that there a a number of things I can control that do not have to do with denying the reality of my intuition, as, to be honest, my intuition has saved my life. With your lymphnodes, mine too are very swollen 3 year's out. I am beginning to see an internist who says my bilirubin is low, which means that my liver is laboring to work, which means some type of filtering is happening in my body.  I believe my body is trying very hard to clean itself from the cancer treatments and it takes this long to do so. The scans, for me too, are showing up clean, but I know my body is fighting like hell to stablize and become healthy again. I am trying to help it. Some people actually go on a juice fast in order to cleanout the chemicals used to cure cancer. I am considering this. But most of all, I am trusting my instincts. If they are fear, that is fine, I am happy to be afraid of something bigger than me, and also happy to try anything I can that I have control to do so to help my body. 

I hope this helps. I have met many women now who have said they even dreamed about having breast cancer before it showed up in their life. But the good news is, something inside of you is telling you something if "wrong" or "off" and it may not be cancer, but your body is telling you this and it is Ok to follow that. Perhaps a really good internist can help anlyze the other parts of your body too. I am in the process of doing that as for so long I focused on cancer in order to survive, but there is the rest of my body to contend with now. I went to see an acupunturist 6 month's ago and he looked at me and said immediately he could tell there was inflammation in my body and gave me herbs and also did acupunture on me. Until that happened, I forgot that my body is whole and intelligent. 

Hi Avilla- for your peace of mind, why not ask for a fine needle biopsy? Then, if it's nothing, you can have peace, if it is something, it will get the ball rolling to treat it?

If you search my post out on the ILC section, you can read about how I "knew" about all of this as well.  I had 3 boob-dreams in a row and decided I should self-exam.  NOTHING felt wrong and there was no lump, but a voice in me told me to go for mammogram and push to have tests.  Mammo showed nothing and ultrasound showed nothing but they had a new MRI machine and there it was.

Back to ultrasound...nothing...so MRI again for the biopsy.  Surgeon said no way MRI could be wrong on size...7mm is what they thought.  I told them they were wrong.  Turned out to be 1.8cm.

First onco said my oncotypedx score would be low..I knew it would be intermediate....I was a 20.

I do not know how I know these things, but now, when my gut tells me something, I do not discount it.  I would rather be wrong and laughed at then the other way around.

Best to you.  I am so sorry you are dealing with this.