Before you were diagnosed did you "know" already?

Absolutely not. Even the stupid radiologists cleared me from a mammogram. 8 weeks later, I found a lump and it turned out to be Stage 4. Yep it was missed by lots of folks. But almost 3 years later I am still doing well. Hope it continues...blessings to you . Carolyn

Hi,

I am finding this to be an interesting thread. A week ago, I felt the lump in the shower, and froze. I thought immediately that it was cancer, and have been convincing myself back and forth ever since. I check it a few times a day-trying to determine if it is or isn't, by touch. I have a mammogram scheduled for tomorrow, so I guess I will then see if my original instinct was right or wrong.

Loula

For a year before I felt anything I had this horrible feeling of impending doom every night I went to bed. Also, my whippet dog was extremely clingy.

After I had the stereotactic biopsy that showed DCIS, the "impending doom" was still there and I was sure that it was not just that. The post BMX pathology proved me right. Once I had the BMX I didn't have that feeling anymore.

On the other hand, after the BMX, I also KNEW that my lymph nodes were clean. Post-ALND pathology showed that I was right again.

Last summer I felt off. I went through our wills, long term disability options, and life insurance. I even got a dog "in case something happened to me" for the kids. I would purposely go outside at night and look up at the sky to remind myself there was a lot more to this earth. I wasn't even going to get my mammogram last fall, I had no symptoms, I was running around between kids, work, you name it. When I was diagnosed at Stage 3 in December I was convinced I was going to die. I freaked myself out so much I spoke to the hospital social worker about it, she said she heard stories like that all the time.

Hi to all!

Just to be clear, I have not been diagnosed yet. I have my first appointment on Friday with my specialist after my ultrasound came with BI-RADS 4B. I had a really big scare in 2013 where the doctors found pre cancerous cells in my cervix (after my genius OBGYN missed it for several years, long story). I was really freaked out and after the surgery the doctor said that if I had waited a few more months it would have definitely been cancer. However, this time its all different. I know something is up and I have been able to place changes in me which I attributed to just life. For instance, I postponed getting the ultrasound until after I came back from vacation. I really felt the urge to get some good R & R before having to face this issue. I have been having pain in my breast since February. At first I thought it was my menstrual cycle, then I thought maybe a muscle I pulled. Then I finally figured out, yeah this is not going away and its not normal. Then during my vacation, I thought I was just tired but I have been just exhausted and extremely tired and fatigued. I thought it was just life. Then I have lost weight, like six pounds for no reason cause I am still eating everything that is not nailed to the wall! All this happened before I got my ultrasound done. I will definitely let you all know what my diagnosis and I will let you all know if I was just ignoring my body for a few months even though it was trying to tell me something was wrong.

I felt a lump on the side of my breast one night in July when I put my hand under my armpits because I was cold. The lump was unusual, didn't hurt and I just knew it shouldn't be there. On Monday morning, I went to my GYN. He said it was probably fibrocystic changes and nothing to worry about, but went ahead and set me up for a DX mammo at my insistence. Two weeks later, went for the DX mammo, stayed for an ultrasound and then a biopsy. Good thing - two days later I was diagnosed with BC. I knew it in my gut from the beginning.

I was diagnosed with Intraductal papilloma and LCIS. I told both the surgical breast oncologist and the medical oncologist that I thought something more was going on, but neither found any clinical evidence. I had a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy for 58.4% lifetime risk of invasive breast carcinoma due to my LCIS and two sisters with breast cancer. The biopsy of the breast tissue showed invasive lobular carcinoma. I wasn't surprised.

Even though I found the lump myself, I still didn't think it was anything but a cyst until I saw the BIRADS 5 on the mammogram results in the patient portal.

This is sort of an eerie question for me. I've had a chronic illness since I was 30 years old, and one of the things it does is drastically reduce Natural Killer cell function, and cause various other immune perturbations. My specialist had warned me that I was at a greater risk of cancer than a normal-health person. I understood this, did the best I could to take care of myself -- I've been eating tons of organic vegetables for years now, never smoked, etc. -- and I remained hopeful, and didn't worry too much. Until about May of this year, and I heard of another woman diagnosed with breast cancer, and I just shivered and had this feeling that my turn with the disease was coming. What seemed odd was that my regular self exams had never turned up anything and then suddenly, at the end of June, I did feel something and it was alarming. The doctor thinks the tumor formed deep and then rose closer to the surface where I could palpate it. The night that I did feel it, and looked and saw dimpling, I was pretty certain it was cancer and I felt sad, but not really surprised. Now, as the weeks pass, my sense of stress is building.

Nope, no idea. Just went in for my normal mammogram.I had very dense breasts and all previous mammograms required me to go back for ultrasound etc. and lots of worry, so I just chalked it up to that. Until they told me I had to schedule a biopsy, then my heart dropped.

I knew I had cancer the instant my fingers touched my breast lump. I'd survived bone cancer as a teen 19 years before, osteosarcoma in my left leg, so the possibility of cancer coming back was never far from my thoughts.. Been there, done that, now I had to do it again. Sitting on my shower bench, a breast in each hand, I felt a lump on the left that wasn't on the right. I called my primary the next day, they pulled some strings because of my cancer history, and got me right in to see the breast surgeon. You know the drill: mammogram, biopsy, diagnosis (multifocal DCIS), then off came the boob. There has to be a better way than this.

Yes, both times.

The first time I felt my lump, I was in the middle of caring for a granmother who had come out of remission with multiple myeloma. Not having time or resources, I made jokes with my fiance about "my tumor" for two years plus some before I began to have nightmares about it every single night and went to get it checked. I was very young and healthy with seasonal allergies and a couple of accidents requiring stitches or a cast. I knew it was cancer when my PC first checked my normal breast and then my problem. For a fraction of a second I saw something on his face that told me all I needed to know.

The second time, my cancer doctors and OB-Gyn all suddenly got strange looks on their faces when they would get to the spot where my first tumor was. I had scar tissue there from wide excisional biopsy, followed by a lumpectomy for clean margins and radiation with boost to the tumor bed. I was again busy with care giving and work during the recession, and kept thinking "scar tissue". I decided to really check for myself to see what exactly they were concerned about. (I had missed doing regular BSEs because of other worries and too busy.) When I checked, I knew but waited again. After almost another year, it was clear and frightening, and I finally did something about it.

I have very dense breasts and no family history. Every mammogram I've had said that my problem breast was fine, even when it had a 3 cm tumor in it. (Twice now.) Ultrasound showed the tumors clearly. Without Breast Self Exams by myself or a medical professional, I probably wouldn't be here. My first OB-Gyn told me I had a cyst with the first one, a few years before I could feel anything. I'm not sure what she felt, but I never went back to her again.

i had no clue. I went to Vegas with my girlfriends to celebrate my 40th birthday. Came home for an annual physical and my doctor suggested a baseline mammo. Got a call back for clusters of microcalcifications. Then I needed a biopsy. My doctor kept telling me not to worry. Then brought me in her office and said "I'm so sorry, you had like a 1% chance...but it's cancer". I was all by myself cause I thought it would be nothing. 4b should have tipped me off but it didn't.

Absolutely no clue. No BC history in my family, and my previous mammo, exactly one year to the date b4 Dx showed NO CANCER.

I'd been having horrible back pain and rib pain, but just figured the back was either arthritis or a bulging disc and that I'd strained/pulled a muscle to account for the rib pain. When the pain became intolerable, DH and I finally convinced my dr to give me a scan (she had REFUSED to do one three times when I asked for it). They found multiple mets in my spine (that was causing the pain and compression fractures and also compressing my spinal cord, which was the WORST pain), also mets in my pelvic bone, hips, and ribs and mets in multiple organs.

I was shocked, and went to all the other scans and biopsy like a drugged zombie (they put me on opioids immediately for the pain). It's been about 6 mos. since Dx, and I still have a hard time believing it.

I have what they call a "ghost" cancer that cannot be seen on a mammo. It's "occult" (hidden), "amorphic" (without definitive shape). It can only be seen on a dye infused CT scan. When I had my biopsy, the tech doing the sonogram had to use my dye CT scan as a guide to find the area so the dr could do the core biopsy. I never felt a lump, never felt sick, just tired for months prior, and I chalked that up to being a 57 year old woman.

I also have a cardiac arrhythmia, so I was always more concerned about keeling over from a heart attack than getting cancer. The Fates really have a sense of humor.

So, here we are, Lita

I knew as soon as I felt the lump. I was putting on lotion and felt it at the top of my breast. I don't have lumpy breasts but they are very dense. I was not at all surprised when they did the ultrasound and the tech asked me not to get dressed because the Dr would probably want to come in to talk to me. It wasn't my Dr but the one at the clinic. She scheduled an MRI and biopsy as soon as their next available appointments before consulting my Dr. Honor Health in Phoenix gives all biopsy results within 24 hrs which is great. Virtually no waiting. 1.9 cm invasive ductile carcinoma grade 3 triple negative BRCA negative age 45

The irritating thing is my gyno had ordered a mammogram AND ultrasound 2 yrs earlier due to dense breasts and when I went in to get it done the CLINIC (not honor health) decided I didn't need an ultrasound because they didn't see anything on the mammo. I don't know if anything was there then but I do know it's still hard to see my tumor on the mammogram but it's very clear on the ultrasound. It could easily have been missed when it was smaller. I tell everyone to request the ultrasound.