Before you were diagnosed, how were you feeling physically?

None! I felt exactly the same as usual.

You might want to get your Vit. D level checked. As we are coming out of winter into spring, it's not at all unusual for some to have been suffering with low Vit. D (S.A.D. - Seasonal Affectively Disorder) for a while. The 'symptoms' you wrote about could possibly be SAD.

It is quite easy to handle if low D is a problem then it's easy to handle. Just take Vit. D suppliments and use a 'light box'. During the late fall, winter and early spring, my PA has me take 10,000 IUs and summer 5,000 IUs daily. I also use my Light Box daily fall, winter, spring daily for at least 20 - 40 minutes a day based on the weather (blizzards I use it longer daily). A light box is designed to simulate sunshine which is associated with Vit. D production.

Exhausted all the time and pain. I had it in my head that bc isn't in my fam so can't be that. It's hormones as it was with pain for my mom at the start of menopause. So I never got checked until 2 years ago from weeks from now the pain was very painful.

I didn't feel any symptoms before diagnosis. In fact, I felt great and was probably in the best shape I'd been in years. I had just finished a summer full of hiking and camping right before I was diagnosed.

Physically fine, but I did have a slight shingles outbreak the year before dx.

However, the entire summer before the actual confirmed dx in September I "felt" that something wasn't right--like there was something waiting for me that was dark and frightening. It was a beautiful summer and sometimes I'd feel like I had an umbrella over me, blocking the sun.

I had gained about five pounds that year, and thought to myself that if I got chemo, I'd lose it. Crazy thoughts to have for no reason, but there you are.

Claire in AZ

Not me! I had no symptoms whatsoever (except for the lump).

I had been feeling like crap for 4-5 years prior to DX. Went to doc, had checkups, nothing found. Mostly fatigue, increased appetite, weight gain, scatterbrain.

I had a flare up of symptoms of my "benign" fibrocystic issues. I gave up caffeine in 2012 and that made my breast pain and cysts nearly go away (I know that removing caffeine doesn't work for everyone.. my breast doc suggested to try it and we were both happy it worked for me)

Then suddenly early this year, age 48 at the time, corresponding with what seem to be other perimenopause symptoms, I had a lot of issues with my left breast: a benign mass, many cysts, inflammation, pain. Had a benign mass surgically removed, had needle biopsies and aspirations. Radiologist and breast surgeon said some was a bit unusual but "for my age" not really enough to worry about -- attributable to fibrocystic breasts and hormone changes -- but checking everything out to be sure. Over the past few months I've had multiple exams on this breast including mammo, US, physical breast exams. Plus the biopsies.

Then boom, after I had been given "all clear" (all of this at a very respected breast specialty center in a major city by the way) and decided I must just have to live with with it, doc called and said she was a surprised but the last needle biopsy -- the very last thing she was going to look at, and that had been previously hidden near a cyst and that the radiologist felt sure was also benign -- was cancer.

Not sure if related but the past couple of years I've also had worse outdoor allergies, joint inflammation and pain (blood tests ruled out the major bad stuff you would first guess), trouble sleeping, and irregular periods. I had it all checked out and did PT and a steroid shot for the worse joint/pain issue (near my clavicle).. was told just age/perimenopause/normal, which might be the case but of course now I wonder.

I felt not different before I was diagnosed.

I felt completely normal before diagnosis.

I've often wondered about this. I didn't think I had any particular symptoms before my diagnosis (aside from the lump) but my cancer was relatively slow-growing and fairly large (almost 3cm) when it was removed. How long had it been there? When would I have started experiencing symptoms? Now I'm on AIs that cause fatigue, brain fog and discomfort so...who's to say whether those possible, pre-existing symptoms have gotten any better?

Also...I've been a research tech and grad student for the last 6 years so the baseline level of exhausted is pretty darn high...

I had been so tired, but I contributed the fatigue to having a 3 year old later in life. 35 when I gave birth. I remember going to the doctor about a year prior and complaining that I just felt off. I didnt notice a lump until I was dx'd at stage 3.

I felt totally fine. My overall health was excellent. My mass was found during a routine breast exam. I had been completely unaware of it...after diagnosis i thought back and maybe remembered feeling it and thinking nothing of it. I'm 33, and I was honestly ignorant about breast cancer. It wasn't on my radar at all.

S12Clear:

I didn't feel bad mentally. Was pretty happy, etc., but did feel more tired than usual for the year/year and a half before diagnosis, too. That is all I can attribute.

I felt like a champ. Better than I have ever felt. No lump, no discharge, no pain. Nothing. A routine mammo picked up my calcifications

I felt fabulous, in great health and good shape. I did not experienced any fatigue during treatment either, not after surgery nor during radiotherapy. The day after my surgery I did a 12kmwalk.