1. < Breast Cancer

Smelling cancer!

Posted by trixie1313 @trixie1313, Jan 26, 2019

Did anyone smell their cancer before diagnosis? For months I kept smelling a strong ammonia-type smell and would have prickly heat waking me in the middle of the night as well as my breast swelling. I'd ask family members if they could smell anything on me and they did not. I drank more water, changed my eating habits, but nothing stopped it. After my first lumpectomy, most of the smell had gone. After the second lumpectomy/partial mastectomy, it was completely gone. Now, 2 1/2 months post-surgery, I am starting to smell that smell again and getting quite concerned that maybe cancer is coming back somewhere. I have 9 more radiation treatments to go and finished my TC chemo in October, but was chemo resistant.

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mimi1964 | @mimi1964 | Mar 11 2:11pm
In reply to @1murf "I DID!!!!!!!! Oh my to find someone else that had that. I started smelling ammonia off..." + (show)
@1murf

I DID!!!!!!!! Oh my to find someone else that had that. I started smelling ammonia off my skin but it went away for a number of months. Then it came back and went away. This happened twice in a two year period. Then I was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. I know this post is 6 years old. I'm trusting everyone is ok. ❤️ My ammonia odor was not specific to an area. I felt like it was just leaking out of my skin. Though I didnt have a change in sweat. People could smell it if they stood by me. Especially if I was working out. I felt like I had covered myself with it. It gave me headaches. Now that I'm diagnosed, I don't smell it anymore. You know, dogs can smell cancer. Perhaps some of us can too when it starts to invade! Docs had no clue and were not willing to even test to try and figure it out. Err on caution if this happens to you!

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I also smelled ammonia but it was in my urine. Had my invasive ductile cancer removed from my breast and I don't smell it anymore. I thought it was just me!

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2 replies
mawmaws | @mawmaws | Mar 12 1:18pm
In reply to @mimi1964 "I also smelled ammonia but it was in my urine. Had my invasive ductile cancer removed..." + (show)
@mimi1964

I also smelled ammonia but it was in my urine. Had my invasive ductile cancer removed from my breast and I don't smell it anymore. I thought it was just me!

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It does have a smell and it’s called something. I’m gonna try to post a picture here for you because I have really sticky armpits ever since I was diagnosed with cancer and I found this.

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mawmaws | @mawmaws | Mar 12 1:20pm
In reply to @mimi1964 "I also smelled ammonia but it was in my urine. Had my invasive ductile cancer removed..." + (show)
@mimi1964

I also smelled ammonia but it was in my urine. Had my invasive ductile cancer removed from my breast and I don't smell it anymore. I thought it was just me!

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Let me know if you got the picture

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2 replies
mimi1964 | @mimi1964 | Mar 12 2:27pm
In reply to @mawmaws "Let me know if you got the picture" + (show)
@mawmaws

Let me know if you got the picture

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Mawmaws I didn't see the picture.

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mawmaws | @mawmaws | Mar 12 6:10pm
In reply to @mawmaws "Let me know if you got the picture" + (show)
@mawmaws

Let me know if you got the picture

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I hope you see the picture this time. This explains what the smell is from breast cancer.
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cookercooker | @cookercooker | Mar 13 9:56am

I also smelled something awful. I can't say it smelled like ammonia though, but it had a chemical-like odor. This was coming from my nether parts. I have endometrial cancer. I had a short burst of radiation to dry up the tumor somewhat and it did reduce the smell somewhat.

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delfinogn | @delfinogn | Mar 13 11:18am

I felt like I smelled different right after surgery, for a few weeks. I’m not great at identifying smells, but I thought it was unusual and maybe in my head. I wonder if the cancer smell you guys are noting is why dogs have been known
to detect cancer.

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1 reply
mawmaws | @mawmaws | Mar 17 5:42pm
In reply to @delfinogn "I felt like I smelled different right after surgery, for a few weeks. I’m not great..." + (show)
@delfinogn

I felt like I smelled different right after surgery, for a few weeks. I’m not great at identifying smells, but I thought it was unusual and maybe in my head. I wonder if the cancer smell you guys are noting is why dogs have been known
to detect cancer.

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Yes, I do believe you’re right about the dogs. I just had a weird experience with my own dog, rubbing his nose across my stomach and up under my left arm pit on the left side of my body where the cancer was removed, then he started trying to lick me in that area.and I recently had a circulating cancer, DNA test come back positive. I posted a picture on here what the smell is called and I circled it. This is from a study in Japan. It’s in this post. If you go back a few you can see it.

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mimi1964 | @mimi1964 | Mar 23 7:29pm

I too smelled ammonia in my urine before surgery but my radiation nurse said that's just your body shedding cells from your uterus during/after menopause.

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