What do you think caused your breast cancer?

@colely Interesting! I had only one cyst and one benign tumor but thought it might be more the intervention *(surgery to remove, and biopsy) that would be associated with later bc, but interesting to read about epithelial activity...

@briarrose You have for sure had a bad time. I hope you stay cancer free for the rest of your life.

@ekorre Thank you.

@diannetaggart
Thank you for sharing. I have been stressed since my sister moved near me. She seems to overreact to things and I don’t handle that well. She seems at times to be delusional and I have learned from my friend who is a psychologist to not confront her when she is in this state. Her house is full of so much stuff you can hardly walk around in there. No counter top to work on because filled with stuff. No seat to sit down to visit I have to stand up. She is single and older than me so I feel responsible to help her . It has caused me alot of stress and I always felt that cancer popped up when under stress. I am working on trying to handle my emotions and anxiety I get being around her. I never used to pray but I do all the time now. I look at life differently now after going through this which was way less than a lot of you have endured. I pray for all of you in hopes your journey isn’t too difficult.

@briarrose
My heart goes out to you! I pray that God will guide your son out of the addiction. God can grant miracle when we’re at our wits’ end. One thing I learned from yoga that’s very helpful is breathing. When I feel stressed, I take several deep breaths, the 4-7-8 technique. In for 4, hold to a count of 7, then breathe out to a count of 8. My dear friend, I pray you will have no recurrence and you have the strength to help your son recover. Hugs.

I'm fairly certain hormone therapy jump started my bouts (yes, twice) with breast cancer. In 2005 I was diagnosed with cancer in the left breast. It was about 4 or 5 years after I started hormone therapy (had absolutely no sex drive, my husband at the time started an affair and said it was because of my "lack of interest".... I was under a lot of stress, was dealing with the 3 deaths in a row of the 3 people I loved most ... just an abundance of unhappiness and stress, including a career in a highly competitive field that was lucrative but as high stress as you can get - so I started hormone therapy, and within a week, I was definitely more in the mood, it was like a switch had been turned on! (we ended up divorcing anyway, because the ex said "I don't want someone who only wants to be intimate because they have to take drugs to feel that way" .... he was an idiot. ) Anyway, several years after the divorce I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I ended up with a lumpectomy, after chemo (to shrink tumor) then surgery, then more chemo, followed by radiation and years and years taking letrozole). After many years on letrozole, another doctor told me to stop taking it. So I did. And a few years later, developed breast cancer again, in the same breast. 2006-2024, cancer free. A good long run. And last year, I had a double masectomy, because I did not want to worry about another breast cancer developing in the other breast, and I'm still recovering. After discussing in depth with my oncologist about my goals for the last years of my life, I made the choice of no chemo, no radiation, and no reconstruction, because at my age (75) I don't want to spend the last 5-10 years in recovery. (you don't "recover" from chemo in a year - it takes years and years and you never fully recover, that's been my experience) I never smoked, drank very lightly and only occasionally- I definitely "blame" the breast cancer occurring because of hormone therapy.

@ekorre
Many, many kind thank you's dear ekorre, such compassionate thoughts so very appreciated 🙂
I wish the same for you as well.
Stay strong, be well.
Blessings.

@briarrose Thanks.