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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Profile picture for briarrose @briarrose

An Australian Shepherd is a great dog.
You have a good plan in place.
There is no doubt in my mind dogs and smell cancer. Their "smelling" abilities, I think, are about 200x greater than a human.
Keep us posted on the final pathology results, very often different from what the surgeon originally thinks.
Hang in there...best of luck to you!

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@briarrose it’s funny you mentioned Australian Shepherd. That’s what I have and my dog did smell my cancer. He put his nose exactly where it had returned and kept doing it nudging me and acting funny.

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Profile picture for mawmaws @mawmaws

@briarrose it’s funny you mentioned Australian Shepherd. That’s what I have and my dog did smell my cancer. He put his nose exactly where it had returned and kept doing it nudging me and acting funny.

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@mawmaws Wow, yes I am a believer in the power of dogs sniffing out cancer.
And your beautiful Australian Shepherd (truly wonderful dogs) did exactly that.
Hope you are doing OK and your treatments for your returned cancer are tolerable and working as they should be.
All the very best to you!

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What type of breast cancer do you have? Sounds like triple negative which is what I have.
Your story is most interesting. I have a German Shepherd.

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