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Smelling cancer!
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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@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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1 Reaction@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!
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.
@suki iam going this this now. My right armpit is awful and my breath and vagina smells just went to the Dr and they found lymph nodes in armpit and breast. I am so scared please give some advise
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3 ReactionsFor many months before my ILC diagnosis my right armpit would get body odor but not my left. I thought it was strange and always made sure I washed the right and applied deodorant diligently. After my lumpectomy for 18mm ILC, no node involvement and radiation the odor was gone. Interesting!
@lperkins79 Sending you hugs. I know this is scary, and maybe for some it was an indicator of cancer but also there is a lot in play with the lymph nodes - the smell can be related to changes in your hormones or even swelling/inflammation in that breast. There are cancers that are not invasive yet that might cause that - DCIS - ductal carcinoma in situ - which is essentially stage 0. It is something that can move to stage 1 but your healthcare team can address this with you. I had double mastectomy with direct to implant (immediate reconstruction) - I did have an early stage 1 cancer but can say I am doing very well now - my surgery was 6-26-26. Usually double mastectomy not needed for an early cancer but for me it was because I did not have a lot of my own breast tissue. I have not had a lot of pain post surgery just mainly needing to follow the activity precautions closely. The surgeries have come a long way and it is very very possible you will only need to have just a lumpectomy which is much less invasive. Make a list of questions for your doctor visits. I do use AI/Google to help me with that as well. Searching the internet can be stressful though so be careful with that. Take care we are all in this together and there is a lot of support for us.