Smelling cancer!

Diabetes cause aroma...might question your doctor

Similar situation. Last year, my left armpit had a bad smell. I washed very well but still when I got out of the shower, I still had the lingering smell. Well, in March 2018, I was dx w/left breast cancer. After chemo and mastectomy, I no longer have the smell in left armpit.

I am a 2 year survivor, lumpectomy and 16 negative axillary nodes removed; The sentinel node was positive. I had the maximum radiation and am now on Arimidex. My urine has a peculiar odor which began about one year into the Arimidex therapy. I would describe it as a yeasty smell, but that's not really accurate. It's hard to describe....No other urinary tract problems. Any ideas fellow sniffers? 🙂

HI. I've just completed 25 radiation treatments and this week started AI. I've read so many sad and awful posts of side effects that I've practically worked myself into a frenzy. After months of chemo and radiation, I didn't know how much more I could bear. But hearing you've been on it and seem to be doing fine except for the odour, gives me hope that I too can get thru this.

I have almost no sense of smell, yet over the years I've had such a strong horrible smell from a few people that it almost made me sick. No one else could smell it and they had good sense of smell. Within a few months it was determined that those people all had cancer. Your comment about the gas leak triggered a memory as well. Once I could smell gas clear across the house from a closed garage. I called the gas company the next morning and they indicated I couldn't possibly have smelled it but sent someone to check it out. They couldn't find anything until they were about ready to leave and discovered a very small leak near the hot water heater. They still maintained that there was no way I could have smelled it.

Now I can hardly get near my 88 year old husband as the smell is so bad! He has Stage 3 Kidney (CKD), which can smell like urine but normally only in later stages. Nobody else in the family notices it. Even as a kid I couldn't pick up on odors - unless it was a skunk and I would comment on that but it never smelt as bad to me as to everyone else!

@billchitwood It is curious, isn't it? Maybe we were dogs in a previous life! I had the same problems taking care of my dad because the smell bothered me so much. In addition to the smell of my own cancer, since I was a kid I would also know if an animal was in the end stage (not by smell, just from a feeling or knowing) and beginning in my 30s also knew if a human was not going to make it. I think in Ireland and Scotland they call it "the second sight."

I've had some of my beloved animals die in my arms. It seemed like when they were close to dying they wanted me to hold them constantly. I would end up cooking, cleaning, etc,, with them tucked in my left arm.

A mass spectrometer was used in space to monitor gases - oxygen, etc., Then it was modified to be used in hospitals to pick up scents from people's breath and analyze them. Our family doctor commented that he always leaned over his patients so he could smell their breath as that would tell him a lot of what was wrong with them.

The University of Arizona has just announced it has developed a patch someone can wear that would tell what, if anything, is wrong with the body. I gather they will be starting clinical trials shortly.

In the meantime today is our anniversary and when I tried to give Bill a good morning kiss I had to back away as the smell was so bad.

I too have extraordinary accurate sense of smell that causes me to suffer in many situations. My mom's cancer was colorectal and her breath was extremly bad until surgery. Afterwards it was completely fine. Wearing my covid masks I have noticed my breath smell and have wondered if it is my breast cancer smell. Maybe?

If you are taking systemic treatments hat smell will come out in your breath, also with some drugs in my case through my sweat and tears. Also chemo will heighten your sense of smell in a big way. I suffered with that as well, so did my husband. Here is a funny thing, when he had his stem cell transplant at Mayo, you could always tell a fresh transplant patient by the creamed corn smell. I bet @loribmt knows something about that smell.

@auntieoakley, I was spared that treat! 😂🌽 Frozen stem cells have that characteristic smell of creamed corn. I think that would put me off of that forever!! 😂😂 It’s the preservative.
I think your husband used his own cells so they were harvested and frozen. Some allogenic transplanted cells are frozen too if coming from a long distance. My bag was fresh, not Birdseye. 😂