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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For months on the left side of my body I had a very strong body odor smell under my armpit that I could not get rid of. I couldn’t wash it away I couldn’t do anything it was just so strong. My neighbors dog that was golden retriever, had a Christmas party that year I was scheduled to see the doctor a few weeks after this event. But that dog jumped on me, stuck his face in my left breast in my armpit and then he sat there and he would not leave me. They used to only come up to our area on the weekends and when he would get out of the car he’d run to my house just scratching at the door trying to get in and every time he did he smelled me to see how I was doing after I had my tumor removed from my breast and lymph nodes, the last time he came over, he smelled me and he never came back after that. August 2022 I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, which had gone to my lymph nodes, my bones, my liver, and now my lungs are showing nodules as well. I saw three doctors and they all said it was scars tissue in my armpit, but it turned out to be a 2 cm Tumor. And we all know what happens when you get diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. I’m fighting it. I’m on my second type of oral chemo and I go in January to see if it’s working. I hope it is because on this chemo I’m really not feeling very bad I get very tired and my bones are starting to hurt a little bit but that’s nothing compared to some of the side effects, so yes, sorry for the long dissertation, you can smell cancer, but some people just don’t notice it. I just have a very strong sense of smell. I wish you all the best. Keep us all posted. Every one of us cares about you and you being prayed for.

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@jordan2433

I too have smelled this type of ammonia smell as well. I smelled it when both my parents had cancer and now I'm concerned for myself. I have been smelling this odor again on myself now for a couple months. I've expressed this to my doctors and they just shrug it off like it's impossible. I do believe
there is something to it .

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It's strange but since it was brought up I do remember having an odor under my breasts that I had never had before. I bet it started 6 months to a year ago. I was diagnosed in July with ILC. It was almost a vinegar type smell. I noticed it at first on the bottom of my bra where my breasts sweat. In all my years (66) I had never had such a smell. I had a lumpectomy Aug 21, 2023 and I no longer have the odor. I thought it was from sweating, but I have heavy breasts and always perspired in the under them in the warm weather. It seems very possible to me that there may be something to this.

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@glendafl

Yes I’m in treatment. On Sept 27, 2023 I had a lumpectomy, no lymph node involvement. I’m supposed to start radiation therapy next week. I was diagnosed with cancer via a biopsy on Aug 15,2023. It’s been a bumpy rough road for me. I fully understand the journey now.

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That's pretty much when I was diagnosed. And my road has been bumpy too. Mostly I've had a terrible reaction to chemo. My oncologist never tells me this stuff will happen, and when I tell her what's going on, she says; "yes, that can happen because..." How are you doing?
Kay

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@jordan2433

I too have smelled this type of ammonia smell as well. I smelled it when both my parents had cancer and now I'm concerned for myself. I have been smelling this odor again on myself now for a couple months. I've expressed this to my doctors and they just shrug it off like it's impossible. I do believe
there is something to it .

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@jordan2433, have you had any other symptoms? Do you continue to do screening tests for those cancer types that have screening, like colonoscopy and mammogram?

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@brenda1252

It's six months now since my breasts were removed, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, hormone receptive. The surgeon says he "thinks" he got it all. But with each passing day for the last couple months now, the sickening smell that I detected prior to my cancer diagnosis is back again, stronger than before surgery!! And nobody around me smells it except me, and I'm thinking they don't believe me!! The surgeon acts like I have three eyes when I ask if the smell means the cancer is still there!!! How can THEY who work around cancer all the time NOT detect this thick-oily-sweet-almost puss like- foul odor?!?

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brenda1252
Have you had an MRI breast or whole body scan? The MRI breast is what picked up my second tumor.

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@colleenyoung

@jordan2433, have you had any other symptoms? Do you continue to do screening tests for those cancer types that have screening, like colonoscopy and mammogram?

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No other symptoms just a bad odor I can't seem to get rid of but I don't seem to smell bad to anyone else. It just seems weird to me. I have had mammograms but that's the only test I've had before. Blood work always comes back OK except for low iron

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