Breast cancer and anti persperant

[Janh]

as nobody has posted on here since december it sounds like a dead issue but for what it's worth - i am nearly 50, have never used deodorant or anti-perspirants and i was diagnosed with breast cancer last november...(nb i don't seem to smell...)

Dear Janh

Thanks for that. I know what it's like when everyone has a seemingly tin-pot theory about a disease you're living with. My mum had done everything 'right' - never been on the pill, never smoked, never drank, not overweight, had kids early and still got this bastard disease. I hope whatever treatment you're on is proving helpful. Do keep in touch. I wish you the very very best of luck and health. Thanks for posting

thanks, cl - i have not lived as healthily as your mum, i have to confess - smoked from 14-30 and i like wine a lot! - but it's one of those things that will get you if it's going to. i am nearly 50 now, we caught it early luckily and i am having low-dose chemo for 6 months with 3 weeks of radiotherapy after that. side-effects minimal so far and i am being a very positive role model so people may not worry about it quite so much!

are you being screened annually???? you should be with your mother and grandmother both having it and especially with your mother being relatively young. if you are not on the list for annual mammograms get down to your GP and insist!!! and you can have genetic counselling through the NHS about your risk factor. (incidentally my mother also died aged 50 - in 1973 - hers was ovarian though, and her mother died of it in about 1962 aged around 70. so that's what i've been worried about and looking for!)

anyway if it worries you to use anti-p then don't! you also are entitled to your concerns and opinions - we all have some idiosyncratic ones - i know i do!!!

ps - and i used a high-dose pill from 19 to about 25 - can't remember exactly. but mine isn't hormone-related so that's just a coincidence apparently..

Both me and my sis are part of a three year screening prog at the Royal Free - though I haven't had one now for ages - pregnant, then breastfeeding, then pregnant and lost it and now pregnant again. I just keep hoping I'll be Ok until I can get checked again. I also have this feeling (like you) that some other cancer's going to creep up and get me, when I'm so busy looking for bc... odd when you've lost loved ones to it isn't it? Glad you're doing both chemo and radiotherapy. My mum was treated at a provincial (useless) hospital and it was 10 years ago, but they did a mastectomy only and didn't offer any further treatment - even though down in London they knew back then that following up with chemo and radio was saving lives... oh dear don't get me started - Keep positive and keep healthy and keep pestering those docs if you feel AT ALL - unwell (stomach, bones or head partic) .

i have had a bone scan and that was clear so that's ok; they don't offer an MRI scan automatically though maybe they should (but scanners are in short supply and i think the wait for a scan is long enough anyway...)
i am in the provinces also - nearest hosp is blackburn - but i have been very satisfied so far with the services offered, i don't even have to go to christie's (the other side of manchester) for the therapies as they are available at preston. but 10 years makes a huge difference to knowledge and services. the consultant said i would be monitored for 10 years (i expected 5) and that things would be very different by the end of that time..

i was surprised, when john diamond died, reading what was available on the internet, that he apparently didn't get chemo until the very end - only various surgeries and radiotherapy. i wonder why that was.

must be awful for you wondering if your mum would have survived if chemo had been available...

anyway good luck with the current pregnancy. probably not a good time for you to get checked! keep checking yourself though - as well as you can in your condition! how does your sister feel about the whole thing? has she had babies too?

Janh, good luck with your treatment.

If you have questions about the MRI issue ask your consultant. A good idea is to write your questions down before you go to the hospital as it's easy to forget things when you walk into a consultation- most docs don't mind. And don't be scared to ask what seem to you like silly questions- it's little things that niggle and knowing the answer is helpful.

Breast cancer and tongue cancers are really quite different which explains why John Diamond's treatment plan sounds different.