Re: Question for women about dense breast tissue and breast cancer

[Guest guest]

Hello, I have gone through this. I have dense breast tissue with benign lumps. I

don't have a family history of breast cancer but I get tested every year and

often I've had to go for follow up tests that showed no further concern. I try

not to worry about it since I can't change it. Like you, I make sure to get

tested regularly and try to stay patient & positive. It's not always easy.

>

> Hi,

> I read online that women with dense breast tissue are nearly 20 times more

likely to get breast cancer and that their dense breast tissue makes seeing the

cancer very difficult.

>

> I'm 43. Fibrocystic breasts, dense breast. Had to start getting mammograms at

38 due to lumps. Had ultra sounds, MRI and surgical consult with results being:

dense breasts.

>

> This year's mammogram came back with lumps in both breasts. Have to get

further diagnostics.

>

>

> Two first cousins (maternal, paternal) had breast cancer when they were young.

Both were treated effectively at first. One came back and took my cousin's life

(maternal side). My other cousin is doing well.

>

>

> Just wondered if anyone has gone through this.

>

> Thanks,

> Lori

>

[Guest guest]

> I read online that women with dense breast tissue are nearly 20 times more

likely to get breast cancer and that their dense breast tissue makes seeing the

cancer very difficult.

Yes, dense breasts are more likely in the young and those with big breasts.

It is more difficult to see cancer in dense breasts. It is just a fact, nothing

new. It means mammography is not that effective at detecting cancer.

Checking one's own breasts, lying flat, using fingers touching breasts in

circular pattern from outside to nipple is the most effective, most common way

of detecting lumps and checking lumps to see if they are growing.

Many women's sex partners find lumps. Then they can check them later, next week,

next month, before panicking it may be cancer.

Most lumps are not cancer. Chocolate and caffeine consumption cause most

non-cancerous lumps. I've barely ever drunk coffee, but, not giving up dark

chocolate which helps with symptoms of CFS/OI. And, I really enjoy dark

chocolate.

This is information I have gleaned from 4 decades of visits with gynecologists

and what I have read about breast cancer and breast lumps. I no longer worry

about breast cancer or breast lumps. If diagnosed, I doubt I would undergo

surgery to remove cancer but I am 63 and have lived a lot.

There is thermography, a form of detecting heat which is less invasive, less

dangerous than mammograms or MRIs. But, thermography is not necessarily helpful

for people with our conditions which includes temperature dysregulation, which

means people with our conditions are too hot or too cold most of the time.

Thermography may not be ideal for OI people like me who become awfully

symptomatic from just standing which this test requires.

My sister in law found her own lumps, diagnosed with a fast progressing kind of,

rare, deadly, cancer at a very young age. She died 14 years later after going 8

years without cancer returning. She said, at the time, I was hopin' for two more

years. Oh well

Cancer treatment caused my sister in law arthritis and heart disease so severe

she had to retire on disability.

But she was more able to clean up after a party than me just a few months before

her death which is not at all to say her suffering was less than my own. it was

not.

toni

cf-alliance.tripod,com/

from iPodTouch

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sharing. This is the first time I've not felt worried. The first two

times were scarier.

Re: Question for women about dense breast tissue and

breast cancer

Hello, I have gone through this. I have dense breast tissue with benign lumps. I

don't have a family history of breast cancer but I get tested every year and

often I've had to go for follow up tests that showed no further concern. I try

not to worry about it since I can't change it. Like you, I make sure to get

tested regularly and try to stay patient & positive. It's not always easy.

[Guest guest]

Thank you  for the information and for sharing your experiences,Toni.

I have to say--it's just a small thing, but..I thought *I* was peculiar since I

am so sensitive to heat and cold.

Everyone here in my family endures my reactions to the weather, and the

heating/ cooling central air,  but I can tell they think I'm a bit strange.

I usually want the temp to be cool,as hot temps have me feeling dizzy sluggish

and even sick.

But sometimes,I have unexplained bouts of feeling cold as ice--it is no joke--I

feel miserable, as though I had a bad cold or flu *and* am cold at one at the

same time--only there's usually no flu..

I wind up turning off the a/c even in the height of summer sometimes.

(although without the a/c I would normally be miserable!)

Similarly, when the heat's on in winter, I may unexplainably want it cooler

or, paradoxically feel incredibly cold no matter how many blankets I pile

on (and my thyroid shows nothing abnormal)

I'm post-menopausal and thought it might be all about that, only.

But reading your email and more recent self-reporting from others with CFS/FMS,

I'm realizing that the extreme reaction to the temperature is also part of 

the condition.

Thanks again Toni,and although I so far have had no problems with breast cysts

or cancer, I'm nonetheless grateful for your information. 

> I read online that women with dense breast tissue are nearly 20 times more

likely to get breast cancer and that their dense breast tissue makes seeing the

cancer very difficult.

Yes, dense breasts are more likely in the young and those with big breasts.

It is more difficult to see cancer in dense breasts. It is just a fact, nothing

new. It means mammography is not that effective at detecting cancer.

Checking one's own breasts, lying flat, using fingers touching breasts in

circular pattern from outside to nipple is the most effective, most common way

of detecting lumps and checking lumps to see if they are growing.

Many women's sex partners find lumps. Then they can check them later, next week,

next month, before panicking it may be cancer.

Most lumps are not cancer. Chocolate and caffeine consumption cause most

non-cancerous lumps. I've barely ever drunk coffee, but, not giving up dark

chocolate which helps with symptoms of CFS/OI. And, I really enjoy dark

chocolate.

This is information I have gleaned from 4 decades of visits with gynecologists

and what I have read about breast cancer and breast lumps. I no longer worry

about breast cancer or breast lumps. If diagnosed, I doubt I would undergo

surgery to remove cancer but I am 63 and have lived a lot.

[Guest guest]

You're welcome, .

I too suffer between too cold and too hot. So I wear turtlenecks in-house in

summer (a/c at 70) and wear sweaters over turtlenecks in winter (heat at 63). I

wear socks all the time.

I don't know how i lived without my remote controlled (tower) fans. I now have

4, turned on whenever I'm in a room with one. Sometimes I turn tower fan off

remotely only to turn it back on a few minutes later, then off again, inevitably

on again.

Not crazy. Exceedingly uncomfortable. There's a difference.

: )

Cool temperatures help me breathe more easily as does wearing all cotton clothes

all the time. No polyester, not even combined with cotton. Too heat-producing,

making it harder for me to breathe.

This symptom is called temperature dysregulation.

More about this symptom of FM, CFS, OI-POTS/NMH here:

http://www.cfsnova.com/qnaHydrated.html

toni

cf-alliance.tripod.com

from iPodTouch

On Aug 24, 2011, at 2:01 AM,

wrote:

> I usually want the temp to be cool,as hot temps have me feeling dizzy sluggish

and even sick.

> But sometimes,I have unexplained bouts of feeling cold as ice--it is no

joke--I feel miserable, as though I had a bad cold or flu *and* am cold at one

at the same time--only there's usually no flu..

> I wind up turning off the a/c even in the height of summer sometimes.

> (although without the a/c I would normally be miserable!)

> Similarly, when the heat's on in winter, I may unexplainably want it cooler

or, paradoxically feel incredibly cold no matter how many blankets I pile on

(and my thyroid shows nothing abnormal)

>

> I'm post-menopausal and thought it might be all about that, only.

> But reading your email and more recent self-reporting from others with

CFS/FMS, I'm realizing that the extreme reaction to the temperature is also part

of the condition.

>

> Thanks again Toni,and although I so far have had no problems with breast cysts

or cancer, I'm nonetheless grateful for your information.

>