Understanding Cancer » Symptoms

How do you explain fatigue to other people?

Avril — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:54:20 +0000

I have written about cancer fatigue before. Fatigue can affect people with any type of cancer and at any stage of treatment, having said that there is actually very little research and practical support available. Fatigue is tiredness that doesn’t go away with rest and it can be very hard to explain this to [...]

I am coughing up blood – Do I have cancer?

Avril — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:25:17 +0000

There have been two research studies done, looking at thousand of people to work out how many people with a certain symptom are likely to have cancer. If you are couching up blood, then you should make an appointment and mention this to your GP. The chances are it’s not cancer, but you need [...]

I have a lump in my breast. Does that mean I have cancer?

Avril — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:39:35 +0000

Are all breast lumps cancer? No. Lumps in your breast are very common and very few of them are caused by breast cancer.

Tumour (Chew-mor) Benign (b-9) Malignant (mal-ig-nan-t)

Tumour -A tumour is a lump of cells, it can be benign or malignant

Benign – A lump of cells that can NOT grow or [...]

I have blood in my stool (poo) – Do I have cancer?

Avril — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:04:03 +0000

How many people who have blood in their stools (poo) have cancer?

There have been two research studies done, looking at thousands of people to work out how many people with a certain symptom are likely to have cancer. If you have blood in your poo or on the toilet paper, then you [...]

Donate your hair!

Avril — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:19:46 +0000

If you have been following my blog for a while you will know I have written about how your donations can help people having treatment from cancer

You can donate:

Blood -See the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service website for more information Bone Marrow – See “Bone Marrow Donors Save Lives“ Clippings from your Yew [...]

I have blood in my urine – Does that mean I have cancer?

Avril — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:32:58 +0000

How many people who have blood in their urine (pee), have cancer?

There have been two recent research studies done, looking at thousands of people to work out how many people with a certain symptom are likely to have cancer. If you have blood in your urine, then you should make an appointment and [...]

Do you know a sign or symptom of cancer?

Avril — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:38:44 +0000

Yesterday Cancer Research UK published a survey of 4,000 people that showed that 1/7 people didn’t know one sign or symptom of cancer. This seems a little hard to believe, you would think that most people realise a lump could be a sign of cancer. However people weren’t given a list to choose from [...]

Things that you should get checked out…

Avril — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:59:11 +0000

It’s not often that a news story has me printing off several scientific articles and reaching for my calculator, but a new study published today caught my interest. It is called “Alarm Symptoms and identification of non-cancer diagnoses in primary care: cohort study” and was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). It was [...]

Cancer Fatigue – Why am I so tired?

Avril — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:39:35 +0000

Cancer fatigue, fatigue means tiredness that doesn’t go away when you rest. Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of cancer treatment and often one of the hardest to deal with. First of all, there are things you can do to help. Let your doctor know. Some cancer treatments can make you anemic [...]