So a news report came out that breast cancer, metastatic
breast cancer occurrence among women 25-39 has risen in the last few years. The
report continues “published today in the journal of the american medical
association,
researchers found the increase in women 25 to 39 years of age. and it's
alarming because we don't know exactly why this is happening. it could be
rising obesity rates, early menstrual periods, even environmental factors that we don't have pinned down” The report ends with “for most women, you should start
getting mammograms around the age of 50. and in the meantime, you can keep up
with your self-examinations, watch your weight, stop smoking, and of course, if
you find anything that strays from the norm, that's when you check in with your
doctor.” * Yes, this was a real news report, February 27, 2013.
So like the good patients we are, we hang on doctors’ words,
and if you hear a “you’re ok, I don’t think we need any more tests” we usually
smile, shake the doctor’s hand, and sigh a huge sigh of relief knowing the
bullet just passed us by. We generally
accept that it’s all good, and are more than glad too. Well my friends, not
this time. I feel personally responsible to let everyone know that my tumor sat
on my chest wall, buried deep under tissue and it was only by the grace the God
that the tissue was irritated and much like the pea under the mattress I was
able to feel something. I never felt my
tumor, it was impossible.
I had received, when I just turned 40, my first order to get
a mammogram. I detested the idea of the process, so uncomfortable and exposing.
I ignored the order that lay on the seat of my car, then made its way into the
glove box, then into the trash. At 41 the tissue rose and my story started to
write itself. I was uncomfortable and
exposed much of the next year, over and over.
I asked my surgeon how long he thought the cancer had been growing. He
said, at least a year. Had I gotten the mammogram at 40, they probably would
have seen something, ordered tests, etc. and I just might have not needed the
chemotherapy or the radiation. But on the other hand, if that tissue hadn’t
expanded to form a false lump, I might
not have gone for that mammogram at 41, or 42, or 43. And well since doctors
are saying not to go until you are 50, and I like to shake the hand and “know”
nothing is wrong, I might not have gone until I was 50.
Let’s get practical, I might not have made it until 50. In
one year my triple negative infiltrating ductual carcinoma grew 5 cm at least. In
ten years????…..
Please know there is no recipe to getting breast cancer.
Skinny people get it. Smokers get it. Non smokers get it. Obese people get it.
Polluted areas have people that get it, clean air people get it. If it were this
simple, we’d have a cure. I’ve always said that cancer does not discriminate.
It sucks for everyone that gets it. But you can be proactive in your own heath
care. You can insist that someone listen. Find a doctor you trust and one that
listens to you, there are plenty of good ones out there. Be a partner in your
own health. And when the bullet comes right at you, you can lift your wrists
with wonderwoman’s bracelets and deflect them one by one. Knowledge is power, empower yourself!
