Monday, October 1, 2007

Okay--I am going to go on a little rant here...I have been reading on a website for young women with breast cancer for months! I was browsing around there tonight, and read their "official" position on doing a BSE. Well, it seems that they (and a few published medical sites) feel that BSEs don't "save lives". Now, they are talking about the traditional "do it this way, do it that way, do it this day of each month", but it reads just wrong! I don't do it at any particular time, but I did (and do) it often.

If I had not been "feeling myself up", which sounds more fun than "self breast exam", I WOULD NOT HAVE FOUND THE CANCER. Well, sure it would have been found:

-When I got around to going to the GYN again
-When it popped out of my chest
-When my lymph nodes under my arms were swollen like grapes
-When my eyes turned yellow from liver metastais
I would have found it.

The "official" position is to "know" your breasts. I'm sorry--doesn't that mean checking them? I am pissed the "f" off about this, only because if women read this, they will just assume going to the doctor once a year is going to catch anything. I should have been scheduled to go for an exam in late April--when I found the tumor, I had not scheduled anything. Would you want to wait 30 days, 2 weeks, 1 week, or 1 day to find what I did? Hell to the no, you wouldn't.

They also go on to give the traditional risk factors--family history, no children before age 30, no breastfeeding, blah, blah, blah. About 75% of all women with breast cancer have NO FAMILY HISTORY. If you don't have a family history, you aren't offered a mammogram before age 40 (which they also list as a way of detecting, duh). They also say that BSEs don't save lives (published Korean reports, or something). How can that be true, especially in my case (at least for now)?!? Oooo, I am not going to be able to sleep tonight.

I know many of you aren't doing BSEs even now, but please--schedule an appointment with your GYN, have him/her feel them up, you do the same while he/she is there, and do it at home often. My cancer might come back, it might not. However, being diagnosed at Stage 1 is better than 2, 3, or 4. Remember, there is no Stage 5 (Sopranos reference there, get it?).

Good love and good night.