[dafogle]

There's been lots of news stories on the subject of cancer over the past two weeks - with the announcement that Elizabeth Edwards breast cancer has metastaticized to her bones, and the news that Tony Snow's colon cancer has metastaticized to his liver.

These stories & our own personal stories remind us that we need to be diligent about following up and keeping current with our routine health checkups.

I'm focusing on breast cancer as I have personal experience with this disease (read on) to learn more about my story.

Breast cancer is the leading cancer among American women and is second only to lung cancer in cancer deaths. This year in the United States, 178,480 women and 2,030 men will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and 40,460 women and 450 men will die from the disease. When breast cancer is found early (and confined to the breast), your chances for survival are the greatest.

The risk of a woman developing breast cancer in her life time has increased recently to 1 in 8 as compared to 1 in 11 in 1975. Ninety percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease. The two highest risk factors are being a woman and growing older.

Men can also develop breast cancer, though it is a much rarer occurrence. While the lifetime risk of breast cancer for women is 1 in 8, it is only 1 in 1000 for men.


It is essential to know that early detection is the key to surviving breast cancer. There are three simple steps to ensure that if you are the 1 in 8 to be diagnosed, you and or your doctor will find it in its earliest stages.

Three Steps to Breast Health

1. Step 1 - Annual Screening Mammography: Starting at age 40* *Some women with a family history of breast cancer or other concerns may be advised by a trained medical professional to start earlier than age 40.
2. Step 2 Clinical Breast Exam: Starting at age 20. Performed by a trained medical professional at least every 3 years and annually after age 40.
3. Step 3 Monthly Breast Self Exams: Starting at age 20.

Do you know where your breast is ?? sounds like a silly question .... but your exam should be focused on your Arm pit, your breast (above and below), including the tissue up to your Collarbone and around to the side of your body.

Here's a good brochure detailing the self exam you should do. http://www.y-me.org/publications/gen..._detection.pdf

Save your life or that of someone you love by practicing the 3 Steps to Breast Health and encouraging loved ones to do the same.


My story: Each year from the time I turned 40 my gynecologist would recommend that I get a mammogram and would give me a referal. Each year my intentions were good - but I was too busy to follow through and make the appointment. When I was 44 I finally followed through and had my first mammogram. I had no lumps, no symptoms, no family history. Several weeks after the mammogram I got a letter asking me to make an appointment for a diagnostic mammogram. I called the gynecologist and they said that they probably just needed some clearer views and that this was fairly common. So - I scheduled the diagnostic mammogram. At the center I go to they schedule the diagnostic mammograms while the radiologist is on site so they can read the slides straight away. They did the mammogram and asked me to wait while they had the radiologist look at the slides. Next thing I know I'm being led down a hallway and they did an ultrasound - the tech left the room and brought the radiologist in. He explained that they saw something suspicious - it was probably nothing to worry about and typically they recommended to wait and watch - do another mammogram in 6 months to see if there's any change. I told them that if something was there I wanted to know what it was - so - he agreed to recommend a biopsy.

I made an appt with a surgeon who did the biopsy in his office (guided by ultrasound) - as he was doing the biopsy the surgeon stated that he was pretty sure it was a fibroadenoma (those are benign). Later that week the pathology confirmed I had cancer.

I'm feel fortunate that my cancer was detected early - I'm glad I insisted on a biopsy rather than waiting and watching. I sometimes wonder how much bigger the cancer would have been if I had continued to put off having my mammograms.

Some people say I'm a poster child for early detection.

If you've not been making time for your heath - please make it now. We take our health for granted ...

Doreen

[DesignDiva]

Doreen, thank you! Your message inspired me to make an appointment, which is six months overdue and will be almost a year overdue by the time I get into the office in June. Thanks to your nudge, I called Monday and made an appointment for a full checkup, including a smashogram.

[kmcg]

Yes, Doreen - thanks to our earlier conversation on this, I made my appointment and will have a clearer conscience in a couple of weeks. I even made an appointment for the dentist, even though the last (and only) visit to this new-to-me dentist involved an overly aggressive teeth cleaning

Thanks for raising the awareness of our little community!

Kathy

[greenie227]

This is a fantastic topic, and I'm glad they detected your cancer so early!

I have another early detection story. My brother, being male, hadn't been to a doctor in awhile for a general check-up, although he was seeing someone for gout. His wife noticed a bump on his shoulder and asked him to go in; he said sure and forgot about it. His wife told him to go in, and to preserve the marital harmony, he went in. It was a liposarcoma, and they were able to remove it completely. Althoughly apparently this is not a type of cancer that spreads, they insisted on a cat scan (or ct scan -- is that the same thing?). Lo and behold, they discovered renal cancer, Stage 1. Renal cancer apparently doesn't show symptoms, so finding it early is highly unusual. There is probably no other reason this cancer would've been spotted. Although he was diagnosed with two types of cancer within 6 months, he's been cancer-free for 18 months now and is expecting his third child at the end of the month.

GO EARLY, GO OFTEN!

(Ok. I say 'apparently' a lot because I'm never quite sure I have the terminology correct. I was going through 4 knee surgeries at the same time as his cancer situation, and I listened enough to know what was going on, but the only medical terminology I learned pertained to my knee and the cartilage implant and multiple scopes.)

[kelly]

I chime in with how great it feels to be up to date in your checkups- I just had my first mammogram last week at age 41 and got caught up on a bunch of stuff I had let slide- like most, I was blessedly lucky enough to come back with a clean bill of health!

Here's the point: KNOW. Know if you are healthy, and for the love of pete, KNOW if there is something to treat. There is nothing to lose in going, and everything in the world to gain.

[DesignDiva]

**mod note**

At Mari's request, I pruned the posts pertaining to Mari's mom's diagnosis over to a thread of their own for further discussion and support.

[DesignDiva]

Well I had my gyn checkup today, she said everything looks fine and fairly normal. I made an appt for a smashogram in about three weeks and had a full blood panel done this morning as well. My BP was 122/80 which is much better than it was six months ago, it was as high as 140/100. Changes in lifestyle do pay off!

As an extra bonus, I took the kids to get their booster vaccinations which they'll need to go back to school in August...it's done and out of the way also!