Topic: whast do we do about the ammogram/shammogram roll call anyway?

Weesa, I hear you!!  It makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs that too many of us fall off the radar when it comes to "early detection".  When I am telling my bc story I always include how mammos and ultrasound failed me.  It scares some women who think they are doing all they can by getting mammos, but that's OK.  I hope my story makes them more vigilent and makes them better advocates for themselves. 

Wow, Colette!!  That is terrible that you were treated that way.  For me, I got mammos for 7 years with ultrasounds added in every other year.  It makes me mad that the 8cm mass in my breast was completely invisible to the radiologists.  I had ILC which tends to be almost impossible to detect.  I was dxed at 47 so my docs have all said my DD needs to start screenings when she is 32.  She is very diligent in self exams and I have told her that ILC feels nothing like the fake boob with the lump in it, that is in her gyn's office!

In a perfect world, we would all be getting breast MRIs as screening tools.  I got one AFTER the biopsy confirmed it was cancer. 

I know most of the women around me had no clue that a large malignant tumor that had gotten into 9 lymph nodes could be so competely missed, until me. It was there when I saw my dr's and when I had a mammo and us and it was not seen. They did a focused look at the very place on my breast that it was and saw nothing to be concerned about. Should this worry women? Yes!!! But the failures and limitations of the current diagnostic protoccols are not widely known by the women who need to have that information. Everyone wants to believe that what they are doing will be enough. It works for some and the rest of us are collateral damage to the misinformation. All I have been able to do is educate those around me and spout off my opinions here.

Annie

Although I do believe in the mammograms - as mine did confirm what I found.  I am the first person in my family to have cancer on either side, and have had no one close to me have cancer of any kind so I really didn't know much about it. 

I had a mammogram in August 07, skipped follow up in 08 because my youngest daughter was very ill and I was spending most of my free time trying to get her properly dx'd (story worse than mine).  However, in June of 08 I had a regular appt in which I had a check by my dr and nothing was there - and I didn't feel a thing doing my self exams.   While I was recovering (laid up in bed) from a torn achilles at the end of March 09 I found the lump, but forgot about it until May when it started to hurt.  I did research and learned that cancer doesn't hurt and decided not to call the dr because I knew I had a mammogram appt a month later.  As for the lymph nodes I had no idea.  Looking back the pain I had under my arm when I leaned on my crutches while standing was not the crutches hitting nerves it was the lymph nodes - because when the dr touched under my arms it sent me to the ceiling. In my case my onc can't say for sure, but he believes it was linked to the RH drugs I started taking in Oct 08.  He had just written a paper on the link between Humira and Breast Cancer, then shortly after my surgery it was all over the news with warnings.  I had no idea - my sister found the warning literally at the bottom of the page in smaller print. 

I do believe we need better screenings - as my sister has very large dense breast and has to fight for more testing.  However, education in so many forms is needed.  First -cancer does hurt-terribly!  And..... is my cancer a result of the medication - I'll never know, but had I understood the warnings I feel like I could have made a decision based on all of the information - would I have still taken it - I don't know.  The onc told me that when medicaitons warn us that our immune systems will be compromised it doesn't just mean from viral and bacterial infections.  It also means that our bodies will not be able to fight cancer cells and other illnesses that attack our cellular system and organs.  I honestly had no idea that a compromised immune system meant it opened me up to cancer.

We need better screening, teach self exams and education in so many ways.  We also need to make sure that we know we can question our doctors if we're not comfortable or change doctors.  As my grandfather used to say it's the practice of medicine - not an exact science. 

This is not related to mammograms, but I have to share - the side in which I have cancer is the side that hair has never grown under the arm.  Is that a link of some sort?  Probably not, but strange.........