Dense breast and hidden cancer
Greetings all!
The most alarming thing for me was the discovery that dense breast make it difficult for radiologist to discover abnormal cells and signs of breast cancer. I have never missed a mammogram since I was 50. I am now 74.
My last mammogram was in October. All results were great… see you next year. Then I found a golf size lump in my breast in December. By January I was informed that it was cancer. My mother had breast cancer as well.
My oncologist explained that the cancer had been sitting there for a very long time.
Since then, I have made it very loud and clear to women to be certain their radiologist are especially trained for reading these types of mammograms. I want to advocate for others to requests ultrasounds and/or MRI's to help with early detection. My hospital has the very best equipment. I hope that more facilities and primary doctors work to get their patients with dense breast screened more carefully. Radiologist training is also important.
My cancer journey is still in its early stage. I cannot change to past but can move forward to try and beat this beast with positivity, prayer, inner strength. I cannot look back at what didn't happen, but look forward of what I can do to make sure it doesn't continue to happen.
Thenewme26!
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Welcome to our wee corner of the internet @thenewme26 - the one where nobody wants to be but the kettle is always on and a listening ear is never far away.
I had the same thing happen to me. It is a chilling moment of realisation when you find out you have been falsely reassured and are now left to pick up the pieces.
I am nearly 5 years out and am (so far) doing fine. I was told my cancer 'hadn't shown much interest in travel' - the fact that it had such an good chance to do so felt like a horrific experiment I had been blindly enrolled in - i guess there was a paradoxical reassurance in the fact it seemingly hadn't gone beyond my nodes in this time. I tried to take some comfort from these words.
I wish you luck with your treatment and hope that you either have a very lazy tumour or a very treatment responsive one. It's a bit of a marathon so just take a step at a time.
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Starbridge, I am so happy to read that you are five years old and doing fine. It is my dream to be typing those words to someone if the future. At 74, however, I know how fragile life is and continue to wake up each day to the wonders of the world around me. Currently, it's birds singing, leaves blooming, lawnmowers running, and sounds of life in general.
Thanks for your inspirational words and have a truly great day!
thenewme26 (Really a new me today…. had my head shaved!)
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