Well, I made it to the Junior Sailing party last night. As I write, it's been 28 hours since I finished my first round of chemo and I have not had to use the new purple buckets once. Surprisingly, I still feel fine. Others I have spoken to were not doing well at all by this time.
I've been asked a lot how it was exactly that my cancer was discovered, so here's the story.
I"m 51 years old now and always gone for yearly check-ups and had yearly mammograms. In March of this year I felt a couple of new lumps in my right breast. My breasts, like many womens are very fibrous and have always had multiple lumps. These ones felt a little different to me, so I immediately went and had a mammogram. Results were negative. Great!
A couple of months later a new very tiny lump that kind of looked like a bug bite appeared near the surface of the breast, close to the other lumps. I waited a month to see if this lump would disappear after a menstrual cycle (similar lumps under the arm have come and gone in this manner in the past). When it did not go away, I went to the OBGYN again and had them examine me. They ordered another mammogram, an ultrasound and directed me to a surgeon for evaluation.
The mammogram and ultrasound basically showed nothing. The surgeon, after having to argue with the insurance company over it's necessity, arranged for an MRI. The MRI showed a small suspicious spot. This led to a biopsy. The biopsy showed cancer in all three locations sampled. Two in the breast and the third on the surface. As I've mentioned before, there are no signs of spreading anywhere else.
The lesson here ladies, is that if you have fibrous breast tissues, examine yourself carefully and don't count on the mammogram.
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