But: Eighty percent of post-menopausal breast cancer patients do not have a family history.
II. I need to wait until my son’s wedding, my husbands 50th birthday, our 20th anniversary trip/my daughter’s high school graduation/until after my high school reunion.
But: What could have a higher importance than your health?
III. I need to loose twenty pounds. Hate to weigh myself at the doctor’s office.
But: Mammogram centers don’t weigh you. Be sure you have a digital mammogram. Follow up with your doctor to get the result. A recent study shows that seven percent of all significant findings don’t get communicated to the patient. No news may not always mean good news. Also, since most cancer does not show on a regular screening mammogram, insist on a diagnostic mammogram if you still have concerns.
IV. Work is crazy busy right now.
But: Won’t get much work done if you end up in hospice.
V. Lumps are usually cysts so no hurry to go now.
But: You cannot tell from the outside. Still check out:
This is what they always ask at my annual checkups.
“Yes,” I always answer with perfect honesty.
They never ask how often or how efficiently I do it.
The truth is, my “self-examinations” are a series of random pokes and hopeless squeezes. It all feels so lumpy and bumpy in there. How can anyone tell a fibroid from a foe?
Going to second base with yourself feels completely useless. Besides, I have no family history of breast cancer, only longevity.
My biggest worry is to live beyond my expiration date, to end my days as an unwanted package in some nursing home.
Most women diagnosed with breast cancer after menopause, a whopping 85%, do not have a genetic link to their breast cancer. This is according to the web site Ask the Expert at Johns Hopkins.
One evening, waiting for sleep, I “examine” my breasts. Or maybe I am adjusting the strap of my nightgown when my fingers suddenly stumble across a round, hard lump in my right breast.
An errant meatball? No, smaller and harder, more like a marble, a bit uneven. A hazelnut?
Poke. Poke. Nothing remotely similar in my left breast. Nothing remotely similar anywhere else in my right breast either. I keep squeezing and poking both breasts, but find only that one “hazelnut” in the twelve-o’clock position.
Do I worry myself sick and pace the floor all night? Do I rush to turn on my computer to Google everything “lump?”
Do I wake up my husband and tell him I am scared I might have cancer?
No. Slowly I drift off to sleep, thinking: “I need this checked out. But it’s probably nothing.”
“It” will go away.
Women who discover a lump in their breast wait an average of six month before doing anything about it. The mental process is called denial.
Denial will get you nowhere. Actually, denial will get you somewhere, it will put you into Stage IV if you don’t take action.
Check this link from Mayo Clinic. It will tell you what to look for.
I. Nobody in my family has breast cancer.![iStock_000001835039XSmall[1]](http://cancerboob.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/iStock_000001835039XSmall11-300x299.jpg "iStock_000001835039XSmall[1]")
“Do you perform regular breast examinations?”
