At GE Healthcare, we are here for you. Wherever you are in your breast care journey.
At GE Healthcare, we are here for you. Wherever you are in your breast care journey.
Get Your Mammograms!
My mother, my maternal aunt, and my maternal grandmother all had breast cancer.
So, I got my first mammogram at age 31, followed by another at age 35 after I weaned my younger son. At age 41, I went for my annual mammogram, and they detected a tumor – Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) – or Stage 0 breast cancer.
With my family history, I didn’t have the typical “Why me?” reaction, but I was concerned because my two sons were so young (elementary school age).
I had a lumpectomy, followed by radiation therapy, and then hormonal therapy for five years.
Shortly before I finished my hormonal therapy, I had my annual mammogram, and they found a new tumor in the other breast.
This time, I had a double mastectomy, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy, and five more years of hormonal therapy.
It was a rough year going through all of that, especially as I continued to work as close to full time as possible while raising my two sons as a single parent. But I survived. My sons are both adults now and that experience is 13 years in the past.
It has been 19 years since my initial diagnosis.
Bottom line ladies – get those mammograms!
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER |
Be sociable!
(1) https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics
(2) https://www.who.int/cancer/PRGlobocanFinal.pdf
(3) Pisano et al. Diagnostic Performance of Digital versus Film Mammography for Breast –Cancer Screening. NEJM 2005;353:1773.
(4) https://www.cancer.org/healthy/find-cancer-early/cancer-screening-guidelines/american-cancer-society-guidelines-for-the-early-detection-of-cancer.html
(5) https://www.who.int/cancer/detection/breastcancer/en/