Martina N. was diagnosed with DCIS breast cancer and spoke about it on ABC Good Morning America yesterday. D. sent me the link thank you. God bless her for coming on TV and publically speaking about it. You could tell it was really really hard for her. And she strongly advocated mammograms. BUT, I was really disappointed in that she didn't advocate self breast exams. She as DCIS which is ductal carcinoma in situ breast cancer. It hasn't spread outside of the ducts yet. Its about the earliest you can find and you really can only find it on a mammogram. Its makes up less than 20% of breast cancers found and when Martina said she was lucky she was. The calcifications she spoked of helped to identify there was a problem and then the biopsy confirmed it. I was also dishearten to hear her say if this hadn't been caught and had gone to a lump then it would have been too late (or something close to that) hey well over 80% of women with breast cancer have a lump and we really don't need to hear anyone say its too late and the truth is its FAR from being too late but I know that because I have read until my eyeballs are about to bleed but, there are a lot of women out there that haven't and hearing that could have put an ungodly amount of fear into then. Made me gasp and I know that's not the situation. Plus she really didn't put into perspective her true situation. Yes she has a good prognosis but, is far from being out of the woods. She has grade 3 cancer. That the highest you can get with bc which means its aggressive. She opted for a lumpectomy with radiation. She had to have the radiation because of the high grade. She got to dodge the chemo and she is lucky. Maybe she was trying to use major fear tactics to get women in to get a mammogram but, I still wish she had said something about self breast exam because 80% of breast lumps are found by the woman. There is no good early detection method in place. Mammograms are catching more breast cancer early but its still less than 20% because they still can't see the majority of DCIS on the mammograms. Was a time with the first mammograms that they couldn't detect it at all so its better but far from what it should be.
Feel yourself up and go get the girls mammograms. Please!!!
Wow, my entire comment just blew itself away and I cannot get it back. Hmm. OK, so I have a confession to make. Martina Navratilova is one of my heroes; I remember watching her compete when I was young and I wanted so badly to be as good a tennis player as she! That's not my confession. I confess that I never do the female wellness things I should be doing. I have not had a pap smear since I was a teenager (unless you count during pregnancy), and I never get around to those monthly breast self-exams. Gynecologists intimidate me; I don't want strangers poking around in my nether region! Honestly, I do not even know the proper method for doing a breast self-exam.
ReplyDeleteSo, it looks like another growing up moment for me. Pam, I will begin taking care of my female self. Thank you for waking me up! Anybody have a recommendation for a gynecologist in the Greater Newport network?