Seems if you have/had breast cancer you are now an expert on the subject. Went to see my internist today. And her nurses say oh oh we have something we want to ask you. OK. So one of them says did they check the other breast? I said oh yes every time they scanned the one they would scan the other. So they have both been mammogramed, 2 MRI and whole body PET scan. Why? So they tell me that they have a patient that just got diagnosed and she already under went surgery to remove both of them. She had the healthy one removed too. And they looked pretty horrified at this. I said well, there are medical reasons for removing both did she say why she decided on this. And they said well, she said she was told that if you have breast cancer in one breast that almost always you will get it in the other one within a couple of years. And the nurses eyes are huge and they ask is this true?! Well, crap. I looked at them and said you guys work for a doctor and you're asking me? They laughed and then said yes. Well, double crap the woman already had the surgery. I said well, all I can tell you is what I was told for my situation by my oncologist was that there was absolutely no reason why I shouldn't have breast conservation surgery. Then one of the nurses said well I just can't help thinking that she was told that for the money, she had decided to have a mastectomy on the one breast with reconstruction done at the same time then she decided to have both done. I said well, its easier for them to make a matching pair then to try and make one match the other so if the woman decided to remove both, no one is going to fight with her much. But, she might have a strong family history and the BRCA 1 and 2 genes if that is the case then she has a 40% chance of developing another breast cancer and with both removed it brings it down to about 5% so that's huge and a medically sound decision. But, there are woman who make this decision solely because of fear. I can't fault them. If you are just going to walk around terrified all the time then who can blame them. Its so individualized.
I think they felt better. Knowing that I was not taking undue risk by keeping mine and hopefully there was a good reason why the other patient had decided not to keep hers.
Of course you're an expert. You're living it, right? I have had similar experiences when people are curiously horrified about psoriasis. Glad you helped them feel better though.
ReplyDeletePsoriasis another one of the things they just don't know why it happens. Seems those are the things that terrify us the most because we can't use the safety net of denial that goes like this "oh that will never happen to me because I will never do xyz"
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