Ladies - your thoughts...

[Snowflake]

Okay, so I had a nasty little critter growing in my lung and spreading poison through my lymph system much like a toxic garden hose... I happen to have boobs. Instead of being "normal" and going for my FIRST mammogram at 40, I had my first at 24 for some oddities and then, at 34, upon lung cancer diagnosis, it's decided that I will put my boobs in a vice every freakin' year. Nothing like getting the jump on the torture chamber...

So, as I sat in the nurse's office after the squeezing on Tuesday, she's giving me the speech about how important self exams are (I don't care) and how I'll find a lump earlier myself than a doctor will find it (I don't want to know) and I really should put my sponge/washcloth/loofah down and wash my bosom with my hands and soap to have skin-to-skin contact so I can catch any lump that may pop up early. I really don't care.

Don't get me wrong, I KNOW breast cancer kills, I have a friend who fought a long and valiant battle and died. I KNOW it should be important to me. It's not. I really don't want to know. I go to keep my doctor happy...I hate it...and I don't care.

Anyone else feel that way? That there's no reason to keep checking and worrying about the "what if" of breast cancer when the lung cancer is far more likely and scary?

Enough damn monsters in my life, don't need to add anymore, thankyouverymuch. Heck, maybe I should get tested for TB more often, checked for headlice, athlete's foot, stroke...

Whatever.

[barbara5452]

I don't do self exams either, I have fibrocystic breasts any way and all I would feel would be lumps. But I will say after going through radiation all the women there were being treated for breast cancer. Scary that it effects so many, even met a lady who was only 27 and had been battling it for 4 years. I was told by my rad onc that I was too young to be in there with my disease but she said I would fit in with all the breast cancer patients and boy was she right a bunch of them. I guess its personal preference but I do agree after what we have all been through why search for something else, let the docs do that and of course the sandwich machine (mammo).

[J.C.]

I have bc since 1999,

found it myself without looking,

found all the others lumps also,

just cut out(seven times)

and radiation(once)

no other treatment or medication.

now pass one mammo a year and don't

do self exam.

Mammo always in February and I get

the results only in July, at the

same time that I get the results

about the ultrasound for the thyroid

cancer (June).

Never worry about the cancer, just

the weather for the February mammo.

I have enough with the arthrosis

Jackie

[Rose1953]

Hi Snowflake:

.........and my husband wonders why I don't like pancakes. I do agree with you about self exams, because one month one lump is here and a few days later it's gone etc. However, I think regular exams to detect athlete's foot should be mandatory

I will start radiation treatments for esophageal cancer Wednesday and wonder if it's a stray from the lung cancer 2 years ago......they say no, but who knows.

So, take care and keep that great attitude of yours going!

Rose

[blaze100]

Hi Snowflake, Me too. I go to the mammograms but it doesn't freak me out in the slightest. Waiting for my mammogram report is about 1/100th as scary as lc test time.

I know bc can be just as deadly as lc, but somehow I am reassured by the 88% 5-year bc survival rate.

I feel the same way with heart disease. Don't get me wrong, I exercise an hour every day. I take my heart meds. I stopped HRT to lower clotting/breast cancer risks. But it's nothing compared to anxiety from lc.

Right or wrong, LC scares me the most. Barb

[alexan]

I just do my mamogram once a year us a routine. This year with my lc recurrence I don't even want to go. I know how you feel

hugs bucky

[mhutch1366]

I confess to stalling....

I'm overdue for last years

(or was that two years ago?)

Ah, I postponed going back to the gyn

after the bone density test because

I wanted to clear up the arthritis/scoliosis issue first.

So I'm two years overdue for pap and

the pancake.

But I have to take my 18 year old in, so

we made double appointments.

I'll have to go now....

Better the devil you know.

XOXOX

MaryAnn

[myrnalu]

Im with You Becky.Maybe Im stupid but I havent had a mammogram in years.

Also Dr asked when i had a colonoscopy?I told him never and dont intend to.Isnt LC enough?I dont want them finding something else wrong with me.

Marie

[ginnyde]

I guess you can put me in the good girl category.

I get a mammo every year, have had a base line and a 2nd colonoscopy, go for a Pap every year, get my teeth cleaned every 3 months and get a physical once a year. I think I believe that by doing this, it will keep any bad guys away. So here I sit in my fantasy world.

[tiredmom959]

The last thing I'd want to do is minimize any diagnosis of breast cancer, but I do have to admit to getting just a little angry over the attention that disease receives compared to lung cancer after my mom was diagnosed.

When I started to research lung cancer, I couldn't believe the statistics on survival rates as opposed to other cancers. Way more women die of lung cancer every year as compared to cancer of the breast.

It would also make me angry when people would find out about my mom and say "well, did she smoke" (she did smoke for years when she was younger) like, if she did, she deserved it or something.

[Maryanne]

I hate that freakin test.... I mean the squish and squash... With me they always hae to do one over... sucks... Why can't they just do a CT and thats it. They they really can detect if something is there.

I don't do self exmas just because I don't. I should since I am on some dumb hormones that if I was not on I probably would have killed someone by now.

Anyway, I know how you feel. Also we had a special women's meeting in Boston from work and we all had to wear pink.... not me I wore navy.... sick of pink.

Thats it.... Im out of here, just had to put in my 2 cents worth... thats probably all its worth anyway.

I am just in a crappy mood as I have this crappy number b-day coming.... Think I need some valiums today.. maybe I'll mix it with an exta dry martini...

ta da,

Maryanne

[Shelley (MLC)]

I go in every year for the mammo (...well, I usually stretch it to at least 15 months) I never do self exams although I always tell the tech and Dr. that I do (just to avoid the lectures)! Too early for colonoscopy yet (I'm sure I'll try to avoid THAT as much as possible)! Shelley

[close to the edge]

me to i go because my doctor freaks out

but after my lung surgery the test is extreamly painful

ok the sqhishing is bad enough but when they streatch the skin where the incission is it HURTS and the women there are like TAKE THE PAIN so mammagrams make me cry

i hate them. you would think with technology today they would figure out an easier procedure how would guys like to have there boys squished annually????

[Donnaone]

I didn't get one last year, I was due for one before the lung surgery and that was 4 months ago, I have no idea when I'm going to get one because my boob still is very sore from the surgery, I read what the other post said about how painful it is after the surgery and it seems it takes a very long time before you stop hurting, I have no idea, it doesn't run in my family and I'm not worried about it right now, I don't do self exam. either, lc is enough to worry about right now.

Donna

[alexan]

I did ne last year since my mother had breast cancer they recmended, this year with my recurrence I am debating, but they still rcomending to do it.

bucky

[Ry]

I've had three scares and a lump removed (benign) so I get a mammogram every year. I was told the mammogram will catch anything before you feel the lump so I don't worry about the self exams-- plus obviously I didn't feel the lump I had so I'm not doing it right or something.

[Judy-OK]

These topics come up at just the right time ... I went to my friendly gyno a week ago today and when she mentioned the dreaded mammogram I told her NO WAY would they get me to have one. I can not imagine having one following surgery because I have pain from radiation that keeps me from going. I told her I have a PET scan coming up on May 1st and could they not detect what they need to know from that and she said she did not think so but she would check. Then she said not to fret that she would order an MRI if the PET scan would not suffice. The last thing she said was if I had not heard back from her office in a couple of weeks to give her a call. Now I am thinking I will definitely wait until after my Onocologist appointment on the 4th of May.