Elizabeth Edwards: Do Not Neglect Mammograms: 'I do not have to be in this situation.'

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Associated Press

NYT/AP: Edwards: Do Not Neglect Mammograms
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 4, 2007

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- Elizabeth Edwards said Wednesday she feels she let down her family and the country by neglecting to get mammograms that could have caught her cancer earlier. Mrs. Edwards -- appearing with her husband, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, in their first trip to Iowa since announcing her cancer had returned -- admonished women to get their mammograms.

She said she didn't, and by the time she felt a lump in her breast in 2004 and was able to get it removed, it had grown to nine centimeters and the cancer had spread elsewhere.

''I do not have to be in this situation,'' Mrs. Edwards told about 500 people at a banquet hall. ''I am responsible for putting myself, this man, my family and, frankly, putting you all at risk, too, because I think you deserve the chance to vote for this man.''...

***

Mrs. Edwards' comments came in response to an audience member who asked her to spread the word about the importance of mammograms.

''It had the chance to migrate because I sat at home doing whatever I thought was important and didn't get mammograms,'' Mrs. Edwards said. ''It wasn't that I didn't know. There are women in this audience who know perfectly well whether or not they're doing what they need to do and get mammograms. If you are one of the people who knew but aren't doing it, obviously you need a new strategy.

''Women often put themselves at the bottom (of the) list of things to do. When I put my health at the bottom of the list, I was putting him at the bottom of the list, my children at the bottom of the list, the country at the bottom of the list,'' Mrs. Edwards said....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Elizabeth-Edwards.html

[katsy]

1. k/r

Unfortunately, too many us have neither insurance, disposable income to pay for mammograms, or convenient access to free mammograms.

Guess we need a candidate with a plan. Now... who would that be? :think:

[benny05]

6. Here's something to consider

and so has Elizabeth Edwards..in case you missed my post last week, when she said thank you to the DU..

I want you to turn that compassion and determination now away from me and toward others. Either toward the particular others around you who need your love and support, because, I promise, your love and support is powerful, or toward the collective others who need us to fight for universal health care, or for economic justice, or for an end to this war. You can do both, of course, (please do) but I have to say how much I have thought about those collective others today. A woman leaned over me as I was signing books in Cleveland this week. She didn't have a book; she had a story. She had found a lump in her breast but she hadn't had it checked out. You have to do that right away, I told her. She couldn't, she told me, she had no health insurance. I told her not to leave, and we rushed to locate someone who could help her. By the time we did, she had left the building, another woman slipping through the cracks.

We can solve her individual problem or we can get universal health care and solve the problems of all women (and men) in her condition. She was just one page of a long and sad record we have of leaving some Americans out. Out of health care, out of a decent job or a job at all, out of a good education, out of a good and safe neighborhood, out of the American Dream. It is true that John and I and our children have a story, too, but I will get what I need while she might not. That will remain unchanged, unless you turn the energy and the compassion you have so generously, so sweetly given to me and give it to her and our brothers and sisters, by reaching out and by working for change.

Couldn't pull the post here, but it is verbatim from the John Edwards blog here:

http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/3/30/132026/187

[katsy]

9. She is truly beautiful.

I did not mean to imply that Elizabeth was not aware of the lack of resources for some women to get the help they need.

I did mean that some of us need John Edwards' vision of universal healthcare to become a reality.

We'll wait and hope.

[Delphinus]

23. There was a story in yesterday's local paper,

probably from the AP, about a doctor and an uninsured woman who both had colon cancer. He survived; she died. Stark contrast in life, in longevity, in all kinds of circumstances of those who are insured and those who are not. How many posts have we read from our own DU family about their not having insurance and being in dire health?

We need universal health care now!

Edit to add: I think there's a lot of misleading information out there for women and mammographies. Some say do it yearly; others say that's too much radiation. A consensus would be nice - and I know it's not going to happen.

[moc]

14. Free/low-cost mammogram resources

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/fact_mammograms.htm

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a program called the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which works with health departments and other groups to provide low-cost or free mammograms to women who qualify. For more information, call your health department, the numbers above or 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636), or visit Find a Local Program.

National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/

Find a local program: http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/cancercontacts/nbccedp/contacts.asp

Good luck! :hi:

[katsy]

16. Bookmarked!

Thanks moc. I'll give a call... just afraid we're at that teetering edge.

[David Zephyr]

2. K&R for Elizabeth and her message.

My mom (89) and my aunt (83) are both breast cancer survivors.

I am crazy about Elizabeth Edwards. She's the real deal. No wonder John is always such a cheery guy, he gets to live with her. He's a lucky man.

[tnlefty]

3. I'm glad that she is raising awareness, but I think she is being a bit

hard on herself, but that's just MO, but what about the women in this country who can't afford to have mammograms either because they don't have health insurance, or insurance that doesn't cover them?

[DeepModem Mom]

5. In a part of the article I didn't include, John says he thinks she's too hard on herself.

The life of someone very close to me was very likely saved by a recent mammogram. Is there truly no way for uninsured women to get them? I don't mean to be flip -- I just had never thought that much about them until our recent experience. If women can't get these life-saving tests, something must be done.

[tnlefty]

10. I read the article and I wasn't just parroting John's statement.

Funding cuts (remember those Bush** tax cuts during the past years) have resulted in a satellite office of the county health department that provided services for those who could afford them on a pay scale basis, and free services to those who couldn't, has closed. The main office of the health department is downtown and bus services have been shut down so how are low income women supposed to be able to get to clinics?

I don't think that my community is the only one that has been adversely affected. Our satellite library has also been closed.

Welcome to Bush** world.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. He has done harm to every area of our national life.

This is one I hadn't considered. Thank you so much for outlining the effect for women in one locality -- I'm sure it's similar across the country. Appalling!

[tnlefty]

25. Our satellite clinic also provided immunization services for

children, pap smears and dental services on an income related scale, and it's difficult in smaller communities that are more rural to lose these clinics.

It would be interesting to find the nation wide impact. Do you have any idea of where that type of information might be compiled if it is at all?

[DeepModem Mom]

30. I don't. Anybody??? nt

[truthisfreedom]

4. Wow, that's some pretty hard-hitting self-criticism.

I'm stunned.

[Mnemosyne]

7. My mother, @ 71, banged her chest into a door-jam,

it caused a sore lump which forced her to get her first mammo ever. She had cancer under the lump. 2 kinds, one rare and a marker, all insitu and one rare.

She had a partial mastectomy and is fine so far. Stubborn woman.

Lucky us! :)

Elizabeth exudes such grace. I am in awe of her.

[K8-EEE]

8. I have an appt. for April 24th.

Thank you Elizabeth.

[caligirl]

11. april 27th and I am 4 years past due. Just had an appendectomy Friday

that surprised us. went in for a fallopian tube(lap) and an ablation and it was fine, chronic appendicitis was found instead. a benign tumor(adenoma) of the appendix called a mucocele. rare. If it had ruptured i would be looking at major surgery. all I had was a dull and mild constant dull ache in the mid to right abdomen for a few weeks. The appendix was 10 times thhe normal size but intact.Not ninflamed.

I agree with Elizabeth here. I want to bew around for awhile and I did take my kids to the doctors alot in the past 5 years, tired by it all I let my health care slide. Now I am catching up.

[K8-EEE]

17. Me too!

I am also past due and have an appt. next month, thanks Elizabeth!

It's one thing to know you should do it, another thing to do it.

[moc]

13. God bless her.

She would make such a great First Lady!

I'm getting my yearly mammo at the end of this month. If you're a 40+ woman, when's your next one? If you haven't had one, why not?

[Radio_Lady]

15. Perhaps she will do for mammograms what Katie Couric and her husband did for colon cancer.

I'm trying to get all the screenings I should as I age. Trying to get up the courage for whatever the next one is and schedule it this summer.

[Berry Cool]

18. I wish she wouldn't say this

only because mammograms are NOT breast cancer "prevention" and not every cancer is treatable just because you "catch it early." That is a myth.

Mammograms sometimes catch cancers that would never even threaten someone's life, and they don't always show cancers that will.

Mammograms are not the complete answer. We need to start PREVENTING breast cancer and also find better means of detection than mammograms.

I know Elizabeth wants to encourage women not to put off mammograms, but they are not the whole solution to the breast cancer problem. And there's also a bit of an implication in her message that men who don't look after their own health are just letting themselves down, but women who don't are letting EVERYONE ELSE down--their husbands and families included. I think that's wrong. Why should men not feel responsible to their wives and families for looking after their own health? It can be just as hard if not harder to get a man to do that as a woman. The stereotype of the strong, resilient male is just as deadly as that of the female who puts caring for herself last.

[llmart]

19. Well said.........

and in light of the news on TV this week about how mammograms are causing too many false positives and unnecessary biopsies (it happened to me)I think we would be wise to put more money/energies into finding better means of detection. Also, we need to have people who are more well-trained in discerning which spots are suspicious and which are not.

I know so many women who have been traumatized by the surgical biopsies only to find it it was really nothing.

[Princess Turandot]

22. On the other hand, there is a universe of women out there..

who have health insurance who simply do not go for mammograms, often because someone has told them that they are incredibly painful (which they ain't.) If you have access to the service, there is NO excuse for not using it.

I've had multiple cancer victims in my family: catching it early still does mean something even if prevention is the ultimate goal.

[RobinA]

24. Couldn't Agree More

Breast cancer is not a matter of getting a mammogram = cure, not getting mammogram = dead of breast cancer. Breast cancer is not all the same. Some breast cancers will never hurt anyone. Others are so aggressive that mammograms every six months aren't going to make any difference. What she is saying simply isn't true across the board. Maybe she would be better off now if she had had yearly mammograms and maybe she wouldn't. I don't like her implication that a mammogram will keep you from dying of breast cancer. Maybe it will and maybe it wouldn't. Plus, it blames women for their own cancer, which is not what people battling cancer need on their backs in addition to what they are facing. By this token, anybody who gets a detectable cancer that advances is to blame.

[Vidar]

20. Admitting that to one's self takes some personal courage.

Confessing it to a whole and often hostile nation, for the sake of others, takes one hell of a lot more. Applauding Elizabeth Edwards--a courageous, compassionate and classy lady.

[Vinca]

21. Good advice, but - and I'm starting to sound like a broken record -

when the hell is someone - ANYONE - going to focus on the millions of women who can go get their free mammogram, find they have a lump and go home to die because they don't have health insurance? Damn, damn, damn! I read Jonathan Alter's cancer article in Newsweek - pills for nausea that cost $70 each - and it really hit me that if I were in his position or Elizabeth's position, I would not last long enough to advise anyone to do anything. Politicians talk about universal care during their pre-election speeches, then the issue disappears for another couple of years. What is it going to take for ths country to wake up??????????????:mad:

[SemperEadem]

29. because to many voters

universal health care is the first step towards socialism/communism. They don't care that people die and it's not their problem.

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

26. Got my first mammogram today at age 42!

Knew I should have gone before now, but so many "scare stories" floating around out there that I just put it off.
Once Elizabeth came forward and was so brave, I called and scheduled it.
Now, I have the one week wait for the results.
Good luck to Elizabeth in her fight - and thanks for reminding us what courage looks like!

[MissB]

27. Well done!

Here's hoping the results are perfectly fine. :toast:

I have 'em yearly and I'm in my late 30's. My health insurance pays for it, so I treat it just like my annual exam.

[SemperEadem]

28. I"m scheduled for one next week

after not having had one since 1986. Why? Fear. Plain and simple. And no insurance, even though I know somewhere, they do offer free mammograms--but I had no doctor for treatment and no job/insurance until a few months ago should something be found.

Right to life doesn't apply after you start breathing air.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

31. Thank you Elizabeth

Thank you for bringing this to womens' attention.

[Sacajawea]

32. 9 centimeters? I doubt it. That's a lump about 3 1/2 inches in diameter...

about the size of a large orange. She may have meant 9 millimeters, or a tenth of the size. Not nitpicking. Just trying to be accurate. And I do hope, as a previous poster said, that she does for mammograms what Katie Couric did/is doing for promoting colonoscopies.