DU Women - GET A MAMMOGRAM!

[Dookus]

I just discovered my sister-in-law has breast cancer. It's stage Zero, and was found through a regular mammogram. A lumpectomy should be all that's needed.

Please, ladies, make sure you get a mammogram annually. It's a life-saver.

[LisaM]

1. I've had one, but do you think they can get shorter machines?

I had to spend the whole time on tip-toes and even then barely reached. It was excruciating.

[Dookus]

4. heheh

wear heels. It's worth it.

[nini]

32. same problem for those of us who are tall

I have to get in the wierdest position to get mine flattened.

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Oh Dookus I am so glad they caught it so quickly. I believe this is

breast cancer awareness month as well. Good advice. :hi:

[fortyfeetunder]

17. Yup October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Yes, good health is in a woman's hands.

[blackcat77]

3. My wife complains about it every year...

...for a week before and a week after, but I make certain that she never forgets.

[Pithlet]

5. Thank goodness it was caught early

I wish your sister-in-law speedy recovery.

For those of us not old enough for regular mammograms, self examination and regular checkups are vital. Thanks for posting this, Dookus. I'm sure it's a scary time for your family right now.

[Dookus]

6. thanks

What age do they recommend women get annual mammograms? 40?

[Pithlet]

10. Yes, 40

So, I'm still a few years away. Hopefully by then they'll have invented a machine that doesn't squish boobies flat. But, it's worth it for early detection.

[childslibrarian]

7. My sister has breast cancer---found

through a mammogram. It is important and thanks for reminding us.

[Dookus]

8. I hope

your sister is doing well!

[blondeatlast]

9. Had mione last month. My husband's mom had a very bad

battle with it, bless her beautiful heart. I miss her, she was a wonderful, tiny, classy woman.

[olddem43]

11. I made my woman get one in 2001. Caught it just in time.

Had to do a mastectomy though. We got the final biopsy (negative) on the lymph nodes on 9/11. It was a good day for us, a bad day for a lot of others.

[miss_kitty]

12. I am So freaking scanned

I get two CT scans a year (down from one every oter month for about a year.If I don't hear "Breathe in! Hold your breath!" again it'll be too soon.

My mammogram-total nightmare, but hey! I'm AOK!


Thanks for reminding people. It IS important :hi:

[China_cat]

13. Yes, especially for us

who had close relations with breast cancer...such as our mothers.


Too bad my insurance wouldn't cover it when I had insurance and I don't have the $400 it would cost me to do it now that they've cancelled me.

I'm not the only one.

[DrZeeLit]

19. Free Prgrams are available...

...go to your public library -- cuz at the moment I forgot the name of these, but they are free for the mammograms and basic checks. Darn! and it's an easy name too... I always see their flyer at the library.

It's worth your while to check out a program. You don't have to divulge your financial data either -- the flyer says all women welcome. Surely that's not just here in Vt, right... we are so small. That's gotta be a program in other states.

Research!

[China_cat]

25. No free programs in SC

The $400 is the CLINIC, low-cost price. Go to a regular doctor and get a referral and the price is almost $1000.

Medicaid in this state might pay for them but I really doubt it...and you definitely have to give financial information to get that.

We make too much for programs, not enough to afford insurance for me even if I could get it. (Serious pre-existing conditions that my previous insurance carrier cancelled me for developing.)

[BlueNomad]

29. Why is it that expensive?

Holy hell. That sounds wild! I hope it included a full physical because I just had one two weeks ago in one of the most expensive cities in the US (Washington DC)--- in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the Country (Friendship Heights Bethesda/ NW DC) and it was 103.00 with no insurance or free with my Blue Cross. This was much less pricey than my child's physical and blood tests which were about 300.00 since the BC/BS we had no longe rpays for well visits for children after 6 (yeah that's another nightmare).

Look into your local universities' mammogram vans and any local tv sponsored buddy check programs. Also call Planned Parenthood, they may be able to help as well.

[China_cat]

30. I have no idea

why things are so expensive here in regards to medical care. My last hospitalization (6 years ago), the one that caused my insurance to cancel me, cost a bit over $5000. I was there for less than 10 HOURS.

Two years ago my grandson cut his hand and had to have stitches. The cost was $900...$300 per stitch.

[never cry wolf]

14. My older sister was 52

When she died, a year ago last May, I wrote her obit. She was a member of mensa, a tournament bridge player, an artist, had two advanced degrees, interned under Buckminster Fuller and was his personal assistant for a while.

She was not perfect, but she was very strong. She was a child of the 60s and a hippie back in the day. She decided to clean up her life, moved to Utah, became a born again xian (and could be VERY irritating about it!) She was extremely into physical fitness and eating right, a vegan and all organic.

She was diagnosed when she was she was 47, after not having a mamo for 5 years. She had the operation and chemo and was told if it didn't return within 5 years she was good to go. Two years later it returned... She was given 6 months but held out for 18. She NEVER gave up, went to the most progressive experimental clinics in the hemisphere. after 12 months it entered her brain lining and she went blind, soon enough it affected her speech and thinking.

After that the end was a blessing in a way.

She opened my mind to many things, Tolkein, Asimov, Ouija boards, even drugs. She loved nature and all creatures. She was a rebel as a child and once she was 18 she was out of the house for good, doing her own thing, moving all over the country. I can't say we were ever real close as adults but I tell ya, the tears are flowing now. I have a vial of her ashes in here in my office.

Get the tests done all you nice ladies of DU, it's not just for your benefit but those who care about you as well!

On edit: My mom had it as well, in about 1965 or so. Major masectomy but they got it all apparently as she is still kicking at the age of 82. She spent 3 months in Utah sleeping on the couch to be with her baby, blaming herself. It took alot out of her.

[Dookus]

15. ugh

I'm so sorry. It sounds awful.

[sendero]

16. Both my mother and my ex-wife...

.... have had breast cancer discovered by mammogram in the last 2 years. It looks like both will recover fully, after courses of treatment of chemo and radiation.

Particularly in my ex-wife's case (who is the mother of 2 sons) the mammogram caught the cancer just in time. There is no way to quantify the value of these diagnostics, DO THEM EVERY YEAR!

[fortyfeetunder]

18. Yes, absolutely get a mammogram

Know getting squished is a painful thought, but I have some good news to share.

I was at a technical conference where there is research to develop a scanning technique which will NOT require breast compression.

The joke was after the conference when mammogram machines were obsolete, they can use the mammogram machines for testiculograms...LOL...

[Flaxbee]

20. My sister (half sister, maternal side) had it at 41...

I think that means I have to get one early, like at 35. Bugger, just turned 35 last month and am not looking forward to the boob squishing machine.

[miss_kitty]

21. night kick

:hi:

[Dookus]

22. Merci beaucoup

mlle chatte!

[REP]

23. I'm Not Even 40 Yet!

Okay, I will be by the end of the year and I'll have my first boob-smasher, but it will be almost useless; I'm nullaparous (no pregnancies/births) so my breast tissue is much denser than most women my age. That, my friends, is one of the very, very few downsides of being childfree (or a lesbian*).


*Lesbians get breast cancer at higher rate than hetero women as most lesbians haven't been pregnant/given birth

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

24. Yes, get one

My sister died of breast cancer almost three years ago (the same day the PATRIOT Act was signed), and I've tried to be very faithful about getting mammograms since then. I actually don't mind the squishing as much as I mind the ungodly positions into which I'm asked to contort myself so they can get a good view. Dookus, I'm very glad they caught your sister-in-law's cancer so early and can take care of it relatively easily. Best wishes to her.

[miss_kitty]

26. yes it might be almost useless

then again, maybe not-if they have trouble seeing stuff, they SHOULD do an ulstrasound imaging, and then they move on to MRI, the UI is not at all unpleasant-can't speak to the MRI. And you might have less dense breast tissue!

I am nullaparous too (new word for me!)

[skygazer]

27. Thanks Dookus

I get one every year. My mom and two of my aunts died of breast cancer. I have been getting mammograms since I turned 35.

[MissMillie]

28. Good wishes to your sister-in-law

My mom was diagnosed w/ breast cancer this past summer. Her prognosis is great, but let me tell ya, it's a struggle we wish she didn't have to face. She had lumpectomy and is now in the midst of a seven-week course of radiation.

Ladies---- Get it done! It's only uncomfortable for a minute and it could save your LIFE!!!

[amazona]

31. i'm glad she will be OK but...

...if they were serious about wanting women to get mammograms, they would find a way to do it that was not excruciatingly painful. There is no way that I can go through this every year. No one asks men to put their nuts in a vise and have a huge machine weighing several hundred pounds come down and smash them flat...and then asks them to return to do it again the next year.

I just can't do this. I. Just. Can't.

Adding insult to injury, a client of my mother's got an infection from her biopsy and lost the breast, the arm, and her leg on that side of the body as a result. In a cruel irony, the lump turned out to be benign.

And we still don't get straight answers about how many of the lumps discovered by mammograms were created by past mammograms -- the test itself creates a certain amount of cancers, although I would hope less now that low dose radiation machines are in wide use.

Mammogram/biopsy do have risks that can be serious. I don't think men fully understand what is involved. My friend who has been nagging me was shocked when I told him of the pain and the claustrophic panic attack I experienced. He literally did not know what he was asking.

Every 3 years will have to be enough.

I apologize in advance for being so negative but I feel obligated to point out that women are not refusing to have mammograms just because they are "too busy" or "too ignorant" or something. We have valid concerns that haven't been addressed.

[the Princess]

34. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Everything you said was what I wanted to say but was just too damn lazy to type. LOL

All your points are very valid and when dr's can figure out exactly how beneficial mamograms are as apposed to how harmful and how many actually cause breast cancer - I'll reconsider. Not before.

[Dookus]

35. well

I think you have to acknowledge that not everybody has the same response to a mammogram. I've known women that hated it, and others that said it was no big deal.

My fear is that if my sister-in-law felt like you and waited three years for a mammogram, she'd be in much worse shape.

I hate to think younger women would read your post and presume that the test will be horribly painful for them, and thus forego it. That'd be a shame.

[the Princess]

36. How can it not be painful??

They take your breast - pull it as far away from your body as they can (hey it is attached) and place it on a plexiglass plate and then procede to squash it as far as they can without your breast exploding. Ummmmmm Yeah that's painful!

I also think a sonagram is more conclusive in a diagnosis of breast cancer. From my own research.

I suggest any woman who has not had a mamogram - research it first and then decide if you really want to do this to yourself. There is still a BIG debate of whether the mamogram itself can cause cancer - so the jury is still out.

[Dookus]

37. All I"m saying

is the women I've spoken to don't all, by any means, find the procedure as excruciating as you do.

[the Princess]

33. Had one

And have no intention of having another for a long long time. Not until they can come up with a better way of trying to make my breast flat as a pancake - without any pain. This is a masochistic procedure thought up by men. And then just as you think the damn thing can't get any tighter - the friggin technician turns it just one more time - "Just in case" and then takes the picture. I HATE THIS PRODCEDURE!!!!!!!!! It's the most painful thing I have ever been through. Breast are not suppose to be flat and 1 inch think!