Re: Good Advice?
 

Somewhere I heard that many breast cancers have been there for years before becoming detectable by palpation. So the relativity of "early" detection should be considered. Very dense breasts can hide lumps as well, probably better with an MRI in that case. My mom's wasn't picked up by mammo because of location. I wish PET scans and MRI were cheap enough to be included in regular physicals. Could help with many types of cancers.

Re: Good Advice?
 

For the record , found mine 3 mos or so after mammo, in the shower, IIB, HER2+. Not really looking for it but felt like something felt different when I picked my arm up. Guessing mine was missed as it was on the periphery of what might be seen on mammo. So I would not write off SBEs in favor of mammos.

Bev

Re: Good Advice?
 

Joe - wow - lots of stories here! I found mine - because I had a pain in my chest low - like in the ribs right at the bottom of the breast --- it woke me up (and at that point I was a sound sleeper!) in the middle of the night.... it kept me awake thinking and I was searching around and finally found what appeared to be something attached to the muscle near the rib. I knew immediately it wasn't good. Took me a month to get to the GYC, as I was in the US when I found it and then with Christmas ... so my doc said that a mamo and ultrasound were in order... did them 10 days later - and went straight after that to the Oncology....
I was so lucky as it hurt. If not, a normal - annual mamo would have never caught it - the doctor doing the mamo - had a really hard time getting a photo of it, even after he did the ultrasound, because of the position and it was almost 2cm...
AND - I had done 2 mamograms before - with "perfect" results - they said there was not even anything fiberous in my breasts (so it was the LAST thing I was thinking of!) and I know, I was bad, but I never did self exams, and had no shower card .... so without the pain, I would have not found it and with Her2 +++ I could have had a HUGE tumor by this time --- (6 months after surgery now!) and my lymph nodes were clear!

Re: Good Advice?
 

Hi Joe,

I was 58 years old, when I found my lump while in the shower. I was never good at self exams. This was just a long, slow shower and there it was. Saw my OBGYN the next day, she felt it too. She sent me straight for a MRI. I was at an imagining clinic who could then do the ultra sound and the biopsy. It was a whirlwind of a day. Routine mamos every year. Mamo 11 months earlier had never found it. Count on yourself and believe.

Hugs to you and everyone on this site.
Catherine

Re: Good Advice?
 

I was finally diagnosed at age 33 (the first time after changing doctors to get a prescription for a mamograhm). I had stage I and learned that my gyno of 14 years said I had an obsessive fear of breast cancer. I found the lump and he pretended to follow me for a year.

The second time I was also stage I and 43 years old. That time I did not feel a lump.

At age 49 I was diagnosed with mets after finding the lumps. Both my oncologist at the time and surgeon blew me off. My OB/GYN ordered the ultra-sound that diagnosed me.

I am puzzled by this message. When I went to their conference in DC I met several leaders of grass roots efforts in the African American community. I learned that these women had a much greater risk of death from breast cancer. The reason as they explained it to me was due to a lack of awareness and the fact that most African American women were diagnosed much later and many at Stage III.

None of this ads up. I agree that more money needs to be spent on finding a cure but this message seems to translate into "awareness in not helpful in fighting this disease" and that translation is maddening.

Joe,
How can we get the Her2 Support group on that board? They need people like you and Christine. I was very saddened by their focus and lack support for metastatic women. I learned a great deal but it just seems like this is an extremely powerful and effective lobbing group with a narrow scope. They need a broader perspective. That said, I greatly appreciate the work that they do even if most of it will not benifit me or others with mets. They help keep breast cancer in the forefront of the leaders in DC and fight for funding from the defense department for research.

Love, Hope, Peace, Carolyn

Re: Good Advice?
 

I found my own lump as well. I was breastfeeding my 3rd baby and just felt it one night when she was done nursing. It felt different than a clogged milk duct. It was very small (7 mm) and kind of felt like a little jelly bean.

Re: Good Advice?
 

Found mine in the shower also at age 41. Was due for my second yearly mamogram a month later. My doc thought it was a cyst too but decided to do a needle biopsy to be safe. Thank God she did.

Re: Good Advice?
 

2nd time around found a lump that turned out to be cancerous and had spread outside the breast - same breast as my mastectomy!
1st time was through a mammo.

yes
 

first found on my first mamm in 1986, second, 2003, i found a month after a clear mamm...both invasive, second in other breast. knowing it was there it still didn't show on mamm..........and i read that self exam isn't worthwhile. these days from so many surgeries and radiation it is hard to tell what i feel. best, lyce