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Hopeful:
What a great thread!
Colleen has had breast exams both ways. The ABC method found nothing.
I asked Colleen's oncologist about breast exams, and she said she thought most self-exams are of dubious value which is pretty scary considering the best defense against cancer is early detection. The important thing is that if you are trained properly, most people can detect tumors smaller than 1 cm with a self exam.
The problem with teaching breast self exams are that the exam is a very tactile activity. If you have no idea what a tumor is supposed to feel like, than you could by touching it for years and just assume it was part of normal healthy breast structure. In order to teach something tactile, you need training aids which you can actually feel. That seems pretty obvious.
When I first learned of Colleen's breast cancer, I proposed a training program for local OB/Gyn and High School health education classes in which prosthetic training aids are made in which tumors can be inserted to feel like real breast tumors so that women are trained by sense of touch.
I managed to get approval and sponsorship from Colleen's oncology radiologist, a tentative approval from our HMO, a tentative okay from the school district for a limited trial at our local high school health classes, some beginning talks from a local breast cancer charity about funding and I started exploring manufacturing of the prosthetics. Then....Well, Colleen started chemo and the whole project fell apart.
Apparently I underestimated the time, energy, and emotional commitment to being a caregiver for someone with cancer.
Anyway, I feel that women deserve better training for self-exams than what is generally available and there does seem to be some common sense solutions to the problem.
Lee
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