Hello friends!
As you might imagine, I've had several conversations about the reconstruction plan over the past few days. I've received a lot of sympathetic looks, some grimaces and many folks asking if I was really going to go through with it. At this point, yes, I'm going through with it. I made some decisions early on in anticipation of having reconstruction done. Though I did consider skipping reconstruction after learning the details, I got over it. I will push through and rebuild because, Lord knows, I don't want to spend the rest of my hopefully long life looking at the chest only Frankenstein could love. It's not vanity, it's about feeling semi-normal. Mostly it's about having my clothes fit right. You have no idea how goofy I feel when I'm not wearing the fakes. I don't care that I'm flat. I care that women's clothes draw attention to the fact that I'm flat (lumpy or inverted is more like it....eek!) because there's extra fabric to make room for the girls. I was not a fan of looking like a 10 year old wearing my mom's shirts.
Ok, back on topic. Most of the people I've had any lengthy conversations with about this have said that they don't think they'd go through with it. I find that interesting. I think I have an idea why it's so easy for everyone to say they would skip the procedure. Wait...first let me remind you that I did go through a period when I was aggressively stating that I might not get it done. I wrote about it early on. I got over it. Yes, women's bodies are objectified and there's too much focus on "saving 2nd base" when it should be about saving lives. Let me give you my perspective now. I want two things. First, I want to feel like a whole person and, second, I don't want such a vivid reminder that I had cancer every dang time I get out of the shower. Imagine having to lock the bathroom door every time you change clothes because if anyone walks in on you by accident, you'll cause them to have nightmares for the rest of their life. I understand that they will forever look like FrankenBoobies, but I'm OK with that. I will add the scars to my ever-growing collection and come out smiling on the other side. Plus, I have to do this for my fellow pink ladies. If I don't go through it then what in the world will I blog about? :-) Once again, it's a public service.
I'm off to bed. We can talk again tomorrow.
Love to all,
Andee
Visit the new site at www.andreadoolin.com
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Let's Talk About Surgery
...and here we go!
As I said, I met with the plastic surgeon on Thursday. The office staff was great and the doctor was fabulous! They spent a lot of time with me...I mean a lot...discussing options and answering my questions. There are several options for reconstruction. In the interest of time (and relevance) I will only cover the 2 options for which I am a candidate. If you want to know about the others, let me know and I'll post information in a separate post, with links to the details.
Here is how the rest of the post will work. I will take the time to type, at length, the procedures and how they were described to me, including length of procedure and recovery time. I will also post links to sites which will provide diagrams and general information about the procedures including length of procedure and recovery time. I'll tell you now, the numbers I was given vary quite a bit from the standards. From what I can tell, the difference is the fact that I had radiation. I could be completely wrong there but that does introduce some additional complications for this whole process.
Surgery Preparation
For reasons which will become clear with the review of procedures, the first step in this process will be to have a CT scan to ensure that blood flow is good to the muscle that will be moved. That will happen in the next couple of weeks.
When we get closer to the actual surgery (planned for January) I will have to start the preparation well in advance. I've had about 10 surgeries in my life so preparing for surgery is not new to me. The preoperative bathing instructions for this procedure are real. Not because of what needs to be done but because of the length of time I will have to do it. I will have to start the process 2 weeks prior to the procedure. In addition to the Hibiclens, I will also have to use Bactroban Nasal Ointment for a week prior to surgery. This is an effort to help minimize the risk of a MRSA infection. Infection is, obviously, a big concern with these procedures.
OPTION #1 - Free DIEP Flap Reconstruction
This procedure uses a flap of skin, fat and blood vessels - Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforators - to reconstruct the breast(s). There are positives and negatives with this procedure. For me, the negatives outweighed the positives so this was not the procedure I selected. Let's do a bulleted list for this one, shall we?
- Only a single procedure is required. (PRO)
- Bonus tummy tuck (PRO)
- My plastic surgeon does NOT do this procedure and there is only one PS in Kentucky that does enough of these procedures to make her comfortable to refer me to him. She said you want someone who does a lot of these, not anyone who "dabbles". The success rate for someone who does a lot of these is about 95%. (CON)
- The surgery itself would take 20-25 hours. You read that correctly. (CON CON CON CON ) The information on the "standard" shows less time but she said for cases like mine it could take this long. She said the shortest time she'd seen was 14 hours. I'm not interested in being under anesthesia that long - neither 14 NOR 20+ hours.
- If you want to learn more detail about this procedure, take a look at this...
DIEP Flap Information - TownsendMajors.com
She offered to refer me to the other plastic surgeon for a consult, but I graciously declined. That leaves with me with one option...well, one option other than choosing to skip reconstruction completely. I considered that for a minute but I have decided to move forward.
OPTION #2 - Lattissimus Dorsi Flap Reconstruction
Here we are. The information on the "winning" procedure. I am not terribly excited about this procedure BUT my outlook has improved in the past 24 hours. I've watched a series of videos on the procedure and at the end of one them, the doctor interviews the patient and she discussed her pain and recovery time and her experience wasn't bad. I typically recover pretty quickly from surgery so I'm hoping the same may be true for me. Her situation was different because she had her mastectomy and reconstruction at the same time. It still makes me feel better about the whole thing. We'll just have to see what happens for me.
First I'll have to provide you with a little bit of background information. My reconstruction options and the experience will be a bit different because of radiation. They told me from the very beginning that I would have to delay reconstruction for at least 1 year after radiation because of what it does to the skin. I mistakenly thought that my skin held up well and that meant that reconstruction wouldn't be too challenging. I was wrong. How your skin looks doesn't matter. Radiation changes your skin at the cellular level. It may look normal, other than being a little tan, but it most definitely is not. To give you a better idea of what we're talking about, the doctor told me that if we were to proceed with the placement and filling of the expanders without doing the flap procedure, the skin (on my left side) would simply split open. No exaggeration and it's 100% sure to happen. Ew. I mean really, EWWWWWWW. Even with the flap procedure, she warned me that my skin will open up but she'll be able to put a few stitches in and send me on my way. This could possibly happen multiple times during the expander phase. I got a little nervous at this point and asked her if she had ever had to stop the process completely and she said no - not yet. :-)
Doctor and nurse friends, please don't judge my feeble attempts to explain this correctly. Know that I am including a link to a page that explains it correctly. Now, on to the procedure itself. My plastic surgeon expects that procedure (for the left side only) to take approximately 6 hours. I assume that means that by adding the work on the right side, I'm looking at up to 8 hours of surgery.
The Latissimus Dorsi muscle is the muscle in your back that runs from just below your shoulder blade down towards your hip. They will make an incision in my back, release the muscle from it's current position (cut it out) while leaving it attached to its blood supply. It will NOT be cut completely free. There will be a band of muscle that stays attached and the whole thing will be pulled around from my back to my chest. They will cut open my existing scar then pull the lat muscle through, situate it, and sew it in. Once this lovely procedure is done, they will insert the empty expander and stitch me up. This is a very oversimplified description but you get the idea. I will wake up with 3 drains (you know how much I loved those things the last time around- SARCASM ALERT), 2 in the front and one in the back. I'll also have a catheter in my back for pain management. I'm not sure how long that will stay in. I will be in the hospital for 2 days. I will keep the front drains in for at least a week but the back drain will stay in for 2-3 weeks. Did I mention how much I hated the drains the last time? Anyway, recovery time is estimated to be 8 weeks. If you want the professional explanation, here you go. There are diagrams and everything!
Latissimus Dorsi Flap Reconstruction - TownsendMajors.com
After surgery (and recovery) I'll get a wee bit of a break. They have to wait for my surgical site to heal and the new tissue to work its magic. The increased blood flow will improve the skin situation but we have to wait and let it do its thing. I will have to wait approximately 6 months before they can start expanding the expanders. When that process starts we'll get a better idea of how long it's going to take. They will gradually fill the expanders and we'll see how my skin holds up. Like I said, she expects to have to stitch me up a few times but she says we'll be successful, even if the going is slow. It will likely take a few months, at least. I've heard that the expander experience isn't so bad and I've heard from others that it was excruciating. As always, I'll plan for the worst but expect the best.
After the expander experience, we'll then plan the actual implant surgery. That surgery will consist of an outpatient procedure with small incisions. I'll go home the same day and have a 2 week recovery. OH, and NO DRAINS!!
After the implant procedure, I have to wait about 3 more months before we can proceed to the tattooing phase.
I told you it was going to take a year...no kidding. We are going to start in January so we can try to wrap it all up in a single calendar year. That sounds really far away but I have a little over 2 months to get mentally, physically and generally prepared. This is a significant improvement over the 2 1/2 weeks between diagnosis and mastectomy, so I won't complain. It seems like an eternity.
I think that covers the basics. If you have questions, feel free to ask. As always, I'm willing to answer.
Whew! I made it!
The Latissimus Dorsi muscle is the muscle in your back that runs from just below your shoulder blade down towards your hip. They will make an incision in my back, release the muscle from it's current position (cut it out) while leaving it attached to its blood supply. It will NOT be cut completely free. There will be a band of muscle that stays attached and the whole thing will be pulled around from my back to my chest. They will cut open my existing scar then pull the lat muscle through, situate it, and sew it in. Once this lovely procedure is done, they will insert the empty expander and stitch me up. This is a very oversimplified description but you get the idea. I will wake up with 3 drains (you know how much I loved those things the last time around- SARCASM ALERT), 2 in the front and one in the back. I'll also have a catheter in my back for pain management. I'm not sure how long that will stay in. I will be in the hospital for 2 days. I will keep the front drains in for at least a week but the back drain will stay in for 2-3 weeks. Did I mention how much I hated the drains the last time? Anyway, recovery time is estimated to be 8 weeks. If you want the professional explanation, here you go. There are diagrams and everything!
Latissimus Dorsi Flap Reconstruction - TownsendMajors.com
After surgery (and recovery) I'll get a wee bit of a break. They have to wait for my surgical site to heal and the new tissue to work its magic. The increased blood flow will improve the skin situation but we have to wait and let it do its thing. I will have to wait approximately 6 months before they can start expanding the expanders. When that process starts we'll get a better idea of how long it's going to take. They will gradually fill the expanders and we'll see how my skin holds up. Like I said, she expects to have to stitch me up a few times but she says we'll be successful, even if the going is slow. It will likely take a few months, at least. I've heard that the expander experience isn't so bad and I've heard from others that it was excruciating. As always, I'll plan for the worst but expect the best.
After the expander experience, we'll then plan the actual implant surgery. That surgery will consist of an outpatient procedure with small incisions. I'll go home the same day and have a 2 week recovery. OH, and NO DRAINS!!
After the implant procedure, I have to wait about 3 more months before we can proceed to the tattooing phase.
I told you it was going to take a year...no kidding. We are going to start in January so we can try to wrap it all up in a single calendar year. That sounds really far away but I have a little over 2 months to get mentally, physically and generally prepared. This is a significant improvement over the 2 1/2 weeks between diagnosis and mastectomy, so I won't complain. It seems like an eternity.
I think that covers the basics. If you have questions, feel free to ask. As always, I'm willing to answer.
Whew! I made it!
As always, I will keep you updated on the process and planning and, when the time comes, the really real truth about the procedure and the recovery.
Bye for now.
Love to all,
Andee
Saturday, October 24, 2015
So, Andee, what's new?
I'm glad you asked! I have so much to tell you.
PART I
First, let me address my whiny Facebook posts from Thursday. I have a personal rule. I give myself a day to wallow in a little self pity. It happened when I was diagnosed, again when my hair fell out and again on Thursday. So what was up on Thursday? Well, I had my first visit with my plastic surgeon on Thursday afternoon. At this point, I'm sure you're wondering what in the world could have happened at my reconstruction consultation. I mean, we're talking reconstruction, not removal. Surely removal had to be bad and that would mean that reconstruction is good. First of all, I didn't have any hesitation with the removal. Really. I promise. It was all about getting the cancer out of my body and I was all for that! I was even OK with the fact that I would need to delay reconstruction until 1 year post radiation. So, again, I'm sure you're wondering what the big deal was. The big deal was that I didn't have a good understanding of what reconstruction would consist of until Thursday. You might recall that I made a comment back in August, after I met with my general surgeon, that I learned that the surgery would be a little more invasive than I expected. Well, it's going to be way more invasive than I expected. If you are at all familiar with a "standard" reconstruction, you know that they insert expanders to make room for the implant, they fill them over several weeks or months and then they replace the expander with the permanent implant. The implant portion of the process, even for me, will be an outpatient procedure with small incisions and a 2 week recovery time. Not bad as surgeries go. The issue for me will be the surgery required to "fix" me enough to allow them to expand that expanders without my chest tearing open. Sadly, I'm being serious. There is no exaggeration there at all. The surgery will be longer, more involved, more invasive and have a longer recovery time than my mastectomy did. That's where the emotion came from. I had a moment of hesitation about whether I wanted to go forward or not and I got mad. I got mad because I felt like my two choices both sucked. Option 1 was to do nothing and remain deformed for the rest of my life. I was ok with it for a couple of years but I fully expected to get corrected at some point. Option 2 is going to be a long surgery with a lot of not-so-exciting elements. I had my day (well evening) of thinking it sucked, it wasn't fair, when is enough, enough? I allowed myself that evening but I have since moved on. I'm alive and I'm blessed to have that choice. 2014 was a year of surgery and treatment, 2015 has allowed a bit of a break and 2016 will be the year of reconstruction...and yes, it will take the whole year. Now that we've covered the emotional part, let's talk about my surgical options. Settle in, it's going to take a while.
PART I
First, let me address my whiny Facebook posts from Thursday. I have a personal rule. I give myself a day to wallow in a little self pity. It happened when I was diagnosed, again when my hair fell out and again on Thursday. So what was up on Thursday? Well, I had my first visit with my plastic surgeon on Thursday afternoon. At this point, I'm sure you're wondering what in the world could have happened at my reconstruction consultation. I mean, we're talking reconstruction, not removal. Surely removal had to be bad and that would mean that reconstruction is good. First of all, I didn't have any hesitation with the removal. Really. I promise. It was all about getting the cancer out of my body and I was all for that! I was even OK with the fact that I would need to delay reconstruction until 1 year post radiation. So, again, I'm sure you're wondering what the big deal was. The big deal was that I didn't have a good understanding of what reconstruction would consist of until Thursday. You might recall that I made a comment back in August, after I met with my general surgeon, that I learned that the surgery would be a little more invasive than I expected. Well, it's going to be way more invasive than I expected. If you are at all familiar with a "standard" reconstruction, you know that they insert expanders to make room for the implant, they fill them over several weeks or months and then they replace the expander with the permanent implant. The implant portion of the process, even for me, will be an outpatient procedure with small incisions and a 2 week recovery time. Not bad as surgeries go. The issue for me will be the surgery required to "fix" me enough to allow them to expand that expanders without my chest tearing open. Sadly, I'm being serious. There is no exaggeration there at all. The surgery will be longer, more involved, more invasive and have a longer recovery time than my mastectomy did. That's where the emotion came from. I had a moment of hesitation about whether I wanted to go forward or not and I got mad. I got mad because I felt like my two choices both sucked. Option 1 was to do nothing and remain deformed for the rest of my life. I was ok with it for a couple of years but I fully expected to get corrected at some point. Option 2 is going to be a long surgery with a lot of not-so-exciting elements. I had my day (well evening) of thinking it sucked, it wasn't fair, when is enough, enough? I allowed myself that evening but I have since moved on. I'm alive and I'm blessed to have that choice. 2014 was a year of surgery and treatment, 2015 has allowed a bit of a break and 2016 will be the year of reconstruction...and yes, it will take the whole year. Now that we've covered the emotional part, let's talk about my surgical options. Settle in, it's going to take a while.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Cancer Part I
I spend a lot of time these days talking about life after treatment, reconstruction, weight gain, weight loss, fatigue...if you're a regular, then you know. One thing I haven't talked about in a while is C word...cancer. How it changes your life, how it makes you part of a club...and not the fun kind. I have made connections...correction, I have made FRIENDS, that I would not have made if it wasn't for cancer. (Stop reading Mom, I'm about use bad words) The shitty part of that deal is that many of those friends are battling some form of cancer, too. Regardless of where you are with the disease and/or treatment, you end up with segment of your world revolving around cancer. You have new Facebook friends. You meet new people at the clinic while you're waiting to see the doctor. You share a chemo room with a fabulous person. We all have stories, we all support one another, we all fight every damn day to stay positive, stay healthy and stay alive. Whether you were stage 0 or stage 4, you are part of the family. Cancer is cancer is cancer is cancer.
Now, for those of you who have been blessed with a life that has not yet been touched by cancer, let me put this in perspective for you. Imagine you form a small circle of new friends. You were brought together because you have something in common. Imagine that when you connect, you chat about how your week is going, you get some advice from one person, you share your own advice with another person. You welcome new people with that common interest into your circle. You are constantly praying for the well-being of your new friends and only hoping the best for them.
This is what happens when you get diagnosed. You start growing a circle of friends who have or have had cancer. Some of my "cancer friends" I get to see in person, many of them are friends of friends who became my friends (and yes, Facebook counts)...because of CANCER. Now imagine that circle of friends we were discussing earlier consisted of 6 people. How hard would it be for you if within 9 months 2 of those friends found out their cancer had recurred and 2 others passed away. It's not easy, my friends. It is not easy at all!
I'm really tired so I'm going to stop here but I'll be back tomorrow to finish up this post.
Stay strong, my cancer family! Love you!
Love to all,
Andee
Now, for those of you who have been blessed with a life that has not yet been touched by cancer, let me put this in perspective for you. Imagine you form a small circle of new friends. You were brought together because you have something in common. Imagine that when you connect, you chat about how your week is going, you get some advice from one person, you share your own advice with another person. You welcome new people with that common interest into your circle. You are constantly praying for the well-being of your new friends and only hoping the best for them.
This is what happens when you get diagnosed. You start growing a circle of friends who have or have had cancer. Some of my "cancer friends" I get to see in person, many of them are friends of friends who became my friends (and yes, Facebook counts)...because of CANCER. Now imagine that circle of friends we were discussing earlier consisted of 6 people. How hard would it be for you if within 9 months 2 of those friends found out their cancer had recurred and 2 others passed away. It's not easy, my friends. It is not easy at all!
I'm really tired so I'm going to stop here but I'll be back tomorrow to finish up this post.
Stay strong, my cancer family! Love you!
Love to all,
Andee
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
It doesn't matter what time you go to bed if you're not sleeping
As you know, I've been dealing with fatigue since chemo (and that ended a year ago). I've been getting very frustrated because recently I've felt like my fatigue level was going in the wrong direction. I improved month over month and then started to feel like I was going backwards. I think I've discovered why.
You may or may not know that the Fitbit can track your sleep patterns. I tend to focus on my step count and haven't paid much attention to the sleep results lately. Well, this week I started looking at it. Holy crap, no wonder I'm tired. Though I'm going to bed at a relatively reasonable hour (compared to pre-treatment) and staying in bed for the recommended 6-7 hours I'm averaging less than 3 hours of actual sleep during that time. And those 3 hours are not even in a row. I wake up 3 or 4 times and have been "restless" 20+ times, on average. Well NO WONDER YOU'RE TIRED!
I spent time this weekend mapping out my Q4 goals and schedule. I'm hoping that I can exhaust myself at the end of the day and sleep soundly for more than a minute. I'm so hoping this improves. My body is angry.
Take care of yourselves, friends.
Love to all!
Andee
You may or may not know that the Fitbit can track your sleep patterns. I tend to focus on my step count and haven't paid much attention to the sleep results lately. Well, this week I started looking at it. Holy crap, no wonder I'm tired. Though I'm going to bed at a relatively reasonable hour (compared to pre-treatment) and staying in bed for the recommended 6-7 hours I'm averaging less than 3 hours of actual sleep during that time. And those 3 hours are not even in a row. I wake up 3 or 4 times and have been "restless" 20+ times, on average. Well NO WONDER YOU'RE TIRED!
I spent time this weekend mapping out my Q4 goals and schedule. I'm hoping that I can exhaust myself at the end of the day and sleep soundly for more than a minute. I'm so hoping this improves. My body is angry.
Take care of yourselves, friends.
Love to all!
Andee
Friday, October 2, 2015
The importance of self exams & mammograms OR I found a lump!
Good Friday to you!
This is going to be one of those informative posts where I share my business in hopes of helping others. In this case, I want everyone reading this to do a self exam or, if it's time, get a mammogram...or nudge someone you love to do so. This is the story of my lump discovery.
Let me start by saying that I have always been a little OCD about regular self exams. The guidelines are to do them monthly. I was always more of a weekly type person. That said, I still didn't catch my lump in the early stages. For those of you who might be joining the party late, when I was diagnosed I was told that I had two different types of breast cancer. One of which does not cause a lump. Let me repeat that - IT DOES NOT CAUSE A LUMP. The good news is, that type of cancer stays put. It travels in the milk ducts and stays in the breast. Lucky for me (yes that's sarcasm you're sensing) I also had the kind that DOES cause a lump AND (bonus) it can travel. UGH! Wasn't one type enough? For me, the answer is obviously no.
Let's get back to Lump Day. As diligent as I was about self checks, I didn't find the lump during an exam, per se. I had a tender spot, which I thought was there as a result of an ill-fitting bra or, at the very least, a misdirected underwire. I was laying on my right side and I reached around to my left side to check out the tender spot and I felt a lump. Lump doesn't seem like an appropriate word, it felt pretty big to me. (When it was removed, if memory serves, it was dangerously close to 6 cm). I had never felt anything before. I'm not really sure if it had been there for a while and I was just in a position at that time to feel it OR if it had grown quickly. Based on the information from the biopsy, the growth rate of the "lump cancer" was medium, the ductal cancer was the faster growing of the two. The lesson here is that even though I did regular exams, I didn't feel anything until it was bigger than a golf ball.
The next question is whether I'd had a mammogram or not. The answer is no. My doctor and I had talked about it when I turned 40 but didn't schedule one. I was calling to schedule my next annual exam when I found the lump. I didn't feel terribly rushed prior to that because I had heard that the revised guidelines suggested that annual mammograms should start @ age 50. I'm here to tell you that, had I waited until 50, I would have been dead. No joke. I trusted the guidelines before I was diagnosed, now I think they are crap. There are so many women, with no family history, who are diagnosed. It's so scary. Mattie, as a result of my diagnosis, will start having mammograms by age 30, if not earlier. That is the case even though my genetic testing showed that I did not have the mutated BRCA gene. If that was the case, she would have to be tested even earlier.
If you take anything from my experience, it is to do self exams, don't delay mammograms and act quickly. I found my lump on a Saturday March 15, called the doctor on Monday, saw the doctor Tuesday, had a diagnostic mammogram/ultrasound/biopsy a week later and had a bilateral mastectomy on April 15. I started chemo on May 14...yada yada yada. Things in your life can change quickly.
If you have any questions, feel like you need some support or just want to find out more, feel free to contact me. You can do so via the blog "contact me" link, via the Facebook page or private message.
Get checked!
Love to all,
Andee
This is going to be one of those informative posts where I share my business in hopes of helping others. In this case, I want everyone reading this to do a self exam or, if it's time, get a mammogram...or nudge someone you love to do so. This is the story of my lump discovery.
Let me start by saying that I have always been a little OCD about regular self exams. The guidelines are to do them monthly. I was always more of a weekly type person. That said, I still didn't catch my lump in the early stages. For those of you who might be joining the party late, when I was diagnosed I was told that I had two different types of breast cancer. One of which does not cause a lump. Let me repeat that - IT DOES NOT CAUSE A LUMP. The good news is, that type of cancer stays put. It travels in the milk ducts and stays in the breast. Lucky for me (yes that's sarcasm you're sensing) I also had the kind that DOES cause a lump AND (bonus) it can travel. UGH! Wasn't one type enough? For me, the answer is obviously no.
Let's get back to Lump Day. As diligent as I was about self checks, I didn't find the lump during an exam, per se. I had a tender spot, which I thought was there as a result of an ill-fitting bra or, at the very least, a misdirected underwire. I was laying on my right side and I reached around to my left side to check out the tender spot and I felt a lump. Lump doesn't seem like an appropriate word, it felt pretty big to me. (When it was removed, if memory serves, it was dangerously close to 6 cm). I had never felt anything before. I'm not really sure if it had been there for a while and I was just in a position at that time to feel it OR if it had grown quickly. Based on the information from the biopsy, the growth rate of the "lump cancer" was medium, the ductal cancer was the faster growing of the two. The lesson here is that even though I did regular exams, I didn't feel anything until it was bigger than a golf ball.
The next question is whether I'd had a mammogram or not. The answer is no. My doctor and I had talked about it when I turned 40 but didn't schedule one. I was calling to schedule my next annual exam when I found the lump. I didn't feel terribly rushed prior to that because I had heard that the revised guidelines suggested that annual mammograms should start @ age 50. I'm here to tell you that, had I waited until 50, I would have been dead. No joke. I trusted the guidelines before I was diagnosed, now I think they are crap. There are so many women, with no family history, who are diagnosed. It's so scary. Mattie, as a result of my diagnosis, will start having mammograms by age 30, if not earlier. That is the case even though my genetic testing showed that I did not have the mutated BRCA gene. If that was the case, she would have to be tested even earlier.
If you take anything from my experience, it is to do self exams, don't delay mammograms and act quickly. I found my lump on a Saturday March 15, called the doctor on Monday, saw the doctor Tuesday, had a diagnostic mammogram/ultrasound/biopsy a week later and had a bilateral mastectomy on April 15. I started chemo on May 14...yada yada yada. Things in your life can change quickly.
If you have any questions, feel like you need some support or just want to find out more, feel free to contact me. You can do so via the blog "contact me" link, via the Facebook page or private message.
Get checked!
Love to all,
Andee
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