By guest commentator Sharon Pigeon:
If you had asked me on June 1 of this year, I would have told you that I have never been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I could have told you that my late mother died of renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), and her family had a lot of other cancers but not breast cancer.
If you asked me today, a little over four months later, I would tell you I am a Breast Cancer Survivor. The difference between being a breast cancer victim and a breast cancer survivor was a mammogram.
After getting “abnormal” test results from a routine mammogram and an ultrasound on June 2, I still did not believe I could have breast cancer. I had breasts with “dense tissue”, I had been told long ago, so I thought further testing would prove this would not be anything to worry about.
As a “senior,” my understanding was that a mammogram was no longer necessary, and I thought mammograms were uncomfortable. However, I had a doctor who was insistent.
Since I had undergone a complete hysterectomy decades earlier to address other medical issues, my understanding was that my chances of developing cancer were marginal. However, I had a doctor who was insistent.
Even though I had no other symptoms, more and different tests followed. All results indicated breast cancer. On September 8, I underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Today, I am a Breast Cancer Survivor because I had a doctor who was insistent and because I had a mammogram.
Get your mammogram. It can save your life. It did mine.
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