Myths about breast cancer: Self exams save lives.
Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 14:23 Oh, how I wish this were true, but it simply isn’t. I practiced monthly breast self exams and didn’t even realize I had breast cancer, and advanced breast cancer at that. Furthermore, at my annual physical exam, my doctors’ fingers glided right over the tumor, to my other breast and got all concerned over a benign cyst there.
Yes, everybody was missing it. The mammograms had even missed it. You see, I had a lobular carcinoma, which isn’t a lump. Lobular breast cancer presents as a thickening of breast tissue, and in my case, was right behind the nipple. And it was large; 6+cm (more than two inches across) in size, and had already spread to my lymph nodes. I felt so guilty and stupid because I hadn’t found it in a BSE!
I can hear the anxious sucking in of breath out there as you read this.
Wait! Remember, I’m still sitting here, seven years later, writing this.
My point is two fold.