A word of caution to all women everywhere. Do not fall into the pitfall of believing that just because you do mammograms every year and check your breasts every month that you will not get breast cancer. I have been doing mammograms since I was 35 years old, and monthly breast exams, and here I am at the age of 58 with stage II breast cancer, that spread to one lymphnode. How does that happen? Word of warning....If you have dense breast tissue tumors are hard to detect with mammography. My tumor(s) were not detected until an ultrasound was performed. I put a parentheses around the (s) because in the beginning they thought I had one area, but when a biopsy was performed there were two areas of concern and titanium markers were placed inside my breast. When the mastectomy was performed the whole breast was full of cancer. So my diagnosis was change from Invasive Ductal Carcinoma to Invasive Mammary Carcinoma.
The following is a Warning Signs of Breast Cancer that Susan G. Komen puts out:
1. Itchy, scaly sore or rash on the nipple
2. Pulling in of your nipple or other parts of the breast
3. Nipple discharge that starts suddenly
4. New pain in one spot that does not go away
5. Lump, hard knot or thickening inside the breast or underarm area
6. Change in the size or shape of the breast
7. Dimpling or puckering of the skin
8. Swelling, warmth, redness or darkening of the breast
I had a mammogram done in November 2014, even though I had some thickening of the breast tissue, I was told everything was ok. By the summer of 2015 barely 6 months later, I noticed a pink spot under the left breast, but still could not feel any lumps. It seemed like over night when I noticed that my nipple was retracting and when I bent down I felt like I had pressure in that breast. In September 2015 I saw my ob/gyn for a papsmear and I mentioned to her about the pink spot and a feeling of heaviness in my left breast. When she examined me, she immediately called for another mammogram to be performed.
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