Personal story for you ladies and men:
I feel that I would like to share with you the details of my cancer scare----so that it may help or save you or one of your loved ones. Although mammograms are very important - critical- they don't always find the "c" --- I had a suspicious spot on a mammogram which led to a needle biopsy which lead to a lumpectomy --
The result of the lumpectomy was that there was something suspicious on the very edge of what was taken out, so the surgeon wanted to go back and get a larger piece.
My Husband, Boyd & I did not have to think very long before we told the surgeon that we wanted the whole breast taken --- we didn't want to fool around and wish later that we had done this.
After the mastectomy, the results came back --- the area that was "suspicious" was benign, but there was another spot that was the "fast growing cancer" --- this was an area that would not have been found had we not done the mastectomy. Scary, isn't it?
In a follow up visit to the surgeon after the mastectomy, he said that I need to have mammograms every 4-6 months to carefully watch the other breast. Again, it did not take Boyd & me long to tell the surgeon --- "Let's get rid of the other one, too" --- 4 months after the first mastectomy, I had the 2nd one. They removed lymph nodes also. There was no other cancer found --- thank goodness!
I'm here to tell you that without the decision to have the mastectomy, I would probably be a very sick person today even if alive because the lumpectomy would not have found the "fast growing cancer".
The moral of this story: please, if you or one of your loved ones has breast cancer, have them think seriously about the mastectomy. It could save their life. It saved mine.
If you are a young person, don't feel that you are free ---- more and more young women are being diagnosed with cancer all the time. Please have those mammograms regularly and if cancer is found, think mastectomy.
Hope this message will save at least one life.
Liz Loadholt
AgentOwned Realty
Liz, You are such a brave person! I know that a lot of women would have opted for a lumpectomy but I am so glad I have read your story. I have two young daughters myself and this is always in the back of our minds. I am so glad things have worked out for you and wish you the best future possible.