In January, Barb, my pastor and the special woman in my life who is like a “second mom” to me, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy on February 26. After getting her pain under control, and after suffering from pneumonia after her surgery, she is slowly getting stronger with each passing day in her recovery. I praise God that today she is cancer free!
Barb is the closest person to me to have been diagnosed with breast cancer. We go to the same family doctor who had recommended during her physical that Barb should get a mammogram done since it had been a couple years. My doctor also recommended to me that once I turn 40, I should get one done for a “baseline.” I honestly put off making that appointment…until I found out that Barb had been diagnosed with breast cancer. They caught Barb’s cancer early because of her mammogram. I knew I couldn’t put off making that appointment any longer. I made the appointment, and had my mammogram today.
I won’t go into all the details, but it was a lot less uncomfortable than I thought it would be. I had heard plenty of horror stories! I did forget, though, that you can’t have deodorant on during the procedure, so after removing mine, I’m glad they had some spray deodorant to use afterwards! 🙂 The technician was very kind. She took three images of each side. The entire appointment lasted only about fifteen minutes.
She said they would be read tomorrow and I would be notified if further follow up was needed. If everything looked ok, I would get a letter in the mail. I’m praying for the letter!
I encourage you to have your yearly mammogram done. I found a few websites that give more information about breast cancer and mammograms. One is the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation at http://www.mkacf.org/. Two others are http://www.komen.org/ and http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/. I’ve also been made aware that there is more than one kind of breast cancer…another is inflammatory breast cancer which is not detected by mammograms. More information on inflammatory breast cancer can be found at http://www.ibcresearch.org/.
I feel that all of us should take our health seriously! Don’t put off important health appointments such as your yearly physicals and mammograms, and be sure to do breast self-exams. The people in your life will be thankful you took your health seriously too. Barb is such an important person in my life…I’m so glad her breast cancer was caught early because she acted on her doctor’s suggestion of a mammogram. I don’t want to lose her, and the people in your life don’t want to lose YOU!
I’ll continue to pray for the results letter in the mail from my appointment today. I’ll keep you posted when it arrives! 🙂
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