My post said “if you find you have cancer Stages 1-4.” Your mother did not find this out, so she is not who I’m talking about. But your point is well-made: you still have the choice about whether to treat. I’m sorry for your loss, and it was brave of her to make that choice.
My overall point is that it’s not the MAMMOGRAMS that are the problem; it’s the choices presented to you as a result of what you find out in the mammogram.
I’m a male and OP makes a great point. I chuckled how few missed the entire point and linked articles and came off sounding insensitive. Really?! Please people, how could you be insensitive towards the OP’s good and simple message.
I stress to all women in my family, get yearly checkups. Not all doctors are on page, and won’t recommend it. No one is saying that mammograms are always going to detect, but they are darn good.
Be safe and take responsibility.
I am relieved to know I am not the only person who thinks this way.
My sister is a breast cancer survivor of some 30 odd years. But that could be because of a timely mammogram or self-exam, her comparative youth, her having had a child, her own body’s makeup, or the skill of the doctors at Sloan-Kettering. I stopped having mammograms about 12 years ago. I’ve got to die of something, sometime, and there are worse ways to go than cancer.
There are, but having literally watched my brother in law die, cancer isn’t one of the better ways. Its tough on you, its tough on your family.
My brother in law suffocated to death when the cancer wrapped around the alveoli in his lungs so that oxygen could not pass through. Slowly, over weeks. Additionally, he experienced incredible pain that could not be completely alleviated by pain killers.
Since my diagnosis and treatment (detected in Feb 2015, treatment ended July 2015), I’ve been reading lots of breast cancer boards, and there are some harrowing stories. But it is the complicated stories that wind up on the internet.
I must be odd, because when the radiologist said I needed a biopsy, and the biopsy doctor said, “I’m going to tell you the news you don’t want to hear,” I was never anxious or worried. I never felt like a giant lightning bolt had hit me and seared the word “CANCER” on my forehead like Harry Potter’s scar. Prior to the mammogram that detected my tiny tumor I hadn’t had a mammogram for about four years.
I had a lumpectomy two weeks after the biopsy. The surgeon removed five lymph nodes (which is where the cancer would have spread if it HAD spread) and all were clear. I had some minor complications during my recovery from the surgery due to some drainage issues, which were more of a nuisance than anything else. I had no chemo and only three weeks of radiation. I was fortunate and not everyone is so fortunate, but MANY MORE are as fortunate than one might think. Hear this: I was very fortunate. Not everyone is. (No need to remind me that your mom, aunt, sister, daughter was not so fortunate. I know. I’m sorry.)
I described my somewhat detached attitude to my surgeon, and she said that my story is the most common one, namely, early detection, minimal treatment, get on with your life. These are not the stories one hears. But this is what my surgeon sees all the time.
My point is that these days the diagnosis of the Big C isn’t an **automatic **death sentence or condemnation to months/years of ever-worsening treatment. *Cancer *isn’t one disease, one process, one set of symptoms, one treatment, one inevitable end. So my suggestion is don’t be afraid to find out.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to contradict you! I just am in awe of my mom and the unique perspective she had so I knee-jerk a little bit.
I’m so sorry. My mom was lucky to have a short (two weeks) of back pain and then died because her lungs were filled with fluid and she didn’t want any measures taken. Well, she let them do one thoracentesis and she said that hurt worse than childbirth and wouldn’t have another one! They removed her breast for comfort since the tumor had replaced it and burst through the skin, etc., and at that point they thought she had a little more time to live. They had to push fluids for that to keep her blood pressure up and that refilled the lungs so she died the next night.
It was merciful and peaceful that she didn’t truly suffer for long. I’m sorry for what you and your family went through.
I said in another thread how the pink breast cancer machine weirded me out when I did get a mammogram because of Mom having it and because the doctor presented it as a recommendation (before they raised the age to 50). I wished there were a “routine mammogram” section where I could get it the way I would any routine lab test or screening and not be surrounded by inspirational plaques and pink quilts. And I’m a quilter!! 
As it happens, mine is scheduled for tomorrow morning (I like to get it over with early in the day). So far, mine have been boringly normal, let’s hope they stay that way. It’s been delayed a few months from the usual schedule due to a family crisis, but now that that is over I’m getting caught up with my own maintenance.
Death by cancer varies. My father-in-law die an agonizing death by bone cancer, although he had excellent pain management so he wasn’t continually screaming. My dad died in July of lung cancer, but had no pain from it. It depends on the type of cancer and where it is - if the tissues affected don’t have sensory nerves for pain you won’t feel pain. I suppose that’s why some cancers can grow for years without symptoms.
When I went to my gyn this year, she noticed I was turning 40 in November. She’s like “Happy Birthday! Would you like to schedule a mammogram?” :smack:
But yes, I have my first one scheduled in December.
Do what?!?! I can find no evidence of any recorded death due to a breast biopsy - neither excisional (knife) or aspirational (needle). Death is not even a listed risk factor:
Has it ever happened? Perhaps, but I would rate your statement about as accurate as “your next breath could kill you”.
That’s because it is.
ETA: IANAD, but I know how to research.
Yep, and if you are aware and lucky, you MIGHT get to decide that dying from kidney failure is better than dying from the cancer ending up in your brain and choosing not to treat the kidneys so you don’t need to deal with the brain.
And sometimes, the treatment itself is too much hell for too little gain.
But while there are worse ways to die, cancer is often not a good easy death. Information provides choices. My mother’s uterine cancer was a hysterectomy and 72 hours of radiation - not pleasant, but that was twenty years ago and she is doing great. Not treating it, not even choosing to have it diagnosed, she’d have missed out on four grandchildren.
If it weren’t for a timely mammogram check-up, I wouldn’t be planning my 30th anniversary trip to WorldCon in Helsinki in 2017 with My Beloved, Rahne McCloud.
Excellent point and definitely something to consider before running out and exposing yourself to a medical test that is NOT without risk. The mammogram itself exposes you to radiation, but the bigger risk is overdiagnosis and undergoing unneeded and potentially harmful surgery or treatment.
Spreading misinformation about mammograms being riskless and life-saving is not helpful, no matter how sad the “untimely” loss of a friend or family member makes you. Yes, that sounds insensitive, but one of the best things about science is that it doesn’t cave to anyone’s feelings.
I had one at 38 when a doctor was worried about a “lump” (which was not a lump; it was dense tissue).
So for the past several years, I’ve been quoting the US Preventative Services Task Force mammogram recommendations for women between ages 40-49 to my GYN.
This year she said I needed one if I wanted to keep getting HRT.
She wins. I want those hormones!
I’m 45, so I suppose this is an ok age to get them annually.
Men, don’t think this is just a female problem…
My father spent three years getting shorter and shorter of breath, shorter and shorter of energy. For his sister (who’d survived breast cancer thirty years prior thanks to a nurse showing off how the brand-new machine could be used to detect cancer as well as to check out on the fetus), it was two years. My aunt on the other side is a double breast-cancer survivor, fifteen years apart, two different types which as far as doctors know are unrelated. My family’s medical history reads like an oncology book.
I hate the boobsquishing and I know I’ve got a high probability to be hopped over to the sonogram (hi cysts!), but if I get cancer I’d rather find out sooner rather than later.
Well, some people won’t be missed…
Sorry to crush your hopes, but my chances of dying of breast cancer are very close to zero.
n/m
I am almost ashamed to admit that when I read the thread title, this was the first thing that came to mind
As was stated above, RCTs show there’s absolutely no difference in mortality between women who are assigned to get regular mammograms and those who were not.
Not sure why this is so difficult for people to comprehend.
