What is Breast Cancer?

Be aggressive in seeking treatment from your doctor for this. We had to go through hospice care with my s/o’s mother. Not nice for anyone. Get screening for it, clinical breast exams, and be diligent.

“Oh SHIT” would be the first thing in my mind hearing that news. Obviously consulting with your Doctor is paramount when facing any illness or disease especially cancer. Every woman IMO should be intimately familiar with breast cancer awareness and know their family history of the disease. I don’t know the exact protocol, but self examinations are the first line of defense against breast cancer though more and more women in the face of family history of breast cancer are opting for preventative mastectomies.

Here is some technical info.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001911/

If it isn’t inflammatory breast cancer, and if it’s detected early, the prognosis is usually quite good. Fortunately, IBC makes up only a small percentage of breast cancer cases.

I live in America, I assume you live in another country. I think the information people have varies by country. In America breast cancer awareness is very very strong. A woman names Susan Komen has a foundation dedicated to information the public and doing research about breast cancer. She started it after her sister died from it and she was disgusted that it was taboo to talk about the disease and that women suffered in silence. Now, pretty much my whole country feels comfortable saying breast cancer. That was not the case 30+ years ago.

I think woman think about many things when they find out they have breast cancer. They want to know how bad it is, and what the treatment options are. I think most of us know women who have survived breast cancer and it never came back, and women who have died from it. We know women who have had their breast surgically removed, and we know people who have just had lumpectomies. We know women who have had chemotherapy and radiation treatments or both. If the person has young children their thought process might be slightly different than if they don’t. They might worry about treatment costs, and I would guess fear is in the minds of most people diagnosed with cancer.

Edit: This is about my experience with my OBGYN, not about breast cancer, but my thoughts and response would be the same.

My first thought is to sit back and take stock. I’d begin by looking at alternative healing modalities, their cost, travel costs, etc.

I had symptoms a while ago that my gynecologist immediately said, “CANCER!” I went home and did the research. That particular situation developed into cancer about .4% of the time (that’s point 4 %), and yet, that was her first thought. I dumped that doctor ASAP, and saw my alternative medical doc. If she had had her way, I’d have had major organs removed, and then had to deal with the cost and negative results of the surgery. There’s always a physical cost beyond the bills. Now, 10 years later I’m healthier than I’ve ever been, and all alarming symptoms gone, no thanks to that doctor.