Breast cancer in the media

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  • melclarity
    melclarity Member Posts: 3,528 ✭
    @lrb_03 yes absolutely and I admit I sure never would have believed id be on meds for 10yrs, the percentages are quite low really in benefit, but for me it was because of a recurrence. Cant wait to be done! 
  • lrb_03
    lrb_03 Member Posts: 1,269 ✭
    And for me, the side effects will most likely outweigh any potential benefit, @melclarity.
  • melclarity
    melclarity Member Posts: 3,528 ✭
    @lrb_03 I agree and same for me :/ 
  • youngdogmum
    youngdogmum Member Posts: 250 ✭
    I got Liz’s book from the library and as kmakm mentioned, it’s very straightforward and almost like a step by step plan. Probably best aimed at anyone newly diagnosed, I thought similar but more in depth than the “Early Breast Cancer” one I received from the surgeon day of diagnosis. UK aimed, but I think I’ll mention it to anyone newly diagnosed from now on :) 
    I was hopeful for more lobular information given Liz had a lobular component to her BC but that was limited.
  • kmakm
    kmakm Member Posts: 7,974 ✭
    Like the writer, this scares the proverbial out of me as well.

    https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/a-possible-link-between-menopause-and-alzheimer-s-is-scaring-women-including-me-20190605-p51usp.html
  • Sister
    Sister Member Posts: 4,961 ✭
    Yay!!! (said sarcastically)
  • Patti J
    Patti J Member, Dragonfly Posts: 589
    My mum died when she was 67 years old from the effects of Alzheimer's disease. 
  • kmakm
    kmakm Member Posts: 7,974 ✭
    And somewhat more cheerily:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/style/mammogram-boutique-clinics.html
  • Patti J
    Patti J Member, Dragonfly Posts: 589
    This article is a joke, right? Nothing can make having a mammogram appealing.
    It is nothing like having your teeth cleaned, which is not torture.
  • kmakm
    kmakm Member Posts: 7,974 ✭
    And our very own wonderful @JJ70 in this terrific series of community service announcements for BreastScreen WA:

    https://www.breastscreen.health.wa.gov.au/Newsroom/BreastScreen-WA-launches-new-video-campaign-on-social-media
  • Patti J
    Patti J Member, Dragonfly Posts: 589
    For those of us with very small breasts, mammograms are not uncomfortable. They really hurt. 
    I am grateful that, because I have an implant in my non-cancerous breast, I am not allowed to have mammograms.
  • melclarity
    melclarity Member Posts: 3,528 ✭
    Ohhh I agree, nothing about 'glamming it up' would make a difference getting a mammogram. I'm big breasted and they have always hurt, but I've been doing them for something like 13yrs. The irony for me though?? I was perfectly fine for about 3yrs?? and then all of a sudden I had DCIS? hmmm so was it early screening and being on top of it that I was lucky? or was doing mammos yearly an issue?? I laugh about it now, but it has made me wonder over the years. It is something lots of radiographers talk about, Ive not thought too hard, but interesting in that its a topic. 
  • kmakm
    kmakm Member Posts: 7,974 ✭
    I was large breasted and never found them painful. The Breastscreen I went to was dingy, shabby and ugly. I was given gowns that didn't fit properly, made to wait on an uncomfortable bench, could overhear techs talking about women with cancer, and was greeted by an unsmiling receptionist both times.

    Ultimately it makes no difference. The machines find a cancer or they don't, but I am affected by environment, by aesthetic. I would have appreciated some polite reassuring demeanours, a comfortable waiting environment, a fresh coat of paint, something pleasant and non-stressful to look at, not having to carry my clothes around in a plastic basket and newish gowns that fit correctly. If anything makes it more likely that women would attend regularly rather than putting it off, I'm all for it.
  • Sister
    Sister Member Posts: 4,961 ✭
    Go @jj70 Looking and sounding good!

    Regarding the clinics...I didn't see too much difference in the style of the ones portrayed and where I went.  The  Breastscreen clinic I went to was in a shopfront (well...at the back), it was clean and simply (almost) elegant in a medical type way, with an emphasis on pink.  Everyone was quietly friendly and pleasant and the woman on the machine (never sure whether to call them mammographers or radiographers?) was lovely and gentle and took on board how scared I was of the pain from memory of an earlier experience.  She also noticed something she thought was not quite right and took extra film - she saved my life.
  • JJ70
    JJ70 Member Posts: 983 ✭
    Thanks @Sister. Correct job title is radiographer. Also, radiologist is the trained doctor reading the images. At any breastscreen across the country there is a double-read, which means two independent radiologists read and respond to the images.

    When BSWA  have completed the video of my story I can send the link here.

    Hope it is OK to use these comments to feedback to BSWA. I attend their Consumer Reference Group every second month as of course, they want more clientele as only about 58% of women 50-74 attend (and that is one of the better rates from around the country)


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