Yes - we are very much kept in the dark (not unlike mushrooms - feed them shit & all that!)
In reality - it could (and well may be) one of us 'lucky ones' facing this diagnosis any time soon.
This is NOT about spreading fear - it is about spreading awareness and some honesty in the huge statistics that 30% is! And here we are worrying about 1-5% reduction in recurrence by having radiation or AIs ...... this 30% is VERY REAL.
80% of women diagnosed with BC have NO family history of it EVER - yet 80% (my guess!!) of the advertising (and possibly research $) seems to be pointed towards women with family history. We (the 80%) are the ones being blind sided - then 30% of THOSE 80% can and will go on to have Mets BC as well.
I am one of the hundreds of thousands who have NO family history of it - where all my mammograms have proven to b e unreliable ..... my diagnosis was a real bolt out of the blue.
Then, once you get over THAT surprise, you also find that you should be having 'other tests' as mammograms don't work well with you - ie the Dense Breast Tissue issue ......
If women with dense breasts aren't told when they have their mammograms, they don't know that they have a much higher chance of a terminal diagnosis STRAIGHT UP than a 'caught early whilst small' diagnosis which is by far the better outcome.
If we aren't told that we have a 30% chance of a terminal disease (even within 1 year of initial diagnosis) .... we may also not investigate any abnormal aches & pains, because we are already hurting all over from all the other fucking medications that we are on, which masks everything!
Spread the word. It is all about education
