{"id":407,"date":"2007-08-04T17:26:50","date_gmt":"2007-08-04T21:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=407"},"modified":"2007-08-04T17:26:50","modified_gmt":"2007-08-04T21:26:50","slug":"a-word-about-breast-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2007\/08\/04\/a-word-about-breast-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"A word about breast cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross posted to Snapshot Chronicles<\/em><\/p>\n

Just before BlogHer, I started reading Toddler Planet<\/a>, the blog of an incredibly courageous woman who had to change her plans to attend the conference because she had been diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, a particularly nasty and often undetected form of breast cancer, and her chemo was scheduled to start the same week.<\/p>\n

She has written a post about the disease and asked fellow bloggers to repost as much or as little of it as they wished. Please spread the word, and if you are so inclined, make a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is WhyMommy\u2019s post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

We hear a lot about breast cancer these days. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes, and there are millions living with it in the U.S. today alone. But did you know that there is more than one type of breast cancer?
\n    <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t. I thought that breast cancer was all the same. I figured that if I did my monthly breast self-exams<\/a>, and found no lump, I\u2019d be fine.<\/p>\n

Oops. It turns out that you don\u2019t have to have a lump to have breast cancer.<\/strong> Six weeks ago, I went to my OB\/GYN because my breast felt funny. It was red, hot, inflamed, and the skin looked\u2026funny. But there was no lump, so I wasn\u2019t worried. I should have been. After a round of antibiotics didn\u2019t clear up the inflammation, my doctor sent me to a breast specialist and did a skin punch biopsy. That test showed that I have inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that can be deadly.
\n    <\/p>\n

Inflammatory breast cancer<\/a> is often misdiagnosed as mastitis because many doctors have never seen it before and consider it rare. \u201cRare\u201d or not, there are over 100,000 women in the U.S. with this cancer right now; only half will survive five years. Please call your OB\/GYN if you experience several of the following symptoms in your breast, or any unusual changes: redness, rapid increase in size of one breast, persistent itching of breast or nipple, thickening of breast tissue, stabbing pain, soreness, swelling under the arm, dimpling or ridging (for example, when you take your bra off, the bra marks stay \u2013 for a while), flattening or retracting of the nipple, or a texture that looks or feels like an orange (called peau d\u2019orange). Ask if your GYN is familiar with inflammatory breast cancer, and tell her that you\u2019re concerned and want to come in to rule it out.<\/p>\n

There is more than one kind of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer is the most aggressive form of breast cancer<\/a> out there, and early detection is critical. It\u2019s not usually detected by mammogram. It does not usually present with a lump. It may be overlooked with all of the changes that our breasts undergo during the years when we\u2019re pregnant and\/or nursing our little ones. It\u2019s important not to miss this one.
\n    <\/p>\n

Inflammatory breast cancer is detected by women and their doctors who notice a change in one of their breasts. If you notice a change, call your doctor today. Tell her about it. Tell her that you have a friend with this disease, and it\u2019s trying to kill her. Now you know what I wish I had known before six weeks ago.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to have a lump to have breast cancer.
\n    <\/p>\n

\"teamwhymommy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

P.S. Feel free to steal this post too.  I\u2019d be happy for anyone in the blogosphere to take it and put it on their site, no questions asked.  Dress it up, dress it down, let it run around the place barefoot. I don\u2019t care.  But I want the word to get out.  I don\u2019t want another young mom \u2014 or old man \u2014 or anyone in between \u2014 to have to stare at this thing on their chest and wonder, is it mastitis?  Is it a rash?  Am I overreacting?  This cancer moves FAST, and early detection and treatment is critical for survival.<\/em>
\n    <\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross posted to Snapshot Chronicles Just before BlogHer, I started reading Toddler Planet, the blog of an incredibly courageous woman who had to change her plans to attend the conference because she had been diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, a particularly nasty and often undetected form of breast cancer, and her chemo was scheduled to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[20,38],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}