Rosemary

I went for a check-up with my primary doctor, the first since having turned 40 and having a baby. He recommended my first mammogram to begin my yearly screenings, and I honestly wasn’t going to bother with it. Good thing I did, because the mammo revealed that I had extremely dense breast tissue and I would need an ultrasound and MRI to really see what was going on.

The ultrasound revealed two lesions, and the MRI revealed two more, all in the same breast. Although I checked regularly, I never felt a lump. So here I was, with an 8-month-old, being told I had Stage 2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC).

A double mastectomy, 4 months of chemo, full hysterectomy, 28 rounds of radiation, and reconstruction were squashed into a period of 16 months.

This is why screenings need to start at 40, or earlier if you are at an elevated risk (which I had no idea I was).

Go to www.assessyourrisk.org to find out if you are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer and should start digital screening before 40.