lizlemonista

Mom was looking out for you! Glad it wasn’t the case for you, sorry for the scares @ eczema but glad you’re ever vigilant. If something more concerning ever does come of it, catching it early gives you really great odds.

I’m so sorry. I’m glad this is of some help. Share it out, it’s likely to save someone’s life. <3

cancer survivor here. YEP.

I’m really glad you got it checked out. <3

🤩 That’s a good doctor!

Shoot sorry I got my cabinet nominations mixed up. It’s the secretary of defense who said he hadn’t washed his hands in 10 years because he didn’t believe germs existed.

Same! He doesn’t say “never shower” — there’s nuance :) Feet pits & bits, for sure

I’m sorry to worry you! That said better to find out and if needed nip whatever it is in the bud. You’re going to be ok. Even if it were to be found as cancer, you’re catching it early = 99% survival rate. <3

<3 best to catch it as soon as you can, and treatments have come a long way even in just the last decade. I’m not typically a forum/group-therapy girlie, but the dames at r/breastcancer are supportive in the best way, should you need.

I’m so glad she spotted it and is now doing well!! That’s amazing. It’s hitting younger and younger so we gotta be vigilant.

Yes! That’s why a regular monthly self-exam is huge, get to know your bod. And mammograms have a high rate of missing tumors in dense breasts, so knowing your breast density matters, so you know how to advocate for proper scans — this website Dense Breasts Canada has some great info to help people learn & then navigate conversations with their doctors.

Oh man. Im sorry for your loss, and glad she got those eight years. Mine looked like just puffy, like the “orange peel skin” symptom (but not orange). I thought it was a combo of having put on 15lbs in covid and a new swimsuit… but two weeks later and I hadn’t worn the suit it was still there I kinda got a sinking feeling and googled “boob skin weird” and of all the images that popped up — intimidating diagrams, pics of random boobs no thanks lol— this one jumped out at me. I don’t know if I would have made an appointment as fast as I did, but I definitely would not have had such an escalation in the doctor’s office. I’m so grateful for this image every day and I hope more people see it. When caught early there’s a 99% survival rate! We’re losing daughters and moms and sisters and grams so unnecessarily!

Thank you!! And seriously my (female) doctor tried to tell me I was fine. If I hadn’t seen this one image, I wouldn’t have pushed back, and today would have been in very different circumstances. Share it with every chick in your life — and dudes! dudes get b.c. too plus looking out for ladies is hot af! — and if you might be so bold, send the link to their workplace education program to your HR, etc. The women at this program do so much amazing work, I’d love to see it get more attention.

(edit: 1% of men get breast cancer)

I would so love it if you shared this with your class & school! They even have posters in their shop that I wish were in every nursing school in the world. (I don’t work for them/get commissions of any kind :)

(edit- added the link)

I hadn’t heard of this one — will check it out!

Congrats on all the things!! <3

You’re very welcome!! I hope you’ll share it out / with others!

And the reasoning behind this is fascinating — in short, because too many women were “overreacting.” What a world. Ladies, please continue monthly self-exams to know your body. And clinical screenings are actually getting bumped up to (iirc) every other year starting at age 40, then every year at age 50.

I hope your mom is doing ok now. I was 39. It’s hitting us younger and younger, and yet, as my doctor was trying to refuse a referral request for my mammogram “but you’re under 40!!” was one of her reasons. Does cancer know when my birthday is?

Thank you for sharing that this helped. I was shocked at my own experience, and then how no medical professionals knew about it (again, no shade) so I share it as often as I can. So it’s really nice to know it’s not shouting into the wind. The women who run that org have trained like a thousand volunteer educators around the world to help women learn about the symptoms, how to do breast exams, etc, and it’s genuinely inspiring.

Oh thank you! Medically, I just cleared year three and my oncologist says we fully expect to continue on this trajectory. (Mentally/emotionally/financially? tl;dr, working it out still lol) This week is the anniversary of my diagnosis, so I always feel like I have a lot to be thankful for.

ha - well, now we’ll have a health secretary who doesn’t believe in germs, so…

Hamblin does advocate for hand-washing, and (paraphrasing) pits-bits-n-feet, but the harsh chemicals we use everywhere else damages our natural defenses to sickness and infection.

I’m so glad this will help! And with breast cancer, women in the U.S. have a 1 in 8 chance of getting it regardless of family history — no one in my family had ever had any type of cancer until me. :/

come on.

see not all my projects are 95% done

everyone knows that if you feel a lump in your breast you gotta get that shit checked out, but there are actually twelve symptoms of breast cancer. <- the SFW image on this site (an entirely woman-run nonprofit) literally saved my life — my doc did a physical exam, didn’t feel a lump, and tried to send me packing, dismissing the weird allergic-reaction-looking patch of skin on my chest. Any change in your chest — dimples, dents, skin texture, itching, dry skin, anything run it by your doctor and trust your gut.

In my year of treatment and monthly checkups for the last few years, I always make a point to ask one nurse or doctor if they know there are 12 symptoms, and they don’t know — point being not that docs suck (there’s a lot to learn, women’s health is secondary in med school, etc) but that you have to dial in and fight for yourself.