I am a Bladder cancer survivor, 6 years. Then last February 20th, I received the dreaded words "you have a malignancy and need a surgeon". Things went so fast, I didn't have time to let it sink in and I think this has caused me a lot of grief. I had my mammogram, then a diagnostic mammogram, an ultrasound, needle biopsy and a MRI (all in a week's time). Two weeks post diagnosis I was having surgery and three weeks later I was starting chemo. I wasn't told about the chemo until after talking to the Radiology Oncologist (I had agreed to 31 radiation treatments before they did the surgery). I was told I had triple negative breast cancer and that it was hard to treat (I, also, had two different types ofcancer cells in the tumor). The chemo was brutal and a year later I am still having some long term side effects. The radiation wasn't so bad, although it caused a lot of fatigue and some chestwall pain. I go this month for my mammogram to see if the cancer is still gone and I would like to encourage all women to get their mammograms and to do monthly self breast exams. I am a strong believer in them, although I had stopped getting them regularly until 4 years ago. Who knows when they would have found this cancer had it not been for my mammogram. Men, also, need to realize they too can get breast cancer and should do breast exams. I am the first in my family to develop breast cancer, but my Mom died fron Ovarian cancer which predisposed me to breast cancer. Please everyone note your family history and do everything possible to get early dectection of cancer and better yet to Prevent it.

Betty . Parton
Anderson, SC