My job carried no insurance at the time and I found a spot the size of a pea...needed to get tested but no one would without insurance...free clinic was full of migrant workers wives that were having babies and could not be seen from April (when I found it) until October (6 short months) and by now was the size of a grapefruit!!!
When I was finally seen and tested...I had late stage (3-B) breast cancer and it had spread into my lymph nodes as well.
If I could have been seen and been taken care of in the early stage and the mammogram given then...I would not have had to have both breasts removed and gone thru radiation therapy (36 rounds) and 6 rounds of dose dense chemotherapy (the really evil one that usually kills the user) it was a last ditch effort to save my life...
Now I am cancer free and finished with the cancer drug regime (taken for 5 years) after chemo treatments. I am VERY LUCKY to be alive...I am now unable to work and almost all my major organs have been damaged due to the aggressive cancer treatments that were vital to saving my life..
How much less expensive and physically less costly it would have been just to have been given the mammogram at that early pea size so I could have gotten into a cancer treatment program....I AM LUCKY TO BE ALIVE!! Do your self exams and mammograms and support the breast cancer groups that are trying to save our lives...
Thank you for listening
Salisbury, NC
