My Eyes are Opened

I had my mammogram last week.  I do it annually, it's a simple check/test.

My technician was a very nice young woman and when she was recording my family history, which includes the recent diagnosis of breast cancer in my Mom's sister, Jeanne, she mentioned how the odds are so much greater for a cancer diagnosis in older women.  I was surprised to hear this.  I read a lot and considered myself fairly well informed about breast cancer, but it turns out I was clueless to the increase of breast cancer diagnoses in aging women.

The technician was sorry that she didn't have some literature to give me, but I assured her I would check it out on the Internet when I got home.

But as I was walking down the hallway to my next appointment at the clinic, she chased me down and give me a little slip of paper with the odds of breast cancer by age bracket.

When I posted this information on Facebook, several of my friends were as surprised as I was.

Of course, the older you are when diagnosed, there are other circumstances which may influence what treatment you may or may not choose.  Nevertheless, the data is pretty eye opening.

I hope it opens your eyes and you'll continue to have a regular annual mammogram.