Well, it has been one year since I was diagnosed. On Thursday, April 18, 2013 I got the phone call from my GP that the biopsy had come back malignant and that I had a breast cancer. It was a week or two later I learned the extent of it, stage III invasive ductual carcinoma with spread to at least one lymph node and that it had been missed on mammograms! I have done everything I can in the last year to fight the dreaded "C" - chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, hormone medication. I can't tell you how cancer has changed my life (I lost my daughter) and the life of my family. There isn't too much to say today as I continue to suffer horribly with the combination of Tamoxifen and Goserelin. One stops the cancer cells absorbing estrogen and the other, because we don't know if I am in chemopause or menopause, stops the pituitary gland telling the ovaries to produce estrogen. Let's just say they aren't a whole heck of a lot of fun and make life pretty miserable!
I started this petition to try to help others, women and men, from going through what I have gone through but I seem to have struck out. 183 signatures is hardly enough for anybody to take any notice of you. What I am asking for is so easy, so cost-saving to government and above everything else life-saving!
Men as well as women can sign my petition and a big thank you to the few men that have. Breast cancer affects men as well when it is their wife, their sister, their sister-in-law, their daughter, their friend - or like Patrick Brown MP (see a previous post) - their colleague, I could go on but I think you get the picture.
It seems only about 1 in 10 visitors to the blog sign. A few people have thanked me for the "heads-up" as they now know to ask but haven't signed. That's great for them, but what about all the other women that haven't seen the pieces on CTV news or haven't read this blog? It makes me very upset and angry (I'll be hosest) that some people hold onto this knowledge but can't put their name to helping others. Does it take my life to take a turn for the worse (ie: the cancer to come back or metastasise) for this petition may get some attention! I don't know why people are afraid of signing? If you have feedback for me that would help me get more signatures, please leave me a comment.
I know that for one woman the requirement to tell women if they have dense breasts in California (see the Are You Dense? website) alerted her to that fact where she hadn't been told when in BC. Please help me to do something to make a change for women in British Columbia!
I have a mammogram on April 29 and I am going to ask. I'm not sure I'll get an answer but I will ask. I didn't know to ask and believed my "happy grams" were good news. I have since learned the hard way and unfortunately still have the left breast to protect. Oh how I wish I could have a double mastectomy and not have to live in fear!
