{"id":1502,"date":"2019-09-27T18:07:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T00:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/?p=1502"},"modified":"2019-09-27T18:07:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T00:07:14","slug":"a-breast-cancer-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/a-breast-cancer-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Breast Cancer Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

October is Breast Cancer Month. Time to wear your pink proud and honour those who are
\ncurrently battling breast cancer, those whom have survived and are deemed cancer-free, and
\nthose whom lost the breast cancer battle.<\/p>\n

As a healthcare professional and working in the industry for over a decade, I knew and
\nunderstood the importance and reasons family physicians recommend that women 50 to 74
\nhave a mammogram at least once every two years.<\/p>\n

It was not until a couple of years ago that I sat in a room with my mother having, what we
\nthought, a routine mammogram and expecting to be told \u2013 \u201cMrs. X, all good to go\u201d, that I truly
\nappreciated and was grateful to the recommended screening guidelines that Imagine Health
\nCentre physicians follow. Instead of my mother and I were told we were good to go, we
\nwere informed that they spotted a lump in her breast and wanted to do some additional
\nroutine tests. We were asked if they could run these tests the same day and when we
\nagreed we were immediately brought into another room to have an ultrasound done, another
\nmammogram, another ultrasound and then a biopsy of the lump so they can determine if it
\nwas cancerous or not.<\/p>\n

Then the waiting game began while we waited for the test results to come back. To our
\ndismay, we were informed that mom had cancer! In that instant, our lives changed forever.
\nDue to the type of breast cancer mom was diagnosed with, we went through the journey of
\nmultiple appointments; a radical mastectomy, chemo and radiation treatments, and a plethora
\nof tests, etc. At the end of almost 18 months, mom was told she was now cancer-free and
\nwas considered a cancer survivor!<\/p>\n

All through this journey, mom kept saying that it was like being in a bad dream. She said that
\nshe kept going through the motions from one test or appointment to another thinking that this
\nis not really happening to her and that she would wake up and that she was actually fine.
\nShe said it was so surreal to be in perfect health and then be diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

For my family and I, the journey we took with mom gave us new light and enhanced
\ntrepidations that our chances of Breast cancer increased not only with my siblings and myself
\nbut with our daughters\/nieces as well. According to the Alberta Screening and Prevention
\nThe program, breast screening recommendations changes if someone has one or two first
\ndegree relatives with invasive breast cancer. If this is the case, then they recommend that
\nindividuals starting 5 to 10 years younger than the youngest case in the family, but no earlier
\nthan age 25 and no later than age 40, should have annual mammograms done to help detect
\nthe chance of breast cancer sooner instead of waiting every two years.
\nhttp:\/\/www.topalbertadoctors.org\/download\/244\/breast_cancer_summary.pdf?_20190915190
\n654.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so grateful to my mom\u2019s family physician, who practices at one of the four Imagine Health
\nCentres locations, for following the recommended guidelines and insisting that mom had
\nroutine mammograms, even though she protested that they are unnecessary on a regular
\nbasis. Had her doctor not been insistent and me helping to encourage her because of I
\nrecognized the value of these tests, I may not have a mother today.<\/p>\n

Do you have loved ones that think some of the tests their family physician orders are frivolous
\nand unnecessary, think again! Some of these tests are integral in ensuring symptoms are
\ncaught early so healthcare professionals can help either prevent or mitigate the diagnosis
\nfrom getting worse.<\/p>\n

Some things you can do to help mitigate your risk of breast cancer are:<\/p>\n