The Importance Of Mammograms
- Lisa Smyth, a 44-year-old mother of three, noticed something was wrong while breastfeeding her youngest child, but was unable to get a mammogram for 13 months.
- When the scans came back, she learned she had stage 4 breast cancer that had spread to her lungs.
- Doctors recommend that women 45 and older go for a mammogram once a year, in order to catch cancer early.
“I knew my body wasn’t right,” she told BBC News NI. “I should have been scanned from the start.”
Read MorePushing For A Mammogram
She was able to see her GP three times, but was only given cream and antibiotics as the doctor believed it was a simple inflammation of her breast.When she was finally able to go to a specialized clinic, that diagnosis was repeated after she was told she could not do a scan because she was breastfeeding a child at the time.
“When I went back to the breast clinic the second time I said: ‘This has been going on for 13 months please scan me, I am not leaving until I am scanned,’" she said.
Finally, Smyth received a mammogram. It revealed a 6 centimeter tumor in her breast and cancer in 20 lymph nodes.
“My advice is to insist on a scan, no-one knows what is going on inside your body by just looking at you,” she said. “I should have been scanned from the start, I don’t know why I wasn’t – probably because I was pregnant and breast feeding.”
The Importance Of Mammograms
Mammograms are low-dose X-rays taken of the breast. According to the Federal Drug Administration, "They are the best way to screen for breast cancer. Mammograms won’t find every cancer, but they can help find breast cancer at an early stage. This can lead to early treatment, a range of treatment options, and better chances of survival."
The American Cancer Society recommends women begin screening for breast cancer at 45.
Dr. Connie Lehman, the chief of Breast Imaging Division at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a previous interview, "If you haven't gone through menopause yet, I think it's very important that you have a mammogram every year. We know that cancers grow more rapidly in our younger patients, and having that annual mammogram can be lifesaving."
When Should I Get A Mammogram?
A Family Perseveres
Today, Smyth’s cancer has progressed to stage 4, spreading to other parts of her body, including her lungs. She said the news was devastating to her family and she will never know what those 13 months waiting would have meant to her health.
“I have been unlucky because I have an aggressive form of breast cancer, but lucky because it has targeted drugs and the tumours have all gone bar one which might be scarred tissue,” she said. “I don’t know what is going to happen – that is just the reality of living with breast cancer. Might it progress? Yes, unless they find a cure for cancer within the next few years.”
Despite the cancer, Smyth has kept her love for the outdoors she climbed seven mountains in a day shortly after learning the cancer was also in her lungs. The hardest part has been telling her children what is happening in an age-appropriate way. Her oldest, who is only nine, knows the cancer has spread and asks questions like "Are you going to die?"
"I have to be honest and say we are all going to die sometime but hopefully not soon,” she said. "It is better that they hear it from me and Simon and not in the playground and it’s important not to catastrophize things.”
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