Lisa
Tracy, CA

At age 35 I went to my ob/gyn for my annual exam. As we chit-chatted I mentioned that now that I am 35 I would begin having my mammograms, she agreed and gave me the referral form. (Later I found out that age 40 is the normal date to begin this exam.) I am so thankful that my doctor just agreed and gave me the form - it saved my life! I went in to my first mammogram a little nervous after reading supposedly funny emails about it feeling like a truck has driven over your chest. Surprisingly it did not hurt one bit and was over in a snap. Little did I know that was just the beginning for me.

Three days later I received a phone call to come back for a closer examination/mammogram of one particular area. The doctor said it looks to be some microcalcifications in my milk duct and was highly unlikely to turn up as cancer. So after the second set of mammography films a biopsy was requested. What an experience that was! Since the cells were so small the procedure had to be done while I was clamped in a mammography machine AGAIN - still I felt no pain and it was over in a brief amount of time.

That was September 15, 2005 - since then I have had a bilateral mastectomy (where an area 15 cm X 6 cm of unpalpable, land mine like scattered cancer cells were discovered,) chemotherapy, radiation and just began estrogen suppressing therapy. My tumor was considered Stage III cancer. I had NO symptoms, without a mammogram who knows if I would have caught it in time!