We all have pet peeves, right?\u00a0 Habits that make our skin crawl, sounds that are like fingernails on a blackboard\u00a0 (google it, millenials).\u00a0 But anymore, some of my worst peeves are stupid dangerous myths and conspiracy theories.\u00a0 \u00a0Particularly if they are delivered by medical professionals who swear to protect us.<\/p>\n
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As Pinktober winds down, I feel that I need to do a PSA to dispell the myth that most makes me nuts.\u00a0 Think of it as my curtain call until next year.<\/p>\n
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Myth:\u00a0 Only benign tumors are painful.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n LIE.\u00a0 BIG LIE.\u00a0 Dare I say, BIG ASS LIE.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It baffles me as to why this idea is still perpetuated.\u00a0 \u00a0And why it’s spread by doctors.\u00a0 Doctors who should know better.\u00a0 I mean, logically it never makes sense to me if something is always<\/em> or never<\/em>.\u00a0 We know everyone is different, and there is often an exception to the rule.\u00a0 I’m sure there is some study out there of maybe ten patients and their tumors didn’t hurt.\u00a0 Maybe it’s some molecular study done on hamsters.\u00a0 I really don’t give a flying toot, because I am here today to break the bad news to you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tumors can be painful.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Take me, for example.\u00a0 When my tumor was found on a mammogram, it measured 6mm.\u00a0 That’s tiny.\u00a0 Pull out a ruler, turn it to the weird side with the metric measurements you haven’t seen since fourth grade, and look at how small that actually is.\u00a0 I couldn’t feel it.\u00a0 Neither could the ob\/gyn that I first saw.\u00a0 Nor could the surgeon, radiologist, medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, another radiologist, a PCP, and the parade of medical staff at the hospital who seemed to randomly feel me up (I sort of took them at their word that they worked there).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So how did I come to be diagnosed?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I rolled over in bed one night, and noticed a sharp, needle-like pain in my breast.\u00a0 I realized that I had been noticing it for a few weeks, to varying degrees.\u00a0 It wasn’t going away, so it wasn’t a bruise.\u00a0 It was in the same spot every time, but I couldn’t feel a lump.\u00a0 But it was very wrong, and I knew it meant something.\u00a0 I went to the doctor a few weeks later, and he scheduled a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound that spotted my pretty little lump.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seriously.\u00a0 \u00a0That pain saved my life.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I ended up being treated for stage 3 cancer because even a tiny little lump can invade the lymph nodes quickly.\u00a0 \u00a0This is why early detection is so important, and why nothing out of the ordinary should be ignored.\u00a0 But more importantly,\u00a0 no doctor should dismiss our concerns because they assume a painful lump is benign.\u00a0 \u00a0This is why we have second (or third) opinions.\u00a0 It’s time to get beyond the myth.\u00a0 It’s time for doctors to stop telling us that we are imagining the pain.\u00a0 It’s time we stand up for ourselves and each other, and demand that we are taken seriously.\u00a0 \u00a0I have spent 47 years in this body.\u00a0 I know what it is trying to tell me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n See you for #pinktober2018<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"