[MOL] Jean -- re your mom

[Claire <clee02@snet.net>]

Dear Jean -- I'm on shaky ground here but now that I read again that the
doctors want to wait until May 9th to check the masses in your mother's
breast, I feel pressed to speak up.  Of course, your mother has monumental
problems and the doctors may have all sorts of reasons for letting this
particular problem rest for a month so what I'm saying may be totally out
of line.

Anyway, here's my two cents.  A few years ago, my annual mammogram showed a shadow which the radiologist couldn't identify even after consultation with others in the field.  My doctor decided he wanted a biopsy as quickly as possible.  It was a minor operation done on an outpatient basis and the surgeon removed what the biopsy report identified simply as "abnormal tissue" and not malignant.

I'm now going through another problem.  My onc thinks he feels a change in my left breast.  A mammogram revealed nothing and a subsequent sonogram was a little fuzzy (my word) in the suspect area.  He sent me to a surgeon who examined the various tests but after a physical examination, he wasn't convinced anything was going on.  (I have fibrocystic breast tissue which tends to feel rather lumpy to begin with.)  This was late February.  The surgeon told me to have another mammogram at the end of April and see him again the first week in May.

This long story is just to illustrate that a strong suspicion was acted on immediately while a vague possibility was put on hold to see what develops.  The masses in your mother's breast are much more than a strong suspicion and it bothered me that nothing is being done.

There!  I've said my piece.

Best wishes to your and your mom and know that you and Annie, too, are always in my prayers.

Claire