DIAGNOSIS
Denial
Now call me an optimist, but when my now husband told me he felt a lump, I dismissed him. I felt great. How could there possibly be something there when I had a "clean" mammography eight months earlier? Later I would learn that only 60% of cancers are found through mammography, and that dense breasts were much more likely to give false test results. No one had suggested a sonogram in addition to my mammography, maybe because I had no family history of the disease. Whatever the cause of my false sense of security, I look back and feel that my brain must have been as dense as my breasts.
So, I ignored, denied, and did what I always do to get my mind off anything slightly unpleasant; I focused on my work. I was heading to the annual Personal Care Products Council annual meeting in early March of 2006, and had to prepare for almost twenty individual meetings with beauty clients. My job as the VP, Publisher of Seventeen Magazine clearly keeps me out of trouble and is all-encompassing; I had no time to worry about something like me having breast cancer much less to fit in a doctor䴜s appointment.
While I was at the Personal Care Products Council convention, I started having some shooting pains and suddenly I felt something hard and painful in my breast. Even then, I was in denial, thinking "Now I am turning into a hypochondriac!" Since Look Good...Feel Better (LGFB) is sponsored by the Personal Care Products Council, there is always a segment at the annual meeting which focuses on the organization, and its important work in helping women to look their best during chemotherapy. I skipped the session; little did I know then how soon I would be calling upon LGFB as I was drafted into this new army and a war I was not really prepared to fight. After all, I was invincible; healthy as a horse with a wedding to plan!
Now call me an optimist, but when my now husband told me he felt a lump, I dismissed him. I felt great. How could there possibly be something there when I had a "clean" mammography eight months earlier? Later I would learn that only 60% of cancers are found through mammography, and that dense breasts were much more likely to give false test results. No one had suggested a sonogram in addition to my mammography, maybe because I had no family history of the disease. Whatever the cause of my false sense of security, I look back and feel that my brain must have been as dense as my breasts.
So, I ignored, denied, and did what I always do to get my mind off anything slightly unpleasant; I focused on my work. I was heading to the annual Personal Care Products Council annual meeting in early March of 2006, and had to prepare for almost twenty individual meetings with beauty clients. My job as the VP, Publisher of Seventeen Magazine clearly keeps me out of trouble and is all-encompassing; I had no time to worry about something like me having breast cancer much less to fit in a doctor䴜s appointment.
While I was at the Personal Care Products Council convention, I started having some shooting pains and suddenly I felt something hard and painful in my breast. Even then, I was in denial, thinking "Now I am turning into a hypochondriac!" Since Look Good...Feel Better (LGFB) is sponsored by the Personal Care Products Council, there is always a segment at the annual meeting which focuses on the organization, and its important work in helping women to look their best during chemotherapy. I skipped the session; little did I know then how soon I would be calling upon LGFB as I was drafted into this new army and a war I was not really prepared to fight. After all, I was invincible; healthy as a horse with a wedding to plan!
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