How was your BC found? By doctor or you?

I found mine by myself, soaping up in the shower.  I had yearly mammmos.  My last one prior to dianosis was normal/clear and had been done 9 mos. previously. There were two other areas that they 'saw' but thought were just cysts.  No, they were not.  I had two more cancerous areas.  I also had Pagets disease, essentially, cancer of the nippple.  There were a lot of things that were missed in diagnostic testing.

Mammo good to go,LCIS since 2002,they said no change,wait a minute when they did the ultrasound,whats that...shhhh,go get the head US girl,shhhhh,go get the dr,WTF is that? shhhhhh.go get the dr....Ma'am you have an abnormality showing here on the US probably nothing but it should be biopsied. Me: Ok.,lets do this thing now.  Biopsies several,about a wk,later sorry ma'am we think its IDC,we wanna do an MRi to be sure. Yep its IDC,you wanna lumpectomy or something?

Just started Arimidex last week.  Feeling increase in anxiety.  Could be life. Woke up 3 times last night.  Again.....could be life.................

Normal mamm in March '11.....had been getting these since about age 30.  Felt a thickening the end of June/early July 2011, saw my GYN the very end of July, and was diagnosed in early August on my 42nd b-day with DCIS and IDC.  The repeat mamm, ultrasound, and MRI all showed the tumor to be smaller than it was.  Originally told less than 1 cm, MRI said less than 2 cm, and ended up being 3.2 cm IDC and 5 cm DCIS.

mybee - It seemed like every time I turned around, it was worse.  When I first started with my MO, she didn't understand why I was so anxious about every little thing - Once I explained the story from the beginning, then she got it.  I ended up with US guided biopsy, lumpectomy - which they were going to go back in for the margins originally but then after the path report, we decided on a BMX and I'm so happy I went with that!  I think I would have ended up there anyways....just cut out the extra excisions in-between.  I shouldn't complain - Things could be so much worse.  Hope you are doing well now!! 

mybee - It's so hard to make the decision about what surgery to go with - It seemed like there was so much information coming in way too fast.  Right now I'm happy with my decision....hopefully when everything is all said and done, I will still be but everyone has a different road to go to get to their own decisions.  How did your x-ray turn out - Did you get the results yet?  I just finished my chemo Monday but will still continue to get herceptin - I'm nervous about not getting chemo...strange...but I feel like there's some comfort knowing that something is actively being done.  I'm sure I'm going to be paranoid about every little thing for a while.  Wishing you well!!!

Found mine myself. Ten months past normal mammogram

Has anyone factored into this survey the GRADE of the cancer?  

If you had a clear mammo and several months later felt something, I would expect GRADE 2-3.

It is why it is so important to do both self exams AND mammograms.  One may find what the other misses.  Faster growing cancer might be missed on one and found on the other very close in time, due to rapid growth.

My very very young receptionist at my dentist office asked me "what should I be doing to check for BC, since so many of our patients have been diagnosed recently?".  What could I tell this 20 y/o girl?  Breast self exams, annual OB/GYN exams with PAP and breast exam.  Isn't that really all we have?

Mybee333, Yes, for me it did move quite quickly. I guess my question is if some just had a mamo recently, then found a lump while waiting for the next yearly mamo and its already stage 2 or 3, and also if the mamo misses quite a few  times as I am reading here, then maybe we need a new way of diagnosing bc? I'm sure it finds more than it doesn't but I really feel for those who, like me, had a clear mamo and then get the surprise!

I have 2 girls, one 36 who just had a baby 10 mos ago, and one 23 who is a CMA. The 36 yr old has had issues with dysplasia in the past 6 years so I told her to get an early baseline. My 23 yr old has already had 3 abnormal paps and a colposcopy. So I told her to talk to her dr and get her baseline early too! This is nothing to mess around with! I will have the BRCA testing done since I have already had cancer now. That way it doesn't have to go against them. Plus I am waiting for my Oncotype DX test results to come back. A little anxious to know if I need rad, chemo, or HT. I see my oncologist on the 13th.

I found the lump on self exam.

Was about due for mammogram, had had a clear one within 2 years. 

I found mine. I Am 30 years old and just finished breast feeding my daughter. Felt a lump, noticed my nipple inverting, dimpling of the skin, put the pieces together! Mammogram showed nothing cuz I'm young and my tissue is dense. Ultrasound saw lump and found another lump. CT scan found yet another 7.5 cm of DCIS. sucks ass

I had a mammogram that showed 2 spots that they said should be biopsied. The radiologist really sucked and after 2 hours of tugging and pulling and not being able to figure out what was what to do the markings the day before the scheduled biopsy Doc sent me for an MRI. Thank the Lord he did. Those 2 areas did not show up on the MRI at all, but a new spot that was very deep close to my breast bone did. That one turned out to be IDC. I did have the other biopsied and B9. Even now that one does not show up on the mammogram, just the marker does. Lumpectomy on the 15th and begone with that bugger.

I had a mammogram 10 months earlier (when I was 33), and that was negative, but showed a lot of cysts. I was lying in bed while reading with my husband and our kitten was playing between us and her tail made me itch. I reached into my tank top with my left hand and scratched my right breast and felt a lump at 5:00. Went to my PCP the next day and she thought it was a cyst, but sent for a mammogram and ultrasound the following day. The radiologist said it was "probably benign" and told me to come back in 6 months. I decided I wanted it out and was referred to a "breast cancer surgeon" who him-hawed around with it for weeks because he said it was a fibroadenoma. I jumped through his ridiculous hoops and then demanded it be taken out. He complied and took it out under general anesthesia. Afterward, he told my husband it was a fibradenoma and we had nothing to worry about. When we went back to him for the post-op check-up and the official pathology results, he left us waiting so long, that I figured out I had breast cancer just before he came in the room to tell me that not only was it malignant, but highly aggressive as well. He contacted an oncologist (who has yet to call us back to this day). I decided to go to a comprehensive cancer treatment center. While gathering my info for the first visit, I read for myself in the pathology report that my surgeon had on the day of my diagnosis that I was Triple Negative. This "breast cancer surgeon" had never heard of that type of cancer. 

I did a BSE 10 days before finding my lump and it wasn't palpable. Within days of discovering it, it was big enough to be noticeable in the bathroom mirror. I shudder to think if it had been deeper in the breast, or if I had actually listened to the radiologist and waited 6 months, or if I'd listened to the surgeon and not demanded that he take it out. We really are our best advocates. Listen to that inner whisper; there's a reason it's talking to you.

I literally had a "good" mammo 3 months ago. And found a painful lump - nasty suckers grew to 3 cm in such a short time! Mammo's stink for those with dense breast tissue!