Things to know about Dr. Google. Number 75 will shock you !!

Thank you, djmammo. As a retired health care professional, I am selective about where I search for information on the web. The RD guides and your caveats basically describe my filters.

BTW, it wasn't the #75 that drew me but the title of the thread! Well done.

This is great, DJ Mammo - thanks

DJmamo

I have a question. One doc said my lesion was not acting like a benign growth. Another doc said she was certain it would come back as benign. When I looked at it on the ultrasound screen it was not perfectly oval. It has edges on the end that stuck out. Is it possible to have a benign Fibroadenoma that has edges that stick out? I’m just curious what your take on it is

My personal approach is to limit the dates of the search to the last year or two, and to only put stock in medical, peer-reviewed literature.

But Dr Google was how I found out about melatonin and Metformin, both of which I am on with my MO's hearty approval, as well as the current trend towards taking fewer nodes, and sometimes not even doing lumpectomy surgery after imaging shows a pCR-- which, when I brought it up with BS, allowed me to save all but 4 of my level one and two nodes (which she was poised to take).

Dr Google let me in on Proton Radiation (which I just got), and provided a list of the less-metastatic anesthesiology drugs that I talked over w anesthesiologist prior to my surgery. It gave me info on Hyperbaric Oxygen and High Dose C and hyperthermia (heat) being cancer-killers, all of which I elected to use after informing myself. Also, a keto diet (with emphasis on vegan whole foods and fish, lower in animal fat). Last Dr Google told me a brief fast prior to chemo *might* lower my SEs and boost my response, as it does in mice (human trial in progress now).

These were all significant parts of my treatment, that I advocated for or asked about, that my team approved. Had I not been Googling like a MF, I would not have asked the right questions and **none of this** would have been suggested to me. TNBC is a nasty cancer and I am glad for bringing in these other practices, alongside the chemo. I only had 30% odds of a pCR.... and I got one. Now I have 90% odds of staying well. If I did not vanquish the cancer, or If I should progress later, I want to be able to look my kids in the eye and say, I did absolutely everything I could do to benefit me-- I did my very best to live.

PS When I came to my first MO appointment and asked "which of the six subtypes of TNBC do you think I have?" he immediately re-classified me into the category of "well-informed patient" and he NEVER talked down to me, which I think benefitted me too. My BS told the tumor board that I was a vey well informed patient and that's why they approved her taking fewer nodes-- because I had done my homework on that and was able to give informed consent. (I agreed that if there was not a pCR, she could go back and take all the nodes).

This is excellent. Please consider stickying this post at the top of the forum!

Google saved my life.

Okay, that got you in, but it's not far off the mark because I waited three months to get my diagnosis, and it would have been longer if I hadn't Googled what was becoming increasingly severe IBC. I ended up demanding a scan which my doctor agreed to, even though she had never examined my affected breast. The surgeon took one look and quickly realised I needed an oncologist to begin with, not a surgeon. So begun treatment.

Since I live in a rural area, running to a doctor every time I had a question was not on, so I needed reassurance about any treatment plan that was offered and how side effects might be controlled. My medical team soon cottoned on that I was an informed patient, like with santabarbarian, and I believe that improved treatment supervision and made me confident I was getting top-level care. And I'd bring along to appointments some obscure bit of research that had accidently included a male patient and this would amuse the professionals.

Because I went on to patient counselling training and eventually the Project LEAD course, I'm not only good at evaluating research articles (handy when the second cancer cropped up) but I'm regulary asked to speak on male BC. Social media, especially Twitter, has a huge lot of medical professionals tweeting on breast cancer and they mix freely with keen and informed patient advocates like myself. There's even a weekly chat group: #bcsm. I have close to 1000 followers there as @malefitness

When you're a man with this disease, you really do need Google.

Amen! Add to that the ads from drug companies...I heard one on the radio yesterday urging people to educate your doctor that symptom X is probably this, and you need this to alleviate your symptoms. I am pretty sure the doctor does not need to be educated on that, and can look at the symptoms and work to find an appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

Educating yourself and advocating for yourself is very important (saved my daughter's life when I had vasa previa), but you have to understand what you're reading, take into account the source (if it is from a drug company it is not unbiased) and if you're reading research, you need to clearly understand statistics and the language of researchers. If not, ask someone who knows this to help interpret it and apply it to your particular situation.

The same goes for radiology and pathology results. I always get a copy of those and think others should too, but people need to remember that these are written by doctors for doctors, and are in specific language common to that field. People criticize their use of words because they can't understand them.......they are not written for the lay person; a doctor can interpret it for you!!!!!

Djmammo - all yours!