When I was reading the book Make 'Em Laugh by Debbie Reynolds (review to come soon) she told the story of a woman who worked closely with her named Jenn. Jenn had been from Texas just like Ms. Reynolds and even though she was married, she moved to California to work in real estate, as she had fallen in love with the place, and kept up a long distance marriage. When Ms. Reynold's Vegas act ended and she came back to California and was in need of an assistant to handle things for her, Jenn was there. When Ms. Reynolds heard the news that her long time hair dresser was leaving to be in a Vegas drag show (a dream of his), she told Ms. Reynolds not to worry that she could do her hair and wigs. These two were quite close. In 2012 when Ms. Reynolds went to Colorado to write her autobiography, she brought along Jenn and her husband, among others. One day Jenn was getting a microwave out of a vehicle to put into the cabin and experienced great pain. She went to a "quick care" type clinic and they gave her some meds for what she thought was just a pulled muscle in her back. What she didn't tell anyone was that the pain was excruciating and that it did not stop the entire time they were there. When they got back to California, though, they all made her go see a doctor who did x-rays and discovered that she had shattered two vertebrae in her back due to the breast cancer that had spread to her brain and weakened her bones. The doctor believed she had had this cancer for about ten years. Jenn was only 44. They put some braces in her back and she tried a round of chemo, but it was too late and she died soon after.
Now some facts. 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime and men have a 1 in a 1000 chance of getting it themselves. It is more common in black women under the age of 45 and they are more likely to die from it. 85% of people who are diagnosed have no family history of breast cancer. The older you get the more likely you are to get it. [www.breastcancer.org] Fewer than 5% under the age of 40 are likely to get breast cancer, yet it is the number one leading cause of cancer death in women age 20-59. [www.komen.org]. When I was growing up the doctors told us you went in to get a baseline mammogram at age 35 and then began getting your regular mammograms at age 40. In 2003, amid some controversy, the American Cancer Society stated that women should have their first mammogram at age 45 and then begin regular yearly mammograms.
I don't know why Jenn didn't have a baseline mammogram done at age 35 or one at age 40. Ms. Reynolds says that Jenn didn't have cancer in her family so maybe she felt she didn't need to. Maybe she listened to the American Cancer Society, maybe she didn't. I don't know. I do know her life could have probably been saved if she had. I did not. I take my health seriously. I had my baseline done at 35 and had my second mammogram a little late as I did not have insurance and needed to save up the money. I had it back in January. The place where I had it done a local theater group had put on a production of the play Calendar Girls and sold actual calendars to raise money for a 3D imaging scanner. Every woman who came in at that time was given a free calendar. It hangs proudly on my wall. It makes me mad that these doctors are telling women to wait to have mammograms when they could save their lives. It's a painless procedure that only takes a few minutes. Something so simple can be so life changing. You do not have to follow these guidelines put forth by the American Cancer Society and I urge you not to.
Now, at the other end of the spectrum. A friend of mine is in her early seventies and her gynecologist told her she didn't need to come in every year anymore. I thought that was odd and was worried, as your chance of getting cancer down there does not go down when you get older. So I browbeat a nurse into spelling it out for me. It turns out that once you reach a certain age doctors stop telling you to have certain "bothersome" procedures done such as pap smears and colonoscopies. For one thing, medicare doesn't want to pay for it. But mainly, if you do get cancer, the thinking is that pneumonia or whatever you are likely to get from the treatment of the cancer, or something else entirely, will kill you long before the cancer will. So there is no point in bothering them with these pesky little preventive uncomfortable procedures. I was floored. It seems they just give up on you when you reach a certain age. And they believe you would want it that way too, but they don't ask you. These doctors don't explain why you don't need them anymore and you're just so happy not to go through them as often that you don't stop to question why. I did not tell my friend this as she would never believe me.
None of this really seems right or fair. It just seems a way to cut medical costs at the possible expense of someone's life. Every living, breathing life is sacred and we should do everything in out power to protect and save it, not give up on it because it's the easy thing to do, or play the odds with a young person's life. I am not an age, but a human being and I demand to be treated with respect and courtesy and to not be held to some statisticians chart. I have hopes and dreams of a future just like everyone else and we all deserve to see them come true if it's possible, on our own terms.
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