Debating the merits of daily breast exams
 

I just walked in the door from my smash-n-mash and had discussed daily exams with the radiologist. She made, what to me, is a significant point.

Daily exams will make it more difficult to detect subtle changes!

It's perfect common sense to me and I hereby open the floor to any other opinions on this.

That's a great point AMN. If there is something growing slowly, you might not notice a change, but begin to accept it as part of the normal tissue.

If you check say, once a month, and the same spot went from miniscule to maybe 2-3 centimeters you'd notice a difference more easily.

Exactly, Wiz, I felt it was important to point this out. Sometimes the best of intentions are ill-advised and I suspect that daily exams are among them.

Agreed.

It's a good idea to actually look in the mirror to see that everything is symmetrical.

Also, there's a more rare form of breast cancer that looks more like inflammation of the skin, so even if the changes are outside the breasts, get them checked out for any changes.

Well, Kitty, maybe it's time to splurge for a new "over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder!" That'll fix 'em!

Very good point, AMN. I completely agree. Thanks for posting about this.:hug:

Wiz - Are you talking about Paget's disease of the breast? That does show up as a type of skin/nipple irritation that just doesn't heal. Any lesions on the skin of the breast does need to get checked out.

I'm not sure. I just know that I saw a TV show about it once, maybe 20/20 or something like that. It looked like a bad rash or something and it turned out to be aggressive cancer from what I remember. It might have been confused with dermatitis or something. It could easily be ignored for a couple of weeks or more if you thought it was just a rash from soap or deodorant or something.