Lesson 1: ALL ABOUT BREASTS: Risks, Myths & BSE
Some general information about breast health, the risks associated with breast cancer, how to do a breast self-exam (BSE) and the truth about some of those outrageous rumors...
The Ground Rules
Short intro to the entire course. My name is Linda and I am 51 years old, newly divorced and have been a survivor for 4 years. I have 3 children: a daughter 25 who lives in another state, a son 23 who lives in NY and a son 18 who goes to college in a different state. My parents live in the south and dad has metastatic colon cancer.
I am not a doctor and have no medical expertise in the breast cancer arena. All of my knowledge is as a patient and with rudimentary medical knowledge since I work in a hospital. I have tried to include a variety of links in each section, not relying on any one site for additional information. How far you take the research and use these links as a jumping off point is up to you. Some sites are better than others and some are more detailed in one area. I make no recommendations or commendations for any of the links in the lesson sections. I do, however, strongly recommend the links in the resource section as a "total package".
All of the information I will share with you is based on the patient perspective and hopefully will help you cope with this disease and understand the terminology, testing and procedures involved. Knowing the process makes it generally less scary. If I can share and make your journey through breast cancer less traumatic, then we will have accomplished something special.
A word about medical information on the web - There are literally thousands of websites out there offering medical guidance. A few key points to examine, when searching a new site:
- Who runs it?
- Who pays for it?
- What is the purpose of the site?
- Where does the info come from?
- What is the basis of the info?
- How was the info chosen?
- How current is the info?
- How does the site choose to link to other sites?
- What info about you does the site collect and why?
- How does the site interact with visitors?
(These questions are taken from NCCAM). Access their site for full details. http://www.nccam.nih.gov/health/webresou...
References and Resources - Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book is highly recommended.
I will also try to list at least one website for each subject we touch upon.
