Leslie Medlock

Living with MBC

Eleven years ago, I had cancer in my right breast. Following a mastectomy, I opted for a TRAM Flap reconstruction of my breast. I took Tamoxifen for five years and, a year later, started Femara.

On the advice of my oncologist, I stopped the Femara after a year. He said I should consider myself “graduated.” Unfortunately, I have just been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.

The cancer is on my reconstructed breast, my spine, right hip and pelvic area. I found the tumor on my right breast. By the time I found it, it had spread. Until my last mammogram, my doctor had always mammogramed my reconstructed breast. I changed doctors, and the technicians did not mammogram the right breast. I specifically asked them if they shouldn’t mammogram.

They called the radiologist, and he said the protocol was to not mammogram a reconstructed breast. Bad protocol. If the breast had been mammogramed, I would have had a much earlier detection of the cancer, and might not have been facing the spread of the disease.

Please insist that your reconstructed breasts are always included in the mammogram. It could make a big difference