@karendb Karen, Don't be anxious or scared. Get all the facts. If you start thinking the "what ifs," you'll lose focus and you need to stay focused to handle this. What I have learned throughout this ordeal is to lean on family and be grateful each day upon waking. Take one day at a time. You've got this...we're all here for you.

Back in May I had my first annual mammogram since I was diagnosed - I too was anxious& worried for about 2 weeks before the test. It was all fine! So I understand you feeling this way, but I agree with the others in that it's good to stay focused and take it a day at a time. I was anxious for no reason.

My friends story is a very very sad one. She retired 10 years ago and has not had medical insurance since then until she turned 65 in September. So she never got any health care for the last 10 years. She is one of the smartest people I know & she made some incredibly stupid decisions. She started having health problems like 18 months ago & STILL did not go to a doctor. She never told anyone - not even her family. I will NEVER understand her decisions. So she finally went about 3 weeks ago, because she was in so much pain from her kidney. They found a large tumor on it. She is having surgery to remove the kidney on Tuesday. She was in the hospital for 10 days where they performed many tests & found tumors in her breast & on her liver and colon too. The biopsies from the breast showed Stage 3 IDC and the liver biopsy showed it was breast cancer too. They are not sure what is in the kidney - but think it's maybe unrelated to the breast cancer, but they will find out after the surgery to remove it. The colon they are waiting on for now.

Her mom died from lung cancer in the 1980s. So I can only wonder if she'd had regular mammograms, she would have been treatable. I spoke to her last night & depending on the results of the kidney tumor, it sounded like she may choose no treatments. I don't know if it's a fear of treatments - after what her mother went thru or what. I kept telling her that treatments now are so much more advanced. This is incredibly sad to me. I met her in college when I was 18. This to me - says more about regular checkups and being open to friends and family about health problems. We have to take care of ourselves.