I am thrilled that breast density is now receiving the attention it deserves!
When I noticed something ?not right? with my right breast in early 2007 and was sent for my very first mammogram at age 45, the only time I?d ever heard the term ?dense breasts? was from a co-worker and friend of mine. This friend told me she had a lump checked out and was told after a mammogram that she had dense breast tissue. She has large breasts, so I thought ?oh, I guess women with big boobs have dense breasts. I?m sure I?m ok, because my boobs are on the small side, so they must not be dense?. Little did I know at the time what was in store for me! It wasn?t until quite recently I found out that breast size is no predictor of density! Only a mammogram can identify breast density.

Fast forward to a mid-March day in 2007, when I saw my long-time family doctor (at the end of the day on a Thursday) with some concerns I had about breast changes. After he examined me, he put his hand on mine and with tears in his eyes, said to me ?You need a mammogram, and you need to see a surgeon right away.? He excused himself and went across the hall to his office to personally make the call to the surgeon.

When he came back to the exam room, he handed me a requisition for the mammogram and said I was to go to the X-ray clinic first thing the next morning and to call the surgeon?s office as soon as I got back home to book an appointment, hopefully that afternoon.
I followed my doctor?s instructions and took the mammogram requisition to the X-ray clinic first thing the next morning, which was a Friday. I recall sitting in the little room after, waiting to get the go-ahead to get dressed when the tech called my name and said ?You are seeing Dr. R this afternoon, right??. When I said I thought so, I?d be calling his office when I got home to make an appointment the tech said ?Ok, good, we?ll send him the report right away.? I just KNEW I had breast cancer. I felt sick?
When I got home, I called the surgeon?s office, and they told me he couldn?t see me till Monday afternoon. I kid you not when I say that was the longest weekend of my life!

When Monday afternoon finally arrived, the surgeon did a fine needle aspiration in his office and said he?d call me in a few days with the results. He also said ?whatever it is, you?ll need a mastectomy. How do you feel about that?? I?m lying there, thinking ?How the hell do you THINK I feel about that? How would YOU feel if I told you your penis needed to be cut off??
The next 3 days were spent waiting to hear the results. When I finally got the call at work, he told me, ?the results are inconclusive?. He?d arranged for me to see a radiologist that afternoon for a core biopsy and I needed to go to the X-ray clinic and pick up my films to take with me. When I got home with the films, I looked at them and saw the note that said, ?suspicious for malignancy?, but not confirmed due to ?dense breast tissue.? I could not believe my eyes! I wondered how I could have dense breasts when they were not even that big!

The core biopsy was agonizingly painful, and I had to wait about 2 weeks for those results, as it was now into spring break time in Manitoba and the radiologist AND the surgeon were both on vacation. I honestly thought I?d lose my mind ? talk about stressed out!

When the biopsy results finally came back, my worst fear was confirmed ? I indeed had breast cancer. I had a mastectomy two weeks later, followed by staging tests, before meeting my oncologist for the first time.
When I arrived at CancerCare to meet with my oncologist and stepped off the elevator and walked down the hall to check in, I literally froze. There was a glass wall from his waiting area that looked right into the treatment area, and I saw all these people ? these BALD people ? hooked up to IV?s. In that moment, all I could focus on was ?I. Have. Cancer.?
When I could finally move my feet and walked to the check-in desk, I had trouble speaking, I could barely state my own name, never mind the doctor?s name!

The pathology report revealed it was a rare mixed type called tubulo-lobular, ER+/PR+/HER2 negative. There were multiple invasive tumours as well as a significant in situ component. There were 4 positive lymph nodes. Aggressive, Stage 3B. I was terrified.
I was put on a dose-dense chemotherapy regimen that landed me in the hospital for two weeks in only my second cycle. I was so sick; I was close to death. My oncologist often referred to this period as ?the time we nearly killed you.? Once chemo was completed, it was on to 37 radiation treatments, before finally being well enough to return to work part-time, after an absence of 11 long months.
The toll this took on not only me, but my entire family, was intense, to say the least.
This all happened 17 years ago, and I am still dealing with this diagnosis. I so wish I?d been able to access a screening mammogram at age 40, as I firmly believe it would have spared me and my family an awful lot of anguish.

More recently, I also found out I am a carrier of the BRCA 2 gene mutation, which led to much closer monitoring of my opposite remaining breast. Before undergoing a prophylactic mastectomy with immediate reconstruction in fall 2022, I had been having alternating diagnostic mammograms and breast MRI every 6 months. When I finally had the surgery, the pathology revealed a 5 cm DCIS tumour! Even careful regular surveillance missed this because I had dense breasts! The surgeon said he was shocked at the size of the growth, given the frequency of my testing. Thank goodness it was caught at Stage 0 this time!

I can?t say often enough that WOMEN?S HEALTH MATTERS! We matter! We deserve to be given as much information as possible about our health so we can make the informed decisions that are best for ourselves. Let us be screened beginning at 40 and tell us what our breast density is so we can also advocate for additional screening such as ultrasound or MRI!

DBC Note: Lori, thank you so much for reliving such a horrible time in your life so that we could all learn from your experience. Even now, many years later we are still fighting for additional screening for dense breasts and screening at 40. Thank you for all you do to raise awareness and for your advocacy for better screening for Canadians.