Delayed Diagnosis

Rather than discussing my day tonight I thought I might find it helpful to get a few thoughts out on a topic is unfortunately very present with young adult cancer survivors. Statistics show that young adults have between 7-10% lower chance of surviving their cancers than children and older adults, Why is this? One reasons is that much research has been done one childhood and adult cancers, and not nearly as much for the middle group. Also as a young adult our bodies are still changing, we are not children anymore but often our bodies do not respond to treatments in the same ways as older adults.

The other reason for these lower rates is delayed diagnosis. I believe in my situation my delayed diagnosis was a result of many factors. Firstly as a young adult you feel invincible. I never expected to have breast cancer at 27 and therefore did not panic when symptoms slowly started to emerge. People my age don't get breast cancer! This is in fact very far from true as I have met many young amazing women fighting this same disease. Feeling invincible and like I was in the greatest shape of my life led me to delay going to the doctor, and therefore delayed my diagnosis. This part is all on my shoulders. The other culprit in the story of delayed diagnosis is out health care system itself. When I finally acted on my symptoms I was told by numerous people in numerous different ways that I had nothing to worry about. This is very common, couldn't be cancer. Most women can't even begin breast screening until their 40's. When I was told by three doctors that there was no way that I had cancer I believed them. And when I asked why they had been so wrong the response I got was that because of my age it was so unlikely and things just didn't seem abnormal. My story is definitely not unique. Over the last few months I have met many young breast cancer and other young cancer survivors who tell a very similar story. We don't expect that we will have cancer and neither do the doctors, so by the time we are diagnosed we are often considered more advanced. The fact of the matter is that young adults are diagnosed every day with cancer...it does happen and this needs to be acknowledged.

The purpose of this blog was not to have people worrying about their own bodies. I was told that 80-90% of breast lumps are nothing, and that is true. But you need to trust your own body. The only person who is able to advocate for your health is you...the doctors will not do that for you. If you are told that it is probably nothing, ask for that extra test just to make sure. And when you find out that it really was nothing you will know that you did the right thing and advocated for your body!