Hi All,
My best friend recently had a mastectomy after she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in her right breast. She found hers by accident. We've been trying to figure out whether she should be performing self-exams on her left breast and armpit lymph nodes to make sure we can catch the cancer early if it comes back. We haven't found any consensus among oncology guidelines - some doctors and patients recommend it while others say it increases panic and leads to unnecessary breast biopsies.
Her doctor hasn't recommended it but I see a lot of posts online saying how women found their lumps because of monthly BSEs.
Please help me understand if you still need to do a BSE if your cancer has been removed. Do you all still do it? If yes, how often?
From what I've read, a lot of doctors are dismissive about women coming in with lumps if they don't have other symptoms. Is there any app/website where one can plug in symptoms and get a result as to whether it is more likely cancer or an infection or a harmless lump? So confused.
Thank you!
