Breast Cancer, Say It!!, Fight It!!, Cure It!!,

Damm It!!!

My name is Stacie Reasonover, on the net I go by the name Riah, under most situations I would never tell my real name on the internet, but I think my true name needs to be used in my fight against an awfull disease called Breast Cancer.

I was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer in both my breasts, and am facing a Mastectomy and Tram Flapp proccedure in early February to remove and reconstruct my breasts. I was diagnosed in November of 1997, but I have suspected that I have had the disease since 1994. I had a doctor that told me " you are too intune with your body, and you are making yourself paranoid." but what he didn't hear me tell him that my mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother, and my great great grandmother, as well as 3 aunts have been diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and have most have had mastectomys done. All my doctor heard me say is that im 24 years old and I have found a lump in my breast. Well now Im 28 and I have a new doctor that like myself belives that a women can never be "too intune with her body". when I told him in Aug. of 97 that I had found a lump in 1994, and that now my breast were so sore that I havent worn a bra in months, He ordered a mamogram immediately. Well the mamogram results came in and I had numerous lumps in both breasts, so my new doctor sent me for an ultrasound to look more closely at my lumps in my breasts. When the results from the ultrasound came in, he sent me to se a specialist who inturn sent me to a plastic surgeon that would do the surgery to remove and reconstruct my breasts.

I am finding that I am young for my diagnosis, but so were all the women in my family, My mother (who refuses to talk about her Breast Cancer for fear that she will "catch it again") was in hear early 20's when she was diagnosed and had her bilateral Mastectomy and subsequently had silicone implants put in. She now has problems with her implants as most women who had them put in in that day and time do. Because of my mothers problems with her implants I chose to undergo the Tram Flapp proceedure, i know you are probably saying what is the Tram Flapp proceedure? Well I will tell you, in essence what the sergeon will do is make and insicion right under my breast and take out all my breast material wile leaving the skin that covers my breast. Then he will take the fat from my tummy and transplant it to my breast area creating new breast from my own body fat. If there is any positive to this surgery, besides the possible fact that I will have no sign of the disease left is that I GET A TUMMY TUCK :)...(something I desperately needed after having my children anyway).

My final point to my page right now is if you arent doing a monthly exam of your breast YOU SHOULD BE!!!.....the youngest Breast Cancer patient I have Heard of is 15 she was a patient a a hospital in the Boston area. So if you learn nothing else by my site, PLEASE learn that you are never to Young and YOU are your best Advocate. Insist on a mamogram if you find any kind of lump or if you have any kind of problem with your breast. IF YOU DON'T WHO WILL?? I have since had my surgery and regret the type I have chosen for myself, my first mistake was that I did not check out my doctor, my second mistatake was that I was in too big a hurry to get that great tummy tuck. It wasnt all that great, I got a terrible infection called MRSA (the flesh eating virus) I caught it from the hospital surgeon, with no appologies from him I was sick/bedridden for over a year and am still not as well as I had expected I would be, so I recconmend to all of you PLEASE check out your doctor. After having my Breast surgery I had to have a total and compleet hystoretomy, yet another disaster. So now at 30 years old, I not only have lost my natural breasts, I have also lost all my female organs as we all know they dont replace those. I will eventualy be ok because I refuse to give up, and I have a wonderfull support system, most of all I have met throu the wonderfull Webring I created at the start of my fight. Please check out the sites listed with the ring, You will be plesently supprized at the wealth of information you will be able to access. We have doctors, and patients listed together trying to fight this horrid disease. Thank you all for your wonderfull support.

I have created a Webring for pages about Breast Cancer, if you have a site about Breast Cancer or a page on your site about Breast Cancer, you may join our Webring, we need all the help informing people that we can get, so even if you have known someone that had or has Breast Cancer, and you would like to help by devoting a page in their honor/memory, PLEASE do so and join our Webring. All we ask is that when you join our Webring, you put the HTML code provided for the ring on your actual Breast Cancer Page, and that you submit the URL for the actual Breast Cancer page on your site not your front page URL.

Thank you for all you have or will do in the fight against Breast cancer.

Riah AKA Stacie Reasonover