Watching This Video Might Change Your Mind About Breast Exams

My mission this month is to encourage, educate and raise awareness about breast cancer.

Some of us are visual learners. Here is a video that I found that I liked for several reasons. Dr. Susan Boolbol is Chief of Breast Surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC and she is the doctor you will see in these videos.

Dr. Boolbol encourages her patients to be “Educated Partners” when it comes to their health care. She wants her patients to know ALL the options available before they make a decision about treatment. She talks to her patients in a “I’m on your side and we will get through this together” way as opposed to “Here is what you need to do and now do it because I am the doctor and I know what’s best.” Believe me, not all doctors do that. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1989 I remember clearly the doctors who treated her with respect and kindness and genuine concern and the ones to whom she was just another patient.

This video is actually part of a series done by this doctor. It is about 5 minutes long and well worth your time.

At first I was going to include only one video, but the second one is about a young woman with breast cancer (29). She was told by her doctor that the lump she felt was probably an ingrown pimple and not to worry about it that she was “too young” to have cancer. That doctor was wrong. Don’t be lulled into thinking you are too young for breast cancer!