IBC Follow-up

Good Morning Buddies,

I have been answering countless emails this morning on Buddy Check 9's coverage Thursday, August 9th. on Inflammatory Breast Cancer. If you missed the 9 News segment at 9am, my guests were Dr. Shawna Willey, Director of the Ourisman Breast Center at Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Delores Moore, a 4-year IBC survivor.
You can still access the entire interview on my IBC Blog and at the Buddy Check 9 website. I've also posted pictures of what IBC looks like on a woman's breast. Please email the links on this important subject to all of your Buddies. Include us as a resource on your website too.
Dr. Willey explained that all women could be at risk for this particular type of cancer. But as our Buddies have been telling us, younger, African-American women have a higher incidence of this rare, aggressive form of cancer.
One IBC Buddy survivor wrote me that a doctor told her that it is hard to diagnose the tell tale redness on darker skin women that's why many black women are misdiagnosed or diagnosed at a later stage.
But that's only one symptom of IBC, so don't stand for that kind of medical observation. If you experience the itching, feel the heaviness in your breast, see puckling in your nipple, and notice a change in the deepness of pigmentation on your breast, insist the doctor consider Inflammatory Breast Cancer.
Survivor Delores Moore said it best. When you notice a change ask a doctor, but still follow through if you don't get satisfactory answers. It is your life, your body; you know it better than anyone else.
One last note, GMA Morning Anchor and breast cancer survivor Robin Roberts will be back in the anchor seat Monday morning.
Keep Robin and all our Buddies in your thoughts and prayers.
Andrea Roane