During Breast Cancer Awareness Month I dutifully complied with the heightened awareness for the importance of breast self-exams by finding a lump in my breast. Perfect! Here I was a cancer educator, advocating relentlessly for early detection and now to my great dismay I had actually found something - something that did not belong: A lump. Sliding my hand over the spot again and again, coming at it from different angles, shifting my weight in an attempt to make it disappear I stared at the wall of my office in utter fear, punctuated by bursts of nervous sighing. The lump had materialized, as if imagined into reality from the thousands of breast self-exam shower cards, diagrams and breast models I had handed out, pored over, and sampled. The irony was only amusing in the bitterest sense.

Jumping to the end of this particular story the lump turned out to be the lowest form of benign tissue (a papilloma). But the memory of the mammogram, the radiologist's careful circling with a grease pencil the suspicious area, the coldness of the sonogram probe and the anxious faces watching the absence of comforting fluid in the biopsy needle (oh, please let it be a cyst!) were strongly revived when I reviewed several books by Judy C. Kneece, R.N., OCN, published by Edu-Care and distributed through their website and through Amazon.com (available now in our Bookstore). I had known Judy Kneece's's work for a long time and in the early '90's her books were some of the only breast cancer books that spoke directly to women and their families.

Revisiting the series, which includes Your Breast Cancer Treatment Handbook, Helping Your Mate Face Breast Cancer, and her shorter books, Solving the Mystery of Breast Pain, Solving the Mystery of Breast Discharge, I came to the one that made the strongest connection, naturally: Finding A Lump In Your Breast.

How I wish I had been able to read this after the lump climbed inexorably into my consciousness and haunted me for the three weeks it took to sort out my HMO troubles, physician recommendations, appointment times, lab results and surgery. The cover has a comforting feel to it that is difficult to understand without the accompanying turmoil of uncertainty faced by any woman (or man) who finds something untoward, something unsettlingly different, in their breast.

Beginning with the title, Helping Your Mate Face Breast CancerFinding A Lump In Your Breast: Where To Go, What To Do, one is immediately put at ease knowing there are many things that can tweak a breast out of its usual form and function. To the lay person (and to me as well, which came as a bit of a shock when my prior knowledge and education flew out the window after the lump made its appearance), imperfection is a mystery unless you know the reasons why.

Reasonable Explanations:

The dialogue is comfortable and comforting, with plenty of illustrations. Beginning with breast anatomy and an explanation of how cyclic changes affect it. Lumpy breasts are common and this simple fact puts normal glandular changes in perspective. The message is clear: the body changes and the body ages, little by little, and the body adjusts remarkably but imperfectly. This is the message of the soothing text and plain but not over-simplified language. For example, the possible causes of breast pain and discharge are explained in detail. Pain can come from normal cyclic changes, musculoskeletal stress, or even the use of herbal supplements known as "fat burners". Nipple discharge can be caused by a variety of medications, including herbal supplements. In fact, there is a large section devoted entirely to pharmaclogical causes of breast problems

Common causes for a breast lump were covered in detail, with simple black and white drawings of a particular condition. This homespun quality was appealing in contrast to the scientific terms, for reasons that as I have said earlier, have more to do with emotion than analysis. Among other causes, my papilloma was there, and clogged ducts (mammary duct ectasia) that come about as a result of the constant tide of fluid brought in and out over a thousand menstrual cycles.

In Helping Your Mate Face Breast CancerFinding A Lump, the focus is on the benign varieties which gives the subject the proper perspective given the rarity of a lump actually turning out to be cancer (about 20%, according to Kneece). Each section in the book methodically examines all potential causes of a lump and by the end it is easy to have a good firm understanding of breast function, breast anatomy, breast self-exam, and what can only be described as the vagarities of life that affect one's breasts as they affect every other part of the human body, producing stiff joints, changing eyesight and the new hair that grows inexplicably from women's chins and men's ears.

So much attention is focused on breast cancer, it can be difficult for a woman to remain both vigilant and calm about it all. Judy Kneece's books make for a very good collection, useful for any well woman, cancer patient, or cancer survivor. My suggestion for the well woman is to start with Helping Your Mate Face Breast CancerFinding A Lump, Helping Your Mate Face Breast CancerSolving The Mystery of Breast Discharge", and Helping Your Mate Face Breast CancerSolving the Mystery of Breast Pain. If, as Kneece says, "50% of all women will find a lump some time in their lives", you will be happy to have them on hand.

Glossary:

Papilloma:   A small benign epithelial tumor, such as a wart, consisting of an overgrowth of cells on a core of smooth connective tissue.

by Valen Watson