Testimonials

Joyce: Well, actually overcoming fear for me was the fact that I was going to see the doctor so many times. Initially, I was definitely afraid of going to the doctor. I had my first breast surgery at 24. I had a mass that needed to be checked out. Of course, the first thing I thought was, oh my gosh, I have cancer at 24 but it turned out not to be. I kept going to my annual appointments to my surgeon for my follow up exam and within a few years I had a few more surgeries. But each time thinking maybe it’s cancer maybe it’s cancer, but the more I thought about it, as long as I went to my screening tests I knew I was in good hands. I felt that if I didn’t go, lord knows what would have happened. So I would keep going and eventually at the age of 37 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My mom was diagnosed just two months before me and we ended up having quite a family history of cancers in general. Definitely more than the average family. I think people should not be so fearful because once you have symptoms it could very well be too late and I’m more afraid of that than an actual surgery to remove something that could be benign. Many people are afraid. I have family members who are afraid and I’d like to encourage people to go for your screenings. It saves lives. Without a doubt it saved my life. I’ve had breast cancer, I’ve had thyroid cancer, and just recently had endometrial cancer. So I’m the type of person who wants to be aggressive because I want to live. And that’s the question I ask everybody: do you want to live? To me, that’s the most important question. And if you do, you need to go for your screening tests. I was lucky enough to be treated by Dr. Yu with radiation for my breast cancer. It’s been 17 years and I’m still here to talk about it. It’s been ten years for my thyroid cancer and its just a month for my endometrial cancer. So get out there and do your screenings and just think about what it could be if you wait too long. Really, it could be detrimental.

Dr. Yu: So with regard to cancer, everyone is afraid of getting cancer and unfortunately it’s a very common problem but if the cancer is caught early it could be cured. So going for your screenings, your mammographies, your pap smears, and your colonoscopy at age 50 is important. Because when they’re caught early it’s easy to cure. If you don’t catch it early and it progresses then it can be very difficult to cure; if not impossible to cure so definitely go for your screening and see your doctor. If you’re worried about something, see your doctor and they can take care of it if it’s early.