COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. (WANE) A Columbia City nurse is working to make it easier to detect breast cancer. She took her story to a state senator, and now, there's a new law.
Carrie Barcus first went to the doctor in January, 2011.
"Pap test, mammogram, chest x-ray, lab work, I mean, she did all the appropriate things, but everything came back negative," said Barcus.
She was worried because she noticed she was losing weight without trying.
"She's like I think it's all stress related, maybe you need to find a less stressful job," said Barcus.
She did and the symptoms didn't go away. That's when she went back to a different doctor later that year.
"Everything was negative again, but this time, I did have a breast lump."
It was Fibrocystic Breast Disease. However, that still didn't explain the way she felt. She went back again, for a third time.
"I said it's not that I want something to be wrong, I just know there is, you don't turn 40 and start losing weight unless you're dying of cancer and so that's when he ordered the breast ultrasound."
She had a tumor.
"The next day, I found out I had cancer."
After doing some research, she found out she had dense breast tissue, something that was in her doctor's records. A mammogram wasn't capable of detecting the tumor, even though it was the size of a golf ball.
"Breast tissue shows up white on a mammogram and tumors show up white, so it's white on white and you can't see it."
According to the American College of Radiology, about 10 percent of women have almost completely fatty breasts. Another 10 percent have extremely dense breasts. The rest are in between, with about 40 percent having scattered areas of density and 40 percent having fairly widespread density.
"Why is the medical field not doing anything for that 40 percent of women?"
She contacted our state senators. Now, there's a new law that will require insurance companies to pay for additional tests and educational information to patients.
"I wanted education, that was my biggest thing, I wanted women to be notified and educated."
Beginning July 1st, any facility that does a mammogram will educate women about breast density.
You have to get a mammogram first, to find out if you have dense breast tissue.
Barcus is cancer free. She and her doctors are closely monitoring her.
Barcus and others who have been affected across the nation will continue working to curtail the law.
According to BreastCancer.org , women with dense breast tissue can be six times more likely to develop cancer.
For more information about dense breast tissue, click here .
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Source: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/womans-cancer-story-influences-new-law
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