Memory of diagnosis 28 years ago still fresh for Allegheny Twp. woman
Because Debbie Thompson’s mother died of uterine cancer at age 46, Thompson began getting annual mammograms before the then-recommended age 50.
Thompson felt good about her penchant for keeping up with the doctor’s appointments and scans that would provide early detection, if the worst should happen.
Then in the fall of 1994 at age 42, her doctor told her he feared a tiny speck in her mammogram was cancer and that it should be biopsied.
“I don’t think I quit crying for days,” said Thompson, who had three young children at the time. “It’s devastating. The props are kicked out from under you.”
She underwent a total right-side mastectomy two days before Thanksgiving 1994 at then-McGee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh.
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