Local woman: The cancer I never heard of nearly killed me
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SEATTLE - October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - but in Washington state it's also Inflammatory Breast Cancer Awareness month.
That's after KOMO News Problem Solver Michelle Esteban revealed that too many doctors were misdiagnosing IBC - and too many women never heard of it ... until they got it.
Katherine Malmo says, "I had one doctor who is very well respected in the Seattle area diagnosis me with IBC. Then I had another well-respected doctor who said, 'Hmmm, I'm not sure I actually see it.'"
That was typical back in 2005, when Katherine was diagnosed with IBC - or inflammatory breast cancer. There were too many primary care doctors who'd never seen a case of IBC and patients who were suddenly battling a cancer with a name they never heard of.
"Never having heard of it, or seeing anything about it, or have anyone talk about it after the fact was really frustrating," says Katherine.
Over the past six years, the Problem Solvers have helped to warn doctors and women about IBC - an aggressive form of breast cancer that often forms in sheets in the breast instead of a tell tale lump - making mammograms for this type of cancer unreliable.
At 31, Katherine was told she had a 10 percent chance of living five years.
"I was really scared by it, and I thought I was going die," says Katherine. "I got depressed when I was in chemo, I shut off from the world. But I found this therapist who said, 'Katherine, death is a landscape that you can visit, but you can't stay.'"
Those words freed her to turn her grief into art.
"It's a story of a woman named Kate who is incidentally me," she says.
She's written her cancer story in a book, "Who In This Room," published this month, just in time for IBC Awareness Month. She hopes it will continue to tell the story of IBC - and the story a woman who is not defined by cancer.
In October 2011, Katherine is a five-year cancer survivor, a writer, a wife - and a mother.
"Part of my story was people don't know about this," she says. "They need to - and that young women in particular need to know about this."
The IBC Awareness Campaign in Washington state began in 2006 after KOMO's Problem Solver reports, and has continued every year since.
Some of the symptoms of IBC include a swollen or painful breast, incessant breast itching, a rash or a bug bite that won't seem to go away, nipple changes or a hardened area on the breast.
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To find out more about inflammatory breast cancer, visit www.eraseibc.com or whointhisroom.com.
That's after KOMO News Problem Solver Michelle Esteban revealed that too many doctors were misdiagnosing IBC - and too many women never heard of it ... until they got it.
Katherine Malmo says, "I had one doctor who is very well respected in the Seattle area diagnosis me with IBC. Then I had another well-respected doctor who said, 'Hmmm, I'm not sure I actually see it.'"
That was typical back in 2005, when Katherine was diagnosed with IBC - or inflammatory breast cancer. There were too many primary care doctors who'd never seen a case of IBC and patients who were suddenly battling a cancer with a name they never heard of.
"Never having heard of it, or seeing anything about it, or have anyone talk about it after the fact was really frustrating," says Katherine.
Over the past six years, the Problem Solvers have helped to warn doctors and women about IBC - an aggressive form of breast cancer that often forms in sheets in the breast instead of a tell tale lump - making mammograms for this type of cancer unreliable.
At 31, Katherine was told she had a 10 percent chance of living five years.
"I was really scared by it, and I thought I was going die," says Katherine. "I got depressed when I was in chemo, I shut off from the world. But I found this therapist who said, 'Katherine, death is a landscape that you can visit, but you can't stay.'"
Those words freed her to turn her grief into art.
"It's a story of a woman named Kate who is incidentally me," she says.
She's written her cancer story in a book, "Who In This Room," published this month, just in time for IBC Awareness Month. She hopes it will continue to tell the story of IBC - and the story a woman who is not defined by cancer.
In October 2011, Katherine is a five-year cancer survivor, a writer, a wife - and a mother.
"Part of my story was people don't know about this," she says. "They need to - and that young women in particular need to know about this."
The IBC Awareness Campaign in Washington state began in 2006 after KOMO's Problem Solver reports, and has continued every year since.
Some of the symptoms of IBC include a swollen or painful breast, incessant breast itching, a rash or a bug bite that won't seem to go away, nipple changes or a hardened area on the breast.
----
To find out more about inflammatory breast cancer, visit www.eraseibc.com or whointhisroom.com.
