It is the final day of October and the final day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but doctors say the disease that affects about 1 in 8 women needs to be on people's minds year round.
With no cure for the disease doctors say the earlier breast cancer is detected the better.
"It's a bump in the road I guess is how I look at it," Patti Wik of Menomonie said.
A bump in the road is how 46-year-old Patti Wik refers to the breast cancer she's battled.
"It's always hard to hear that word, but I've never thought of myself as having cancer," she said.
Patti's family has a history of cancer. That's why she's been getting yearly mammograms since about age 30. A risk assessment put her chances of having breast cancer at 25%. Because of that, Patti's doctor at Mayo Clinic Health System wanted her to do more tests, beyond a mammogram.
"He suggested that I go with a molecular breast scan as the first initial one to see if that showed up anything," Wik explained.
Two abnormal areas were found in Patti's breast. Both were cancerous.
"Both of the abnormalities were small and they probably would not have been detected on mammogram or clinically for at least another year," Mayo Clinic Health System Eau Claire Radiologist Dr. Jodie Van Wyhe explained.
Radiologist Dr. Jodie Van Wyhe says early detection is important.
"There's no way to prevent breast cancer so the only way to limit the treatment and to increase the life expectancy for women who get breast cancer is to find it when it's smaller."
Van Wyhe says mammograms, molecular breast imaging and MRI's help women find abnormalities earlier than self exams often do.
"Some women think that if they do their self exam every month that they can skip their mammogram and we don't recommend that," Van Wyhe said.
Patti says she's had a positive outlook throughout her battle. Her final surgery is this December.
The mom of two is not letting this "bump in the road" stop her from living the life she loves.
"I always thought I might have to deal with it just because of the family history so it didn't shock me when they told me that it was positive. But I knew that it was very early diagnosis," she said.
Dr. Van Wyhe recommends women get a mammogram yearly and do self exams monthly.
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