We all know how important it is to check our breasts for lumps that can indicate breast cancer. But one woman is sharing a tip for how she found a lump that her doctor had missed, in hopes that she could help save more lives.
In a post to her Facebook page on Saturday, Hayley Browning wrote that while most of us are told to check for lumps while standing in the shower, we may still be missing something.
"3 weeks ago, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer," she wrote. "I could only feel the lump whilst lying down and it completely disappeared standing up."
Though she says that most websites advise you to check for lumps in the shower, "if I had followed this advice, the lump may have grown too large to be treatable. Not even the surgeon could feel my lump when I was standing up."
"So, this is a call out to all women to check for lumps lying down, as well as standing up," Browning wrote.
Checking for lumps in the shower is a common piece of advice, since many people find that the easiest way to check their breasts is to do so when their skin is slippery. However, many sites also recommend lying down in order for the tissue to spread evenly, making it possible to detect lumps you may have missed while standing, as Browning did.
"I'm hoping to share a little trick of mine with as many people as possible, which could potentially help save someone's life," she wrote.