Tag Archives: Exam

Signs of Breast Cancer

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Most of the common signs of breast cancer are signs that you’ll notice right away:

Blood or discharge from a nipple

A nipple that has suddenly become inverted (a nipple that’s pointing inward) or a nipple that’s situated differently than it was before, or changed shape or size.

A crusty nipple or flaking skin on the nipple

Puckering, dimpling or pitting of the skin of the breast, with or without redness

Breast tenderness and pain with no other explanation such as hormones or your cycle

A change in the size or shape of the breast

Those possible signs of breast cancer are relatively easy to spot. But even though a lump or a change in a specific area of the breast is often a potential sign, this can be the hardest one for most women to detect.

That’s because breast tissue is naturally lumpy in spots. A woman giving herself a breast exam may feel normal tissue and worry that it’s a lump, or may feel a very small lump an mistake it for normal, glandular breast tissue. Regular mammograms can help detect lumps that you can’t feel with your fingers or that are disguised as normal breast tissue. But regular self-exams can help you distinguish the difference between lumps or cysts and normal tissue.

If you feel something suspicious during a self-exam, first relax. Feel the same spot on the other breast carefully to compare. You may find that the opposite breast closely mirrors what you’ve found, confirming that’s it the normal texture of your breasts in that area. If you don’t find a matching lump or bump on the opposite breast, take a break and try not to dwell or worry. About 80% of all lumps are benign, so even if you have discovered a lump in your breast, there’s a good chance that it’s merely a cyst.

Later, repeat the exam to find the lump. Then recheck the other breast. You may find that the tissue seems normal now where it did not before. If you still can’t find a matching texture in the other breast, then have it checked by your doctor.

Lumps are one of the most panic-inducing signs of breast cancer because everyone knows that’s a possibility, even though a lump isn’t likely to be anything dangerous. Another potential sign of breast cancer is even more subtle than a lump and can be missed except when you do regular exams is an area than changes without a lump being present.

If an area on your breast has grown harder or softer, that’s something you want to have your doctor check into immediately. There doesn’t have to be a lump present. This is one of the reasons that all women should do a monthly breast exam. The more you do the exams, the more familiar you are with your breasts. The more familiar you are with them, the sooner you’ll be able to detect a change that could be one of the signs of breast cancer.

Are You Stressed by Studying for Exams? Study More Efficiently!

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Whether you are learning a new language or a subject like geography, these simple tips could save you hours of study time – and result in higher marks.

HIGHLIGHTING FUNDAMENTALS

You have probably used highlighters in textbooks and study notes; but are you getting the most out of them?

To learn anything, you must repeat the material. You go over it again – and again – and again. Then when you are confident that you have learned the information, you progress to more studying. However, this repetition process also means that you are wasting time going over facts and information you already know.

Don’t do it!

After you have learned about 80% of the material, use a yellow highlighter to mark everything that has eluded you. Next time through, concentrate on only the yellow areas. Try the memorization process a few more times until you have absorbed about 80% of the yellow text. Then do it again, marking over top of the yellow with a pink highlighter. This produces an orange shade. Spend more time memorizing everything with orange highlights.

This highlighting process produces three sections:

* Easy – no highlighting

* Moderately difficult – yellow highlighting

* Difficult – orange highlighting

The closer you get to an exam, the more time you should spend on the orange areas. They are your personal stumbling blocks. The 5%-10% of unknown material usually causes 95% or more of exam errors.

MAGNETISM – AND NOT THE PERSONAL KIND!

A magnetic metal clipboard can be a useful studying tool. If you don’t have one, you can use a small magnetic dry-erase board and a bulldog clip. You will also need a small refrigerator magnet (the flat business-card type that is distributed by dentists and plumbers).

Clip a page of study notes onto the board and use the fridge magnet to cover the answers. If the telephone rings or you are distracted by raiding the fridge for a snack, the magnet will keep track of your place on the page.

Experiment to see how many pages you can clip onto the board at one time before the magnet refuses to stick. You might be able to work with a pile of 5 or more sheets. Go through the first one, put it on the bottom of the pile, and proceed to the next.

After exams are finished, you can recycle photocopies or printouts by turning them over and using the other side of each page. You might even want to make your own notepads.

Carefully line up a stack of paper. Lay the stack on the edge of a table or desk and set a couple of heavy books on top. Use notepad glue or white glue to paint the ends. Once the glue dries, remove the books and separate the pile into manageable notepads.

RESOURCES:

Are you having trouble finding notepad glue? Try an internet search for ‘make notepads’.

You don’t have a magnetic clipboard? Try an internet search for ‘magnetic clipboard’.

See the links below for a page that provides search forms for many popular search engines.