Resident urges early breast-cancer screening, recounts personal diagnosis and updates grandchild

A resident (public commenter) used a public-comment turn to urge people with family histories of breast cancer to begin screening earlier than standard benchmarks and to advocate strongly for themselves during medical evaluations. "If it's in your family, start your screening very early," the resident said.

The commenter recounted family losses to the disease, saying his mother "died at a very young age because of breast cancer" and that his wife's identical twin sister "died before she was 50 years old" from breast-cancer complications. He described his own 2015 cancer diagnosis: "I had cancer in 2015, it was just a lump in my side of my neck," he said, adding that clinicians initially tested for lymphoma (both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's) and performed a needle biopsy that "showed nothing." He said he pushed for further action: "Take this **** thing out of my neck. And so when they took it out, they found it. It was both it was cancer."

The speaker said he is "cancer free so far" and urged listeners not to delay evaluation of unusual findings: "Don't wait. You find something on your body that's unusual, get it checked out." He framed self-advocacy as important after an initial negative needle biopsy.

The commenter closed with a family health update, saying his grandchild, Theo, is "over 2 years old now, doing very, very well," remains on medication and is scheduled for another operation on an eyelid "this Friday" because an implanted device is "starting to swell up." "But he's doing very well. We're all very happy about that," the resident added.

No formal action, motion, or staff direction related to these remarks was recorded in the transcript.