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" Recently, I learned about Trusera, an interesting new health Web site where people can share their health stories, questions and cautions with others in order to get feedback and find answers. And that&amp;#x27;s where I heard about Michele Hyra&amp;#x27;s shocking story ... Michele, a 42-year-old breast cancer patient in the Seattle, Washington, area, was horrified when she found a lump under her armpit last year. Tests later confirmed that she had stage-four breast cancer and tumors in her breasts, lymph nodes and throughout her entire body. When she needed an immediate mamogram and follow up, she was told something shocking: &amp;quot;Sorry, we&amp;#x27;re all booked. You&amp;#x27;ll have to wait 2 weeks.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s a sad truth, but even me, working in the health care field for all the years that I have, couldn&amp;#x27;t get in for a mammogram when I needed one,&amp;quot; she writes. &amp;quot;It was my friend Michelle, who had baked cookies for all the staff at the cancer center when she was going through breast cancer treatments, that helped me. She knew all the administrative assistants, who most people ignore or are mean to, and she was nice to them. They are the ones that helped me get the appointments I needed. So be nice to *everyone.*&amp;quot; It&amp;#x27;s hard to believe, isn&amp;#x27;t it, that even today--even in the U.S.--we can&amp;#x27;t always get the life-saving care we need when we need it without knowing how to pull the right strings. Read Michele&amp;#x27;s video diary here to learn more about why she feels there is such a need for improvement in breast cancer patient care. Have you ever had to wait a long time to see a specialist for a health condition of your own? Did you ever have to take creative measures (baking cookies, being persistent, calling in help from someone in the know) to get seen sooner? P.S. Be sure to check out this new Glamour.com quiz and test your knowledge of breast cancer. Your score might surprise you! Photo: iStock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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