My Diagnosis Story

What symptoms led up to your diagnosis?

I had worked out "too hard" at the gym the previous week.  I thought the small lump under my axilla/top of my left breast was a pulled muscle. After a couple of weeks of self-check the lump was still prominent and was not going away. The left side felt like hard muscle between my fingers, while the other side felt soft.  I decided to get it checked at the Doctor's office.

What tests did your doctor do, and what was this experience like?

I called the Doctor and he gave me an appointment the very next day.  He did a full examination of my chest, but could not feel, what I felt.  He was aware that I would know my body better than he.  So, he referred me to a radiologist centre to get an ultrasound, as I was only 42, a mammogram would not be done at this time.

When I arrived the radiologists a week later, they actually performed a mammogram first, they took what seemed like a 100 pictures, I think it may have been only about 10.  However, if you've ever had a mammogram, one is more than enough for the discomfort level to rise.  They asked me to wait in the change room after the mammogram was done, to see if they "needed" to do the ultrasound.  I was confused, as I thought this was the procedure my doctor sent me in for. Did wait, the technician came back and told me they were doing the ultra sound.

Upon learning about your diagnosis, what happened next?

The Medical technician found several lumps in both my breasts, I was in shock! I only came in for the left side, now he was telling me that I had two other lumps in my right breast as well.  He told me that the right side lumps, "appeared" to be benign, that they were calcifications.  However, the lump that I found in my left breast needed to be biopsied, as it looked odd and need to ensure it was not cancerous. He said my "life was not going to be the same anymore", "you are going to have a long journey ahead of you"... not the most sensitive thing that someone should say to a patient.  They gave me information and said within "60 days" I would be having surgery and treatment if the lump was cancerous.

I was in awe. I was scared, I didn't have anyone with me, so I sat in my car, cried for about thirty minutes before I could start driving home.

A week later, June 7, 2016, I met with a surgeon, who performed the biopsy and determined the lump in my left breast was cancerous. Stage II Breast Cancer, Grade 3, the "stage II" meant the cancer was found in two different locations, and the grade meant how rapidly, or aggressively it was growing, at "grade 3", it was the most aggressive. The cancer was also susceptible to hormones, so I had to stop taking my birth control pills.

I was advised to have a lumpectomy and radiation after surgery.  July 29, 2016, I had my surgery, and the surgeon performed a lymph node biopsy, that determined one of the four lymph nodes removed was infected.  So, in order to ensure that the cancer was irradiated completely, in case it had traveled into my lymphatic system, or another part of my body, the oncologist recommended that I should also have chemotherapy.

I went through 6 months of chemotherapy, another 2 months of radiation, from start to finish, a whole year of my life was gone. It's been a year, since my last treatment (April 27, 2017). However, I still have to take a tumour-inhibitor pill, every night, for the next ten years, plus being pre-menopausal, I have to get injections to shut down the hormones in my ovaries and medically induce menopause.

I am glad that paranoia got the best of me, and that I felt suspicious enough to know that there was something wrong with my body.  There isn't any history of Breast Cancer in my family, so I wouldn't have been looking for it.  Doctors do not give mammograms to women under the age of 50.  Unfortunately, Breast Cancer is not an older person's illness anymore, more younger women are getting it nowdays. Know your body, be aware, talk to your doctors, demand tests if you have to, speak up, it could save your life.