At 33 I learned I the BRCA1 gene. I never missed a mammogram. This year at 39, and one day after seeing my doctor, her feeling nothing, and me having no complaints, I got my routine mammogram. There was a spot and in every way it appeared to be a cyst. After a biopsy, turned out it was a malignant tumor. I had triple negative cancer. There are no words to describe what goes through the human body when you hear the words "you have cancer". I vomited for days. I cried for days after that. I literally dehydrated myself.
Looking at my three children, I knew I had to snap out of it. I learned everything I could. One month to the day later, I had a bilateral mastectomy and am going to also have my ovaries out. My PET/CT showed no metastsizing, nothing in the bone, and nothing anywhere else in my body. My pathology report came back as a stage 1, 1.5 cm tumor, lymph nodes removed from both arms were negative, no vascular invasion, and I had a lymphatic response, my body was doing it's job trying to fight it off.
I feel that mammogram saved my life. I couldn't ask for a better scenario. Although I have a long road ahead of me, I am no longer afraid of cancer and I hope when I'm feeling better to one day let the world know how important mammograms really are.
Hopewell Junction, NY