After delivering my 4th child my OBGYN joked with me and said if you intend on nursing her you'll never have to worry about breast cancer. For years I thought the same thing. I nursed four children, had no generic history and was only 39 when I felt a nagging suspicion that something was wrong. I even googled breast cancer symptoms and being as I didn't have any of them I didn't think anything about it.
A couple of months later I was still experiencing this thought that wouldn't go away that something was wrong. All of my attention kept being drawn back to my left breast. I had some passing tenderness but nothing that was consistent and no lump. I called my doctor the next month and they asked me if I was having symptoms and when I said no, they said being as I'm almost 40 they would schedule a mammogram. But I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy. The mammographer and ultrasound technician couldn't feel a lump either but the mammogram did show a small cycst. I did a core guided biopsy and the results came back a few days later as malignant.
I wasn't surprised because I felt like there was something wrong. I was stunned though of coarse that it was happening at such a young age. I was given options by a surgeon and for many factors I chose to be aggressive and have a double mastectomy with reconstruction. I am just now four days post surgery and at home recovering. The future looks good as it was not in my lymph nodes and will not need further treatment.
The hardest part for me was telling my 4 daughters. And now the waiting is hard as I will soon find out the results of the BRCA test to see if my girls will be more at risk someday.
What I'm trying to teach my girls, and others, to listen to their gut feeling. It ultimately saved my life.
Lawson, MO
