Around my birthday every year since I turned 45 I usually went for a checkup with my doctor. Having missed my 49,000km 'service' I went along 5 months later and came out of the doctor's with the usual paperwork: a form for blood test and a referral for a mammogram. Since I wasn't over 50 I was told that the mammogram would cost me $65 and as it turned out, that $65 saved my life.
The first mammogram was followed by a recall, which then led to an ultrasound and a fine needle biopsy. The day after the latter, my doctor rang to say that the results weren't good - the lump was malignant and she'd made an appointment with a specialist for me for the very next day.
Specialist Friday, operation Monday and so began the journey through the world of breast cancer.
It was quite strange to start with. It took me a few days to equate 'malignant lump' with breast cancer - somehow I didn't make the connection at first - after all breast cancer was serious, people died from breast cancer and I wasn't even sick!! However, once on the 'journey' you quickly learn to deal with reality and focus on the 'goal posts'!
Fortunately or unfortunately a friend had been diagnosed with breast cancer a little before me and we ended up doing radiotherapy at exactly the same time. We decided that we needed to take a different approach to all this: so it was coffee and cake on Wednesdays and lunch out on Fridays. As silly as it sounds we really enjoyed those 6 weeks!
We're almost at the 5 year mark. I appreciate every sunny day, every rainy day and everything in between. After all - what's $65 compared with life!!
Newcastle, Australia