It was Monday, August 4th, and I woke up to a sharp, stabbing pain running from my right collar bone through my right breast. Every 5-7 minutes I would feel the pain.
I thought I was too busy to call the doctor. I had been too busy to call the doctor for two years. I shamefully admit that I missed my “yearly” last year. I’m sure I had an important reason like, you know, a Netflix marathon.
In any case, it is unlike me to call a doctor. But, it was like someone was ringing a fire alarm in my head. I didn’t just have the urge to call, I couldn’t get my hand to the phone fast enough.
The doctor could feel an “area.” In fact, she furrowed her brows and said, “that’s like 6 centimeters.” She went on to reassure me that pain doesn’t usually mean cancer, but we should do a mammogram. I also had an ultrasound and biopsy.
And so, on August 20, I was sitting in an outpatient imaging center with a stone-faced radiologist and a pensive nurse. The radiologist began, “We can’t find any sign of lumps, masses or tumor in the area that brought you to us. There is no evidence of fat necrosis.”
I let all of my breath out.
“But,…”
I sucked all of my breath back in.
“We found some micro-calcifications that are undetectable by touch and have to be found via mammogram. We did your biopsy because there were so many of these calcifications. In fact, they fill up a large part of your whole breast. The biopsy results have determined that these are malignant. They are cancer.”
The surgeon recommended a total mastectomy.
On October 8, 2014, I fell asleep at the hospital and woke up with two very large scars.
And so, in a matter of 73 days, I had cancer, I fought cancer, and I am today, cancer free.
Insert smiley emoticon!
Bluffton, OH
