1) Pre-diagnosis: Finding the LumpWhy do some women seem to want to ignore the obvious warning signs that their breasts are trying to silently murder them? Having had a lot of what you may call 'bad luck' in my life all before the age of 18, I felt I had met and possibly exceeded my life quota for lifetime crap and cancer was never a big factor in that. I never had a great relationship with my breasts to begin with, almost like they were never really that relevant in my existence and as a result, I never really checked them. For me breast cancer was the last thing I had ever considered to happen; Being the dramatic type at times, I always thought If I was one of those cancer patients I would have some rare, incurable and aggressive type. Go big or go home sought of thing. Having always had quite a small chest, I always felt if something like the big C was going to decide to appear, it would be a gleamingly obvious revelation. However, upon finding a small hard lump way, way, up under my armpit, I made the executive decision it wasn't that all important revelation I assumed it to be, so getting myself checked never really crossed my mind. I mean, who gets breast cancer in their armpit? So like any other self assured young adult, I sealed my fate and quickly decided it was probably a cyst or a little infection that would eventually disappear. So, I carried on with my life for the next few months. It was at Christmas when a family friend who had recently kicked cancers backside urged me to go and get it checked. So about month later I went to the doctors for another health issue and I had just about remembered to mention it on my way out. And so, stripped naked from the waist up and lying on the cold, hard recliner bathed in dramatic NHS colour draining lighting, it was revealed there was a hard lump growing in my breast too, but before I started to feel like I was in an episode of Desperate Housewives, the doctor assured me that there was a 90% chance the lump would be benign. With reasonable doubt I resumed to normality. |
A ' no holds' page about my life with incurable advanced Breast Cancer, in the hope it will give a realistic, detailed account to other young women going through the unfortunate illness.
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September 2023
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