Sister Story #4

I was still breastfeeding my daughter. She was six months old when I found it. I’d read everything your body goes through, all these changes, and I thought that I had had a plugged duct, right - that must be it. And so I was just going on Google, researching massage, hot showers, compresses. And I kind of put it off, like, “oh, it's just a lump.” I really didn’t think, “oh it's cancer.”

I called my doctor’s office and I was like, “Oh, I really need to come in and be seen” and I explained that it was for breast pain and a lump. It was November when I went in. I found the lump in October and my regular primary care doctor wasn't available , so they just put me with another doctor.

I had my baby with me because my husband was working so I brought her with me, and the doctor….it was her tone. She was annoyed with me that I had my kid in this small room and something was going on; you can just read that energy from people. Anyway, I was just like, I have this lump. Then she just kind of like gave me this half-assed breast exam and didn't even go to the area that I said. Like, I said, “here's my lump” and she just said, “Oh, you're young, you're breastfeeding, and you have lumpy breasts.” And she sent me home.

So I leave, thinking the doctor is the professional here, and knows all. I leave and I go on about my life.

And it's still there, still there, still there.

So May comes around, and you know what, this whole time, in the back of my head, it’s like something's not right. I call it make an appointment and I want to see my primary care doctor. I waited to make sure I could see her. And so, she put me in the gown asked me to like lay back and open the gown. And before I could even tell her where the lump was, she said, “Oh, is that it?” because it was protruding like a rock, just sticking out. I had really small breasts to begin with, so it was just easy to see it protruding out of my chest.

I had gone back because the texture of it had changed. It started off like a hard solid, and then I would describe that it like an over easy egg with the center being hard and then there being like a softer outside, and then there was like this tentacle that was coming off with a line that you could feel like a hard line that was going towards my armpit. And I have breast cancer in my family history; my grandmother had breast cancer.

And the doctor, she immediately is just like, yeah...she's like this isn't normal This is not good. These characteristics….you need to go to get a mammogram and an ultrasound and more than likely they're going to want to do a biopsy so be prepared to have a mammogram and ultrasound and a biopsy done. So, I go, and this at this point, there’s backpedaling and I'm rushed in. I'm top priority because I'd already been in for this, and it was like the fastest I've ever gotten an appointment.

I go into the appointment, and in my ultrasound, there is something showing up in my lymph nodes. So there's something in my breast and there's something in my lymph nodes that is off, and this point, I just have no idea. All this technical information that they're throwing at me…..

But the doctor, who was the head mammogram doctor there, said she would come in early and I would be her first appointment. I came in at 7am and had the biopsy done to the breast and to the lymph node, then I go home and I wait. And I wait until June 11. It was funny because that’s also my wedding anniversary.

So I get the call.

She called me on the phone with the results and said that it's cancer. And it's in my lymph nodes.