When I was younger I used to pray to not be the flat chested girl I was in high school. All I wanted for Christmas was a chest! Well,God finally decided to grant me a wish and I got them. With my new chest came a realization that I really liked having them. They came in very handy and honestly I may have taken them for granted. I did not really do the monthly self-exams that you are supposed to do; the most attention I ever gave them was to see how they looked in different shirts.
When I went to my yearly doctors’ appointments I actually lied to them, saying that of course I did the monthly checks. Why did I lie? I really don’t know. I thought there was no possible way I needed to worry about them. I mean I waited so long to get them why would something be wrong with them? I had no family history of breast cancer I was way under than 40 so why worry?
Then there was a day that it all changed. I was 34 years old and I noticed a lump. I thought it was just normal, a lot of younger women have what I like to call bumpy breast. They are really bumpy like that from dense breast tissue. I told no one, not even my husband. I just kept busy and kind of forgot about it. Until about a month later when I noticed it again, so I started searching the web to see why I had a lump. First there was maybe I was drinking too much caffeine, so I became a grumpy mommy without my caffeine and the lump was still there. Next the internet suggested applying heat, so I did that for about a month and it was still there.
Finally I gave in and went to the doctor and he said I was too young, no family history all the same things I thought in the beginning, but he added let’s do a diagnostic mammogram just to be sure. I agreed and surprisingly I still waited. I really was in no hurry to have my first “booby pancake”. I had my appointment set about 4 times and there always seemed to be something else happening like the kids were sick or I had a headache. I agreed to finally go on December 4th but my appendix ruptured and it had to be removed. Finally! I had a real reason to miss the appointment. I guess my husband got tired of me changing my appointments and called his radiation oncologist (he had testicular cancer the year before) in to scare me into getting it. So when she pointed out I was not being fair to my kids it finally hit me, she was right I did need to do this for my kids.
On December 27, 2005 I had my first mammogram. It was the start of the journey through the Big C cancer.