Cancer doesn’t care who you are, where you come from, what age you are, your socioeconomic background, your race, or even what’s going on in your life. But here I was at age 27 diagnosed with breast cancer. I’m not a very public person when it comes to social media, but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer I felt the need to share my story.
Here’s my story: I hope somewhere along the line of my story you will feel hope and strength!
Being young and naive, I never bothered doing a breast self-examination. What are you supposed to be feeling for anyways? I had no idea, so I just skipped the examinations all together. Before my annual checkup this past January, I decided to give myself a self-examination. To my surprise, I felt an unordinary lump in my chest.
When bringing the lump to my doctor’s attention later that week, she thought it was just a change of tissue in my chest. Because of protocol, she sent me to get an ultra sound with a breast cancer surgeon to make sure. During the ultra sound, the radiation specialist who came in to read my scans said I had two options: 1. Wait and see or 2. Get a biopsy. It turns out “wait and see” meant "wait" 6 months and "see" if there was any change. Because my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer eight months earlier, I knew this was something I could not wait on.So we scheduled a biopsy.
While I was at work one day, I received a call from the breast cancer surgeon with the biopsy results. Little did I know that three words could flip my world upside down, “You have Cancer.” Everything changed.
In the beginning, it felt like all news was bad news. Not only did I have breast cancer, but it was a very aggressive cancer. Thankfully, we caught it early which ultimately saved my life. If I wouldn’t have done that self-exam there’s no way of knowing what my outcome would have been or how
quickly my cancer could have spread. I underwent sixteen rounds of chemo which finished in July and recently had my surgery in August. I start radiation next week which will be Monday-Friday for 25 days. I am still fighting, but been more
determined than ever to hear those four words, “You are cancer free!”
I urge women to take the two minutes to do a monthly breast self-exam. It could save your life just like it saved mine. If you feel something that doesn’t feel normal call your doctor. We are so much stronger than cancer and the treatment, trust me we can get through anything one day at a time.
I myself have the BRCA1 mutation but found out a little too late how I could have reduced my chances of having breast cancer in the first place. If you’re not sure 
what your risks are Bright Pink is a great organization that can help you find outhttps://www.brightpink.org.
