This Is My Story

Don’t be like everybody else and skip to the next page. Most people do - because it won’t happen to me and besides I don’t want to know!! To read this is to your benefit and nobody else.

There is no way to tell a story about breast cancer without scaring you. Because when you start using words like stage 1, 2, 3, lump, carcinoma, lymphoma, lumpectomy, and stereotactic biopsy and don’t forget the dreaded mastectomy – this is a foreign language to most and can be daunting.

Originally I did not want to make this a personal story and rather just give you facts and figures but like me before – oh just turn the page I don’t need to know this!

I had turned 40 (yes life begins at 40 and so much to look forward to!) and decided to have a full medical check up. What the hell it would be my first and with any luck my last! I am a smoker and like most smokers the biggest concern was the lungs. I had a lung function test, heart, blood, cholesterol and everything was normal and perfectly healthy. Oh boy life at 40 is grand. Then I went for a bone density test (this tests for osteoporosis – another big word – to check deterioration in the bones) and a mammogram was thrown in at the same time. Having had regular pap smears and gyne check-ups, this was not a worry. After the mammogram, which with the new state of the art technology is not as bad as the slamming of the freezer door joke! Well the results were that they detected a small calcification (a change in the cells). After having a gulp of vodka – oh I can handle this its nothing. A biopsy was done and I wont lie to you – it was sore and frightening. The scary part is the unknown. Now to wait 24 hours for the results. One part of the brain is saying yeah yeah everything is fine – the other oh boy now what!! I was given the results by cell phone, where at the time, I was in a car park and the only word I understood was carcinoma – they love these big words. After the brain and body were numbed into shock and tears, I then had to find a surgeon and the next step was a lumpectomy (removal of the lump). A guide wire was inserted in the breast (this is literally a thin piece of wire with a hook), which is to guide the surgeon to the point where the lump is (bear in mind the area is tiny!) The operation took all of about 30 minutes. I was discharged that night and besides the effects of general anesthetic felt fine. Three months later was another mammogram and found the lump was still there and there were further abnormalities. As my breasts were not even a proverbial mouthful and the thought of more biopsies, the bottom line was a mastectomy. Okay whoa horsey, this has gone too far. I get the joke, we can stop now! As I am a control freak this was just too much – I was no longer in control of my body and what was happening to it. Oh Lord, please can I be an ostrich now and put my head in the sand.

Fortunately my cousin is a doctor and after a long talk with him, it was explained in layman’s terms that in days gone by a mastectomy was considered radical surgery but in the fight against breast cancer it is now the preferred cure. Medical technology as it is today, they can create anything including another breast (which is better than the one that was being pulled by gravity)! After accepting there was no way out of this (although we tried very hard to backtrack right up until the night before the operation!!) the inevitable was there. I had the left breast removed and as much as the surgeon will tell you that everything is clear and the operation was a success – you still want to think its not me and I would like to go home now! I was extremely fortunate that I did not require any chemo or radiation after the operation due to the early detection. We are not out of the woods yet but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and the sun does shine through eventually.

I am not a doctor, nurse nor do I claim to have great knowledge of the body but the mind is an incredible being. The mind will play all sorts of tricks on you at times of need. One minute you are positive (and I detest that word with a passion) and the next you are in utter despair. Unfortunately cancer is not like the common cold where you take a few tablets and a couple of weeks later you are fine. It is such an ongoing process and basically each check up is like waiting for the results of some awful test so the mind plays tricks between each session, which could be three months or a year. At the end of the day as far as the mind is concerned cancer is cancer whether you are in remission, still have it, have chemo or don’t – it is still there. Don’t worry you are not the only one and as I have learnt there are plenty of women out there who are in the same boat. Perhaps we should get together and swap stories. They say it is good therapy.

Here are some facts you should know about breast cancer and when you need to have a mammogram:

Over age 40 a mammogram should be done

One or more of your family have breast cancer

No children or your first baby after 35 years of age

You menstruated before you reached age 12

You had menopause after 55 years

80% of women who develop breast cancer have no known risk factors

95% cure rate for breast cancer detected early

So to all you women out there please have a check up and take heed of this story and please wear your pink ribbon in October and show support for all those women out there with breast cancer. If you would like to join a breast cancer support group, please contact The Lowdown and they will pass your details on.

Baines Imaging Group Zambia, 1 Katopola Road, Along Great East Road, Tel: 097 882-550 are able to carry out mammograms.