I, like Marie, know what it's like to be made to feel like a hypochondriac by a physician, and my experience with this was AFTER I had already had cancer! Uggghh! It was time to find a new doctor, asap! I can't tell you how many women I've heard from with similar stories.
I was 24 when I found my first lump, and the mother of 2 young kids. My daughter was 5 and my son was 4. I have a strong family history of breast cancer. While I was giving birth to my daughter in one hospital my mother was having a bi-lateral mastectomy in another.
I pleaded with my doctor to start mammograms immediately after having my son. He laughed at me and said "Ask me again when your 40". I felt humiliated, and a little like a hypochondriac.
When I found that first lump I kept it to myself. It had grown to the size of a golf ball before I told my husband, it only took a matter of a few weeks to get that size. By that time I realized it wasn't going away and I was scared to death. I made an appointment with my NEW doctor. She had seen the month before for my yearly exam. So when she seen(yes I said SEEN) the lump she sent me immediately for a breast ultrasound. The results prompted an immediate mammogram.
I was sent to a surgeon the following day, and in surgery the next. It all happened so fast my head was spinning. I had no answers for my kids or my husband, who was supportive through it all.
The results were good. It was a fibroid cyst, but that's not the end of my story. Two weeks later I was having another lump removed. One week later I had A cyst rupture when I bent over to pick something up. I was rushed in for emergency surgery. One again I didn't know what the outcome would be. Still no cancer, but by now I had had enough. I begged my surgeon to remove both breast, I couldn't handle the pain or being away from my kids. Or waking up each morning wondering if today they would find the cancer.
I was 25 and having a bi-lateral mastectomy. They did find the cancer! When they removed both breast and sent it to the lab they found cancer cells. I felt great I had got the jump on it. The hard work was yet to come. I came home with tubes coming out of everywhere. My kids were scared of me. But I was alive!
I felt like I could take on the world. Then I got a severe case of pneumonia. I was hospitalized, and put on morphine to kill the pain so I could breath. My son came to see me once, I told my husband I was feeling better and he could bring him in. I didn't know I would take a turn for the worse. When he came in the door I was throwing up and green. The nurse was trying to braid my hair to cover the bald spots she didn't get very far before I got sick. I heard my son say to his father as they left "Is my mommy going to die?". It broke my heart.
Now seven years later I stand strong. That nightmare has changed us all. My son pulled away from me, it took a long time for him to realize I was here to stay. My daughter turned into a mother hen. She helped me the whole way. And now shes about to turn 13 and I show her my scars, and tell her how important it is to know your body. Listen to your instincts, if one doctor doesn't listen find another and another. Your life is worth what you put into it
Thank you for letting me tell my story. I've never shared it before, the thought of directing just one person in the right direction makes it all worth it.
Marie T.
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