I am now a year on from my diagnosis. I had a 1.5 cm left-breast, invasive lobular cancer, surrounded by DCIS and LCIS taking the whole area up to 6cm. It took five long, painful and distressing weeks to diagnose the extent of the disease and decide on treatment.
In August 2015, I had a left breast mastectomy and reconstruction with implant using a dermal sling.
The two weeks afterwards were so surreal; lying in bed…
This time there seems to be a whole team of people seeing me. The young doctor who had cancelled his meeting is there, plus another older doctor who I later find out is the top man for MR Imaging at this hospital. There are three nurses and at least one other person behind the smoked glass of the control room.
The male nurse inserts the cannula for the dye into my arm and then the two female nurses take over. It is their…
The MRI results showed that the right breast was clear, thank God for that. The scan of the left breast showed a long thin 'tail' maybe only a few cells wide arising out of the tumour site, which, when added to the 2 cm tumour makes the overall area more like 6 cm. 'So it's a mastectomy then?' I say.
'Not necessarily. We need to biopsy this new area to be sure that it is also cancer.'
'And…
An MRI scan for breast cancer is not the most glamorous event. I had to lie face down with both of my breasts hanging down and out through two holes cut into the bed. There was a drip in my right arm to administer a radioactive dye that will show up the blood vessels in my breasts. The whole idea is to see if there are any other suspicious areas in my left breast, where I already know there is a tumour, plus to see if…
After my first appointment I told my children. I didn't want them to hear me discussing my diagnosis in hushed tones with other people and felt I owed them the truth at the earliest possible stage.
When my 13 year old came home from school I told her the news. I said I had been to the hospital and that i had breast cancer, that it was very small and treatable and that although it would be a tough six months, we would…
