Spreading the Awareness

I've been off from work this whole week for my Spring Break, which coincided well with my third treatment so that I could take this week to recover.  "Recovering" for me also meant going shopping, having lunch with friends I haven't seen in awhile, walking on the track near my house, and spending last night at my brother Chris's and being attacked by his three dogs (Dachshund, mini Dachshund, and pit bull) with love and sloppy doggy kisses.

I've also had some time to think about the events of the last few months, which then made me think all the way back to the beginning of this whole experience:  the discovery of The Lump.  I wanted to share my story of discovery in hopes of encouraging other women and men to put their hands on their breasts and have a good, long feel!

I never did the official Breast Self Exam.  We're told about it by doctors, but I felt that daily showering and dressing and undressing was enough for me to feel my breasts and take notice of them.  And getting dressed was exactly how I discovered the lump.  

It was mid-January.  I had just hooked on a bra and was adjusting my breasts when I felt it, on my left upper breast towards the outside (closer to the armpit).  Since I was going to the gym regularly and taking conditioning classes with free weights, I thought maybe it was a muscle or something else I stupidly rationalized.  When I started feeling pain within a few days of feeling it, I called my doctor and went for an appointment at the end of January.  When she examined it she said it's common for women to develop benign breast tumors, but to have it biopsied.  And here I am.

Screening and detecting breast cancer among women under 35 is extremely difficult.  Breast tissue is incredibly dense in younger women, so it's difficult for mammograms to detect lumps, which is why mammograms aren't even recommended until a woman is 35.  We need to know our bodies and trust our instincts if something doesn't feel right, which my lump certainly did not.  Having no family history of breast cancer doesn't mean anything, as I clearly exemplify.  

My hope is that everyone who has been reading this post has been getting to know their breasts as they are reading.  This goes for men too!  We can all read and squeeze at the same time!

Thanks for allowing me my moment to preach.  Happy squeezing!