I heard the words “you have breast cancer” on Halloween 2018. I was 43. As the title indicates, the first (and super intelligent) word out of my mouth was “Really?”. I didn’t see myself as the breast cancer “type” whatever that means. I had flipped past articles on the subject many times because the topic didn’t apply to me. I was super healthy and, as far as I was aware, no one in my family had suffered from breast cancer, including either of my two older sisters.
Until that day, the only breast cancer challenge I had participated in was completing the 60 mile walk for breast cancer many years ago. I raised a lot of money and enjoyed the experience immensely. I was pretty sure that was it for breast cancer and me, but boy was I wrong.
I was confident that I had fortified myself against any health misfortunes by eating pretty darn well and exercising for most of my adult life. Wrong again. It turns out that those desirable behaviors are no guarantee when it comes to cancer.
So that day I found out that the small spot we were comparing to my mammogram six months prior and had biopsied the week before was triple negative breast cancer. A rare and aggressive type. It seemed to be contained in the milk duct, but showed that there was a microinvasion out of the duct. It was impossible to tell how far it had gone. The next step was to meet with a breast surgeon to discuss my options.
My husband and I walked around the neighborhood like zombies trick or treating with our seven year old son that evening. We laughed with friends and every once in awhile forgot for a few moments what were dealing with, only to remember with a sick feeling in our stomachs, over and over again. We reassured ourselves by repeating “good thing we found it early” and “it’s probably mostly contained in the milk duct”, but deep down I think we both knew that we were in for a wild and challenging ride. Finally. I was right about something.
My son on Halloween. He is blissfully unaware of what was going on in Mom and Dads’ heads.
Image Source: Cardona Bra Fence photo courtesy of Pablo Heimplatz.
GO BOLD BABE 
Leave a comment