October was International Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Editor Susan Sandys shares her journey with the disease.
It’s a message we hear all the time about our health. If there’s something you are not sure about, don’t leave it, go to your doctor.
I always took heed of that message, and in 2013 found a small lump in my right breast.
I always had lumpy breasts generally, but this one felt different. It was closer to the surface, denser, and smaller, about the size of a grain of rice.
So along to my GP I trotted, who took it seriously and referred me for a mammogram and ultrasound at Canterbury Breastcare.
The mammogram didn’t pick it up, the ultrasound did. But, at Canterbury Breastcare, they told me it was “nothing” and I did not have to worry about it.
That was good enough for me, I promptly forgot about it.
While the lump never went away, I ignored it. And it was never picked up in all my subsequent national screening programme two-yearly mammograms, confirming to me that there really was nothing there that warranted concern.
It wasn’t until nine years later, in 2022, when doing a breast selfcheck, I thought that lump had got bigger than it used to be.
I thought the only reason it was bigger was perhaps because with age my breasts had also got bigger. I was still sure it was nothing, and I considered just leaving it until I went for my next mammogram in several months’ time.
But then I thought about that message, the one we hear all the time.
It’s a message so simple, but one which often comes from a place of pain and fear. It comes from those who have not been so lucky, people dying of cancer who want to get it out there. It’s the message they tell in their sad and sometimes horrifying stories; it filters through to the conscience of others, as the media does its good work of raising awareness.
Those cancer sufferers also often tell us to trust our intuition. Don’t always take a clearance from a medical professional as gospel, go back to get checked again, or seek a second opinion.
So I thought, well, how about I make a doctor’s appointment and ask about this lump again.
Once again my GP (a different one this time) took me seriously, and I was referred for a mammogram and ultrasound. A biopsy followed.
My GP phoned me a few days later to say it’s likely cancer. Then when I got the written report I realised there was no “likely” about it, the lump was cancerous.
I was shocked, and obviously upset at why this lump I had felt all those years ago was actually cancer. I feared with it having been in my body all those years, it would surely have metastasized and I probably had a fight for my life ahead of me.
I hoped I would live for at least two years so I could tidy things up, have precious time with family, and leave the world a little more prepared than say, someone who only had a few months to live.
But many tests and scans later, it was revealed there was no detectable cancer anywhere else in my body. And the cancer in my breast, which was a stage two 21mm tumour, was one of the more treatable types. After lumpectomy surgery, in 2023, at the age of 58 and 10 years after I first discovered the tumour, I only required radiotherapy and did not need chemotherapy.
It seemed, at least for now, I was one of the lucky ones.
I inquired with Canterbury Breastcare about why I was not followed up after I first went to them. They said while there was no abnormality detected at the time of the mammogram and ultrasound in 2013, clinical followup with my GP had been recommended at that time, and surgical referral if the lump persisted.
They also said, in their defence, it was a subtype of breast cancer that was hard to detect with mammography and ultrasound, but more apparent on MRI. A biopsy was not done at the time, because it was not standard practice to do so when there was “nothing” detected in the first place.
So I guess I just fell through the cracks. Canterbury Breastcare had never told me all those years ago to go back to my GP if the lump persisted, and likewise my GP never followed up with me.
Today all the scans, surgery and radiotherapy, are in the rear vision mirror. I am cancer-free and back to a full and active life. I am, more than ever, grateful to be alive.
I wanted to share this small part of my cancer journey with The Ashburton Courier readers following International Breast Cancer Awareness month in October. It’s a good reminder of that message – if there’s something you are not sure about, don’t leave it, go to your doctor.
