Many friends asked me - How did you find out you have breast cancer? What are your personal stories of breast cancer symptoms?
I am sure each person with breast cancer has different personal stories of the symptoms. But after talking with and reading so many others' stories, looking back, we think all women should really do regular check on our breasts - of course I never really follow up this advice before. But now it really changed my opinion - if you are young, at least do it once a quarter - set up reminder! Put it in your calendar! Make it an reoccurring event!! In US, women ages 40 to 44 should have the choice to start annual breast cancer screening with mammograms (x-rays of the breast) if they wish to do so. Talk to your OB doctors and have them set up. Women age 45 to 54 should get mammograms every year. I was not in those age bucket to do the mammogram so didn't find out from the test. But a lot of people said I am lucky to find out at early stage.
I was probably 4 months pregnant at that time and was driving and felt something hurting in my breast. During the pregnancy, the breast would go through a lot of changes so there are quite different sensations - swollen ache, itchy, half itchy, half aching, and some others. But it is a bit different from the sensations I had experienced. Ladies, we really should trust our instincts and be in tune with our body. So when I had that different aching feeling, I reached out and touched my breast. And there it goes - a little lump on the top of my right breast. The more I touched, the more I think it is different from the swollen breast in pregnancy as it is a hard lump. So my breast cancer symptom is a small palpable lump. It felt like a small rectangle tube - quite tiny but it is there. When in doubt, check it out. I booked an appointment with my OB doctor right away.
OB checked it out but it felt like some part of the milk duct got blocked which is normal during pregnancy and suspected that could caused a local swollen lump. We observed it for around 1.5 months but it didn't go away. So OB suggested an ultrasound exam. During the ultrasound, it was determined that a needle biopsy is needed to determine the nature of the lump. The technician and the doctor were not very sure but the doctor said it is suspicious enough. I did get conflicted information as one technician thought it was quite normal but the other doctor said on a scale 0 -10 with o being normal and 10 extreme not normal, he would think it is a 3-4. And he was the one who strongly recommended the needle biopsy. I was a bit frustrated at first as it seems no one knows for sure whether it is normal or not. But Again, when in doubt, check it out. So I booked the needle biopsy (see the experience with needle biopsy here) and the pathology report came back positive.
All the folks said I was very lucky to catch it early and was able to catch it - as normally DCIS is not palpable. From my breast cancer experience, I just want to emphasize - When in doubt, check it out. We only have one body, we are not like cars/machine that can get replaceable parts. So take care of ourselves!
