Breast Cancer. The first step in my breast cancer journey, pain in my right breast.

Hello! this is my story of having Breast Cancer. I am a white English woman. I have a husband & 2 daughters and quite a few dogs. I am a Nurse and midwife and I work in the NHS. This is my experience.

 I qualified as a British Nurse in 1978. Whilst I was undertaking my training as a pupil nurse, an image that has remained with me through the years was of caring for a woman who had undergone a Classical Radical Mastectomy for Breast Cancer. The whole breast, including Nipple, Areola and her Lymph Nodes had been removed. Through my 18 year old eyes it looked like she had been butchered. I remember dressing the puckered skin, the Surgeon had done a sort of blanket stich straight across the woman's chest, she had drains in and was nursed with the arm up, above her head, in a hanging sling for at least 10 days. I think she stayed in the hospital for a period of about 15 days. That was my last experience of nursing a patient with Breast Cancer, as I went on to become a Midwife where women's breasts are used for other purposes.

Me at the time of my 50th Birthday.

In England when you are 50 your appointment for your first Mammogram comes through the post with your 50th Birthday Cards. In 2007, I had dutifully made my way to the screening van in the car park of a local superstore. Here my 32DD bust was squashed to a one inch flat pancake, then just as I thought it was painful, but bearable, the Radiographer ratchet it down even further in a vice like grip. I found it a horrible test, very painful and humiliating. I did not hear from them so assumed it was all clear. I later found out this was the case.
In 2008 I noted a 'thickening' around my Nipple area in my right breast at about 3 O'clock ( you quickly learn this is how the Surgeons and breast care nurses refer to the areas of your breasts). I went to the GP who sent me to the Breast Clinic at my local hospital. I had a 'Fine Needle Biopsy' (FNB) in the Out Patients Department. My breast was palpated, the area identified, then the surgeon inserting a green needle attached to a 20 ml syringe into the area, this was done with out anaesthetic and once he had draw a small amount of breast tissue into the green needle, this 'Biopsy' was send to the lab. I then had to go to another department for a Mammogram, but this was a very different experience that the 'Van in the Car Park' carry on, even though I was sore and bruised from the examination and FNB the Mammogram was not as painful as my first experience. When the results came back, they were all clear it was just a fibrous area of breast tissue. So my next routine Mammogram would now be in 2013 and I would be called as routine via letter.
March 2013, I had been experiencing a deep burning sensation in my right breast, this time at 9 O'clock for about 18 month. But I was busy with a full time demanding and stressfull job, by now a senior Midwife in the NHS in a practice development / delivery suite shift leader role. As well as a wife and mother to two adult daughters, two dogs, parents who were getting older.....LIFE!
April 2013, I went on holiday to Sri Lanka with my daughter. We went to a Yoga and Surfing Retreat at Talalla Lodge, this is a link to my travel blog http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=435807495647998918#editor/target=post;postID=3645945395386130871;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=5;src=postname
I went for a massage and realised that something couldn't be right as I was having difficulty laying on my front due to the pain in the breast.
May 2013, Very busy back at work, than at the end of May the pain in the right breast is keeping me awake at night and I feel a pea size lump. The next day I telephone the GP, after a long wait on the phone listening to mind numbing music I get an appointment for the first week in June.
6th June 2013, I go to see my GP, she can feel the lump as well. She refers me by email to the Breast Unit at the local Hospital. At this point I have not spoken to any one about this. Not my husband or my daughters, after all what the point of worrying them if its nothing? I get an appointment to go to the Breast Care Unit on 18th June 2013.


18th June 2013, at work the day of my appointment, displaying hats knitted for the New babies!