My cancer story is a bit of a mess. Some people are diagnosed metastatic breast cancer de novo, meaning they didn't find out about their cancer at an earlier stage, but I didn't. When I was 22, I beat Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. Then, when I was 27, I found out I had stage 1 breast cancer. I too beat breast cancer, but then it became metastatic breast cancer (MBC) or stage four when I was 31 years old.
I am now 36 years old and live in Georgia with my husband Jesse and our three dogs: Charlie, Lola and Obi-Wan. Before I was diagnosed with MBC in November 2020, I told my breast cancer doctor that I wasn't feeling well. I experienced shortness of breath even with the slightest change in position, such as when I went to bed. Even though it bothered me, my doctor told me not to worry about it and told me I didn't need a PET scan, which is an imaging test used to evaluate conditions such as cancer. Many medical professionals over the years have advised me to avoid scans, saying, “You'll just see things that aren't there and worry about them.” But I prefer to know than not to know. My breast cancer doctor also said I shouldn't waste my money, but I said, “Well, I have insurance, so I'll do the best I can.” It felt like she was almost demanding that I not be checked. I was in the exam room under this pink napkin, practically naked, but I sat up straight and told her, “I’m not leaving here until some kind of test is scheduled.” I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I knew that I didn’t feel well.
She ended up sending me for a bone scan and a CT scan. Right after she called and said I needed a PET scan. I thought, “Are you kidding me?” So I did a scan and then she said, “You need a lung biopsy.” At that point, she was convinced that my Hodgkin's lymphoma must be returning, not that my problems were in any way related to breast cancer. She advised me to see a lymphoma specialist. Then she called again. The first thing she said was, “I haven’t been burned many times in my career, but this is one of them.” I asked what this meant. She replied, “Well, you have metastatic breast cancer to the lungs and mediastinal lymph nodes.”
