Breast Cancer Retrospective

Before my breast cancer diagnosis, I was aware of breast cancer around me. A co-worker ' s mother, another co-worker ' s wife, my parent ' s neighbor, and more. But it never really touched me because no one I knew personally was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a disease of older women. I also felt because I had previously had cancer that sometimes people expected me to be more sympathetic to other ' s cancer diagnoses. I did feel some guilt because of this.I never expected to be diagnosed with another cancer. I felt I already had my share of cancer with thyroid cancer. I didn ' t ' deserve ' any more. Because I had a benign breast tumor at age 22, I really did have my share of medical crap. However I got to have a mammogram every year from then. How fun is that!At age 45, my annual mammogram was scheduled for January - just as I was starting a new job. I pushed it back to early May so I wasn ' t a new employee who immediately needed time off. I mean it was just a mammogram that I had had for years upon years upon years. No big deal. BUT that was the bad one. They called me back for extra scans and then they sent me for an immediate ultrasound which was bad.I was in denial. My mammogram was May 8. My recall mammogram was May 14. (I was laid off from my job on May 18.) Then I saw the surgeon May 23 and had a needle biopsy on May 29. I was called on May 31 to get the news that I had breast cancer. Until I got that phone call from my surgeon, I was in denial. I could not hav...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: acceptance anger breast cancer denial depression grief Source Type: blogs