One thousand women under the age of 30 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in America, according to a 2000 study by the American Cancer Society. In 2006, at the age of 27, I became one of those women. I was diagnosed with non-invasive breast cancer (called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS) and I had a bilateral mastectomy.
Last month, April of 2007, during a surgery to put in saline implants, my plastic surgeon found a lump that he sent off to the pathology lab. It came back positive for invasive cancer. I had a second surgery a week later to take out all of the cancerous tissue. Then I had CAT scans, bone scans, a heart scan, blood work, and I had a port placed (a port is a long catheter inserted into a vein under the collar bone). I started chemo on May 16th…I’ll have four months of chemo and six weeks of radiation, followed by five years of a drug called Tamoxifen to try to prevent the cancer from coming back.
I was really sick (nausea/vomiting) for a few days after my first chemo treatment. I’m hoping it goes better this time around. I used to have long blonde hair, but I got it cut a few weeks ago and donated to Locks of Love. Now I have a short pixie cut that I’m still getting used to. It doesn’t feel like me — my hair has never been this short — but it’s going to fall out within the week anyway, so what does it matter?
