I would like to share my experience about breast cancer awareness.
In September 2005, I had a little breast scare. One day when I was in the shower, I felt a small lump under my right breast. At first, I didn’t think much about it. But after a few times feeling the same lump at the same place, my conscious started kicking in and I decided to visit my GP and seek professional opinions. My GP suggested an ultrasound, though she reckoned it shouldn’t be anything serious.
A few days later, I was in the lab having an ultrasound. After the in-house doctor reviewed the scan, I was told to undergo a mammogram test as well. The nurse who handled the scan was not the friendliest person and was being very rough.
I received a phone call from my GP a few days later to inform me that I have been referred to a women’s clinic to do a further core biopsy. It was quite a scary experience, not because of the pain (didn’t really feel painful as my threshold is quite high), but the result. The doctor applied some local anaesthetic on the lower right breast area, and under the guidance of ultrasound, a needle was injected to collect some tissue from the lump. It was over in 5 minutes. That was not the scariest part though. It was when I had to go home and wait a week for the analysis. That was the longest and most agonising 7 days I have ever experienced.
Luckily for me, the lump turned out to be Fibreadenomas, which is benign and commonly found in younger women. I cannot describe my relief.
This incident made me realised how important health is. We really shouldn’t take it for granted. In everyday life, it’s too easy for us to overlook the important issues. Hence, this post to share my experience and some information about breast cancer.
These are 2 brochures distributed by The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation to raise awareness about breast cancer. It includes some important facts and information. Please spend some time to read it and feel free to forward it to your friends. It could save your life.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Breast self examiniation
Technorati tags: booby trap breast cancer awareness breast self examination
January 28th, 2007 at 9:13 am
I used to work in a radiology in Melb and I can sometimes hear the women screaming in pain when the machine presses down on their boobs….ouch!
Thank God all is well for you.
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January 28th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Hi,
Thank for dropping by. Hope you’ll get used to our banter and jokes. I go for ulrasound every year but not mammogram cos there are no lumps. Yeah, thank God, the results are good for you. Can understand the ordeal of waiting for the result.
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January 28th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Dr ve Thru:
The pain was ok, just felt that people in this situation already feeling very worried and vulnerable. So really hope people working in this field can be more sensitive and think of the patient’s feeling.
Thanks for your well wishes.
wonda:
Thank you for dropping by! I do enjoy it very much! Nice to know you!
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January 31st, 2007 at 2:37 am
I can empathise with your acute anxiety waiting for the results since I also had to wait around the same number of days for the result of my amniocentesis.
Thank God, everything turned out okay and we’re blessed with a healthy babygirl who will turn 1 soon!
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January 31st, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Hello Theta
Thanks for dropping by!
Thank god your girl is ok. You and your husband must have been so relieved.
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February 1st, 2007 at 12:42 am
cc, i came from judy’s blog. can’t help but notice this entry. i’m glad that you had it cleared.
it’s true that every lump should be assessed properly. that’s a good set of info. as long as women remember to practice it.
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February 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Bernard
Hello, Thanks for dropping by!
Let’s hope more people be aware of it.
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July 8th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
[...] of breast cancer and I thought you should know about it, as if you could recall, I wrote about my breast cancer scare back then (with booklet information about breast cancer, go and read that [...]