Karen Lynch: My Survivor Story (Part I of III)

Every breast cancer survivor has a story to tell. Each breast cancer survivor’s story is equally important, equally significant, equally magnificent. I’m honored to share my story with you; may it be the first of many I share with you here at the Pink Ribbon Review.

One night in May of 2003, after feeling a peculiar sensation in my left breast, something akin to an internal bruise, I asked my husband, “Do you think I have breast cancer?”

“I think you’re nuts,” my husband replied. Of course he would think so. I felt no palpable lump, breast cancer didn’t run in my family, and I was only 35.

To ease my mind, my husband suggested I call my OB/GYN the next day. I did, and the nurse practitioner there informed me that my insurance company was one of the ones that covered baseline mammograms at age 35. I decided to schedule one, ‘for peace of mind.’

Turned out there was an abnormality in my right breast and I needed a biopsy, a procedure that led to my first diagnosis: Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. DCIS. Stage 0 breast cancer. This is something that I need to reiterate: the cancer was growing in my right breast, not in my left where I had felt that peculiar sensation. We’ll talk about that another day, but here’s the bottom line: if I didn’t go for that baseline, I wouldn’t have discovered that I’d had cancer for several more years, at which time my case would have been more advanced and my prognosis would not have been so rosy.

With early detection I was able to be treated thoroughly and effectively (with a partial mastectomy and radiation therapy). With early detection I was considered cancer free within six months of my diagnosis.

Little did I know, I wouldn’t stay that way!

Click here to read Part II of My Survivor Story.

(Image: Karen Lynch)