Over eight months ago I discovered a weird growth on my left nipple. I never thought anything of it because it never hurt. Back in December, I randomly woke up with it bleeding, discolored, and my nipple inverted.
I went to the doctor to get this checked out and she had no idea what it could be and referred me to a breast surgeon. The breast surgeon was then prompted to think that it was Paget’s disease (nipple cancer) and performed a wedge biopsy. I had four stitches on my left nipple. The results for this took 11 days and came back benign.
After discovering that both my grandmother and great grandmother had had breast cancer my surgeon decided to have genetic testing done on me. My results were sent to Colorado and were supposed to take 35 days to get back.
I received my results after just eleven days and I came back positive for having a mutation in the BRCA1 gene. After meeting with multiple surgeons and doctors, I decided to have a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy with breast reconstruction done on March 4th, 2017.
I consider myself lucky enough to have caught this when I did and am grateful I took the initiative to combat this problem before it could have killed me in the future. Some people don't realize how fast breast cancer can develop.
I read a story about a women that found herself BRCA1 positive like myself and this women decided to have the same surgery as me done. However, when this lady went in for her surgery she had a blood clot and the surgeons would not perform her surgery. A month later, this women had stage 4 breast cancer and ended up passing away.
I am sharing my story in hopes to raise awareness and hope and pray that by someone reading my story they can take initiative before breast cancer has the opportunity to take their body over down the road. I am extremely blessed and beyond grateful for all of the love and support I have received so far. This has been a rough journey so far without a doubt and will continue to be, but I know that I will push through it to recover better than ever and knowing I will never have to worry about having breast cancer in the future is the greatest feeling ever.
