Work was crazy busy and stressful the first couple of weeks of January and I found myself extremely tired on Friday night and went to bed early. Woke up on the Saturday still tired and feeling not too great, but headed off to work, whilst driving I was getting pains in the chest and then I started feeling nauseous - I pulled over, called work to say I wasn't coming in and headed straight to the doctor's.
The Doctor asked me to remove my top to listen to my chest and immediately asked how long my left breast had looked like that? My left nipple was slightly inverted which I had noticed over the past few weeks, and I had been getting an itchy rash that came and went - it was summer after all and I had put it down to a bit of heat rash.
To cut a long story short I was sent for a mammogram, referred to a breast surgeon. I think at this stage I was already resigned to the fact that I was going to be diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
My surgeon explained that I had Paget's Disease of the Nipple, a relatively rare form of early Breast Cancer and told me I was to be operated on the following Tuesday......"Ummm, could we do it another day, I have tickets for Barry Gibb that night?"
So on Valentine's Day I had a partial mastectomy, and 8 lymph nodes removed from my left underarm.
A week later the surgeon informed me that the removed lymph nodes all showed signs of cancer and that I required further surgery to remove more....At this stage I was concerned at how close we were getting to my niece's wedding but my surgeon reassured me that I would be fine and able to dance at her wedding but suggested that I avoid dancing the steps to YMCA!!!
The above picture shows me at the wedding....
Chemotherapy was delayed till after the wedding, and I have just finished Radiotherapy, I'll see the surgeon again in January.
So far so good!!!
Taylors Lakes, Australia
