Check your Boobies

I did and it caught my cancer

Image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

It’s October. It’s time for Breast Cancer Awareness month. For me, it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month every month. It’s been that way for the last 8 months.

So here’s your PSA: Check your boobies. I did and it caught my cancer.

I had a mammogram 16 months prior. I was given a clean bill of health and told that I didn’t need to return for a couple of years. Sixteen months later, I’m in the shower soaping up my armpits and I felt the pea-sized hard lump in my right breast.

I looked at all the websites trying to compare signs and symptoms. Nothing matched. In retrospect my irregular periods and migraines may have been my warning sign, but I can’t get a definitive from any of my doctors. I had experienced them for months before I found the lump.

Full transparency, I was lousy at checking out my girls. I would try for a couple of months, be really good about it, find nothing, and the habit would fade away until the next round of October PSA’s to “Check your Boobies!” and the slew of go pink advertisements.

By the way, don’t go pink for me or call me a warrior or tell me I’m battling cancer. I’m just following marching orders: get a lumpectomy, get a port, go for weekly chemo treatments, go to daily radiation treatments, continue with…