Advice for newcomers: I encourage you to #feelitonthefirst to know your body, and to push until you receive proper screening and testing.

Because of my age, I was ignored multiple times when I had found my lump, in 2015. “Too young,” a phrase I heard each time I expressed concerns.

Too young, those words still haunt me, and I still hear them on a weekly basis. Considering all I have been through, I’m starting to find the phrase quite insulting.

Despite my concern, the fact that my maternal grandmother had passed away from breast cancer, and multiple requests for testing, my age outweighed my physical symptoms, and no imaging or testing was recommended.

From October 2020- January 2021 my breast erupted in size, transformed in shape and texture. It dimpled, it puckered, it itched. Meanwhile, my armpit throbbed daily. Shooting pains through my arm and into my breast. I’ll never forget where I sat when I heard the news. I will always remember the “told you so” look reflecting back at me from my bedroom mirror.

It seems like a lifetime ago.

In January 2021, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer that had spread to my axillary lymph nodes. I was 34 years old. The cancer had been growing for years. Diagnosis to scans, to chemo, to surgery, and here I sit.

A new reflection…an evolved me…

 

The old me could never have imagined this feeling of self appreciation. She wouldn’t have understood how beautiful she’d be.

The caterpillar works tirelessly for the sake of self evolution. And one day there will come a time, when the caterpillar must finally recognize that she is already the butterfly.

IG: @theunwelcomejourney