How my Cyst became a Lumpectomy to a Double Mastectomy at 28

Summer 2019, I found a lump in my right breast. I had eczema next to it and so happened to be laying on my side, scratching at the the right spot in the right time when I discovered it. It was really small back then. But my mom is a cancer survivor so my natural reaction was to see my gynecologist. When I went in, she just felt it and said because “I’m so young”,  she assumes it was just a cyst. She told me it still moves around between her fingers so it should be fine but I should still keep an eye out for any changes.

2020 came around, and covid shelter in place started. As time went on that year, I noticed it was slowly growing and I was starting to be in pain. It hurts more when I was on my period which I found it later was normal. But I kept telling to myself, “well it’s just a cyst. And it’s just on the side near my arm where I easily keep hitting it. That’s why it hurts. Don’t worry about it.” Then as more time went on, it got even more annoying. And at the time, I was staying with my parents. They lived 2hrs away from me and I wanted to help them during shelter in place since they couldn’t go anywhere. Also, my boyfriend (now husband), switched jobs so our insurance changed. I’ve been under his insurance since we’ve been living together so we’re considered as domestic partners. But his new insurance was weird, I tried looking for a new doctor but it wasn’t really working out. I couldn’t get in anyways since it was covid. So I forgot/ignored myself. 

January 2021 my work was more open so my partner and I moved back. He switched jobs again and went back to our old insurance. He knew about my lump and how it was bugging me and told me to get it checked again.  But covid was still the height of everything so I was too paranoid to go in. I’m a hairstylist and I move my arms a lot and I kept hitting the lump even more. So it started getting even more annoying. August is when I finally decided to make my appointment. I changed all my doctors this time. But I couldn’t get in till middle of September. 

I finally went in thinking it was just going to be my annual check up. Then I brought up my “cyst” and causally said how it started to grow. She looked at me and asked if I had time for an ultrasound. In my mind, I was confused. Why would I need one, I thought ultrasounds were for pregnant people. It’s just a cyst, they didn’t do that the last time so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal…I went to the next room and got an ultrasound. That’s when they told me it was a tumor. They said it was most likely a fibroid which is benign. I obviously wasn’t okay with that info and told them I wanted it out. I didn’t care it was non-cancerous. I want it out. They were confident it was benign but still wanted to do a needle biopsy. I didn’t had time that day and the earliest they could scheduled me was a week and a half later. Mentally I was fine until I came in for the needle biopsy. 

It was October, it’s breast cancer awareness month. I had to wait in a small changing room. There we’re posters everywhere so I broke down. I asked the people who were doing the needle biopsy, “why do I have to do this. Why can’t I just get it out?!” When I was done, I waited in that small room for my results. A lady came in and confirmed it was benign. But it didn’t change the fact I wanted it out. So she scheduled an appointment with a breast surgeon.

I went in to see my breast surgeon. She explained to me that since it’s a fibroid, they tend to keep growing. So if she removes it, mostly likely it’ll grow back. She also pointed out in the past, there were more male doctors and they would keep cutting up woman leaving them scars all over their breast and how we didn’t need to do that anymore and just monitor it. So she was also telling me that because “I’m so young” I didn’t need to do it. But for me, scars don’t bother me. They used to. There was a time my eczema was severe and I had scars everywhere. I had strangers make comments on them. “Oh is that a hickey, you must’ve had fun last night.” “Oh, do you do drugs.” “ Ew, that’s really gross what happened to you?” I’m also really petite so I’d get so many unpleasant comments too. “Look at that skinny bitch,” “is she okay,” “ew, I could never be like that.” I hear these things all the time and it took me a while to accept my body. So getting one scar doesn’t bother me, especially since it’s my choice. 

October 25, 2021 is when I got my lumpectomy. My surgeon switched on my last minute because she had a family emergency. Didn’t bother me much. I was still assigned with a good surgeon. Mentally, I wasn’t scared of getting the lumpectomy. I was just more excited to get rid of it and I no longer had to think about it. Plus I was getting married two weeks later. So everything was looking up! The surgery was a success. I took 2 weeks off, normally people take 1 week but since I do hair it was better to take 2. And I had my wedding so it played out fine.The surgery was about 2hrs and I went home the same day. They put a patch behind my ear before surgery so I don’t get nauseous from the anesthesia. The downfall to that is that you get really bad cotton mouth, so it’s crazy dry, and if you accidentally touch it and touch your face, your eyes will be dilated for a few days. Which is what I accidentally did. So the first week I was a little bit in pain and I could hardly see since my eyes were dilated. Since the incision was on the side, it was annoying when I swing my arms. Walking sucked cause I was constantly jamming it. After a week, I went back in for a check up. Everything seemed fine, was healing good. But they said they didn’t get my test results back yet. I was confused because I didn’t know they had to test it again. They told me that they take the tumor and the surrounding tissue around it and test it again. Sure, no big deal. They said it was benign so I didn’t think of it. Week two was better, I was just very bored. I wasn’t allowed to carry anything more than 5lbs during my 2 week recovery. But at least I was getting married to my one and only in a couple days. 

Three days before my wedding, they called me. November 5, 2021 they accidentally found out that I was high risk of getting breast cancer. They tested it twice to make sure, which is why it took longer to get my results. I got diagnosed with atypical ductal hyperplasia. The ductals are the tubes in your breast and mine are slightly bigger which makes it atypical, and there’s more cells than usual which is the hyperplasia. Normally it’s not “too big of a deal”, but my percentage of getting breast cancer is even higher because of my family history. They set me up to get a genetic test and see an oncologist to go through my options. The average person is born with a 9% of getting breast cancer in their lifetime. That’s 1 out of 8 woman. When they calculated for me, it’s almost 50%. And it’s not even accurate because they only have data for people ages 35 and up. I did the genetic test and tested negative for the BRCA gene. It’s just a coincidence that I’m high risk. After talking to my oncologist, she gave me three options. 1. Do nothing. 2. Be on tamoxifen for at least 5 years. 3. Get a bilateral/double mastectomy

I opted for the mastectomy. It was the better choice for me. I wanted my percentage to be closer to 0 and I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I didn’t want the fear instilled me waiting for the day for it to happened. I meet up with my plastic surgeon in December 2021. I decided to get a double mastectomy with reconstruction. They were surprised that I choose this since I’m “so young” and it’s very invasive. I’m honestly tired of hearing that. It feels dismissive of everything I’m going through because “I’m so young.” But I want it out. So I had my surgery Friday April 8, 2022.