Issie: How It All Started - June 2011.                                                          

How It All Started - June 2011.

    
So it all started in June, 2011.  I was very happy with life, working full time, a busy Mom to two young boys, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, when I found a tiny lump in my right breast.  Just like a pea.  It was so small, it seemed insignificant.  But it was definitely there.  And it scared the hell outta me.  I was 34 at the time, fit, healthy, full of life and I just thought to myself "I don't want to die, I don't want Breast Cancer, I have too much to do with my life!".  And I had no other symptoms at all.  I could not sleep the night that I found that lump.  I just had a bad feeling and I knew something was wrong.  I cried, and panicked, and tossed and turned all night.

In the morning, I went to the doctor.  The doctor examined me, asked questions, and said that it was nothing to worry about.  The doctor said that if it was still there in 3 months time to come back if I was still concerned and I could get a mammogram, just to put my mind at rest.  But truly, the doctor believed that it was nothing to worry about.

However, that day the doctor did express serious concern about a mole on my left shoulder which he believed looked like melanoma.  So, I went in thinking I had Breast Cancer and came out thinking I had Skin Cancer!  Dam, could it get any worse!!!  So, an appointment was made with a dermatologist in Cork for the mole.

But the lump was still on my mind.  I just could not forget it.  It was still there.  And something just did not feel right.  My best fiend suggested that I should get a second opinion.  And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.  So, I finally took the initiative, and rang the doctor's surgery requesting a doctor's letter for a mammogram.

And so, before I knew it, I had an appointment to have my mole removed at 12:30pm on Thursday 7th July, 2011 in the Bonds, Cork and a mammogram at 3pm on Thursday 7th July, 2011 in CUH, Cork.

Little did I know what lay before me.

This is a photo of me in June, 2011  before I found out I had Breast Cancer.