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REAL STORY: 2A doctor of Delhi aged 32 years
This is a disease which does not know the difference between who is a doctorand who is not, it can affect anyone. Rich or poor even age does not make adifference. Never in my dream had I thought that I would be affected by this. Ihad surely read about it. AT the back of my mind I knew BSE should be doneand I knew about it I had heard of BSE attended a workshop a month ago and Ineglected it thought it would never affect me. I even had a chart with picturesshowing procedure of BSE but I did not pay attention. As a medical student Ihad read about it and presented cases on breast cancer but never thought itwould affect me. I was careless never paid attention to it. As `a result the lumpwhich was discovered was big and my surgeons were also surprised to findsuch a big lump. I think it was about 5cm when it was examined for the firsttime. Had I performed BSE regularly and the lump discovered earlier may whenit was only 1 or 1.5cm in size. If one is familiar with the normal feel and look of the breast one can detect the lump earlier. I I would not have lost one breast.Had I know practiced BSE it would have been discovered earlier.Your husband is also a doctorYes,When did you tell himThe moment I felt the lump at night and thought was malignant at about 1o’clock I woke up my husband and told him that may be I had detected abreast cancer. My husband was reassuring and asked me not to panic .He saiddo not worry we will go the surgeon in the morning and get a thoroughexamination done .I looked at my 4 year old daughter sleeping besides me andthought who would look after her after me as I thought the lump wasmalignant.
 
So you went to a surgeon first of allYes,What all happened after that?I went to a surgeon. FNAC was also done. The first FNAC ruled out malignancyand I felt relaxed. But I had a feeling that whatever lump it is it should beremoved I did not want to take a chance. Within 2 days of FNAC excisionbiopsy was performed at the time of operation surgeon thought it was a vaguelump suspicious of malignancy and microscopic examination confirmed that itwas malignant.So what FNAC could not tell you…Yes, excisional biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. Now they were 100% sure! Iwent into shock I never thought I could get cancer, all my previous fears aboutcancer came back .And before doctors could tell me I knew I had to prepare foranother major surgery in which my whole breast was removed and the axillarylymph nodes were removed, as a result I had a 6 inch long wound on my chest.Big lump so big surgery?Yes, but in cancer treatment is also done based on staging.Only breast and axilla were involved and the cancer had not spread to rest of the body. Chemotherapy was decided to take care of others cells which mightbe else where. I went for chemotherapy for the first time in 2002 and radiationtherapy for 6 months. For about a year I was normal then the cancer came back,it was a major recurrence it had spread to my whole body this time for this andthis I came to during my routine checkup which I had to go for every 6 months.I could not believe that the cancer came back with such a speed and intensitywithin on year’s time. I went into shock. It had spread to whole of my body. Ihad to take chemotherapy for 7 months every week for 4 hours, this time thetreatment was much more vigorous and painful my husband also had to take
 
leave besides my turning non productive. I had many more complications thistime which I am feeling till now.Suffering from breast cancer getting the treatment done and the lump comingback in one year’s time is it that all the cancers come back?It is very difficult to say which cancer is going to come back and how soon it isgoing to come back but in my case when my first lump was removedbiochemical tests had indicated that the cancer might come back but I did notexpect it to be so soon.So along with breast self exam regular follow ups are also essential?Yes, definitely, regular follow ups are a must. Now I go for 3 monthly checkups.The first chemotherapy was not expensive as drugs were easily available here inIndia. The cost of radiation was about Rs.25, 000. The second chemotherapywas expensive. It leads to a lot of complications and side effects. Every month1.5 lakh of rupees for drugs, plus hospitalization, investigations total accountedfor 15 to 18 lakh rupees of expenditure.Do you feel if the lump was detected at an earlier stage it would have made adifference?Had the lump been smaller than 5 cm at the time of diagnosis may betreatment would have been less vigorous? May be there would have been norecurrence. I could not work for two years. I was on leave without pay.How much is the gap in putting knowledge into action that is doing BSE andknowing about it.It is a matter of personal initiative. If one makes up ones mind that BSE shouldbe done and has will power and is determined to do it then on can do it. It is amatter of person initiative one should feel BSE will provide safety and once thatis understood there is not much of a problem in making up the mind to do BSE.
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