My story

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My granny on my mother’s side was a 20 year survivor of breast cancer and my great aunt, her sister, also had breast cancer. So when I found an abnormal breast lump in January of 2016 I really began to worry. I thought though at 19 how could it be anything to really worry about. Later that night, however, I told my mom and we soon made an appointment to go meet with my doctor. They informed me from the start that I would have to have surgery to remove it because of how big the “mass” was. I had an ultrasound so we could figure out exactly what this “mass” was. My doctor then referred me to another doctor who still did not know what we were dealing with after the results from the ultrasound so she decided to that I need to have a needle core biopsy. On February 15th, 2016, I was diagnosed with a malignant phyllodes tumor. I was finally referred to Duke (which is an amazing hospital) and meet a surgeon who scheduled a surgery for March 10th, 2016, to do a lumpectomy. When I got test results I was told the margins were close, but they were not all clear. I knew that going into the surgery this could be the case with this tumor growing so close to the skin. I was scheduled for mastectomy on April 7th. I waited a year to start the reconstructive process as I am still in college and I attended classes throughout my surgeries.