On the 23rd of October 2015, I was having the time of my life doing my laundries and that of my kids while listening to the new release album of my favorite artist, 2face Idibia – Ascension album – with a bottle of red wine.
The music stops and my phone rang, I took a glance at the phone and hiss, it’s Bidemi my best friend calling. “I don’t have time for your gist now, I will call you back when I am done.”
I continue with packing the clothes from the washing machine when her call came in again – “Oh God, this woman and gist na 5&6, let me go and spread my clothes on the cloth line behind the house before my neighbor beats me to it”– I smile and ignored her call.
I packed the clothes in the bucket and rush out to spread the clothes and I could hear the phone ring again and this time I was worried, Bidemi is everything about the gist but she won’t call you severally if it’s not an emergency.
I spread the clothes as fast as I could and rush back to pick my phone. On getting there, I already missed her calls five times and she has already dropped a message.
My heart skipped when I read her message: “Please hurry down to my house I am feeling severe pain in my right breast, the one I complained about and this time I can’t drive. Please come and drive me to the hospital.”
Few months ago, she complained about a slight pain in her right breast and I asked her to go to the hospital for checkup but her grandma said it’s just her body coming back to normal because she stopped breastfeeding almost two years ago.
She complained again and her grandma made her some herbal concoction and she stopped complaining and I thought the pain had disappeared, not until now.
On getting to her house, I could feel that she was going through a lot of pain so I and her grandma had to rush her to the car and I drove down to the hospital.
The doctor attended to her, examined her and treated her to subdue the pain she was feeling. We were all glad she was feeling better and I was ready to give her all the gist I had in store for her until the doctor come around and asked that she carries out few tests. We did and the result were out in no time. It was a shock when the doctor said she will have to be scheduled for a mammogram.
“What is a mammogram?” I ask, and he replied that, it is a test carried out to confirm if what she is feeling in her right breast is cancer.
“Cancer ke!” I exclaimed. “Why cancer?” I ask? He further explained that from the symptoms she observed like;
- Change in the shape size and appearance of the breast.
- Orange skin (noticing of pitting of skin around the breast area that makes it look like orange.
- Feeling of lump or abnormal mass that is quite different from the surrounding tissue.
- Nipple inversion.
- Scaling, crusting and flaking around the nipples or pain in the nipple area.
- Nipple discharge.
And from the test carried out, we need to know if it’s cancer and that’s the reason for mammogram.
Though I remember my friend complain of things like this, out of fear and curiosity I ask the doctor again, “What could be the cause of breast cancer?”, he looked into my eyes and say calmly, “few things can be the cause” –
- Genetic makeup/ genetic mutation.
- Environmental factors.
- Hormones.
- Lifestyle habits and diets.
- Exposure to certain kind of radiation.
- Obesity and weight problem.
- Alcohol.
- Previous medical history such as breast conditions.
My fears doubled because we are guilty of the stuffs mentioned by the doctor, especially the Alcohol, lifestyle habits and diet and with the fact that my friend is on the big side when it comes to weight.
Bidemi wasted no time in going for the test and when the result was out she was asked to come for another test few days later, and a week after that she was asked to come for examination as it seemed like something was discovered.
At this time she is so scared but I had to encourage her that all will be well. She placed a call to her husband who just traveled out of the country few months back and he encouraged her to pray and go for the appointment.
She was examined and given a biopsy. We continued praying – it’s something minor but two days later she received a call to come back, she asked that I come with her and I obliged, though I was scared but I had to be strong for her.
I struggled for breath when the doctor broke the news to my best friend that she is suffering from stage 2, inflammatory breast cancer.
I have never seen her so sober, it seemed like life went out of her, I could see the fear written all over her as she asked the doctor what are the stages of breast cancer?
The doctor stood up and patted her on her shoulder – Cancer is not a death sentence, it’s just a test of your strength. I know you can beat it because a lot have beat it in the past.
Cancer stages are the zero stage; the stage where the abnormal cells may have formed but not spread to surrounding tissues.
Early stage or stage 1 the cancer may have spread to a small section of surrounding tissues.
Localized stage/stage 2 a tumor between 20-50mm in size will have formed which may and may not involve the lymph nodes.
Regional spread/stage 3 the tumor formed will be larger than 50mm in diameter involving the lymph nodes and spread towards the chest region. In some cases, the tumor would have grown to full blown cancer.
And the last stage which is Distant Spread/stage 4 the cancer would have spread beyond the breast to other part of the body.
After explaining the stages, the doctor excused us but I had to follow him to ask a few more questions.
On our way, I ask what can one do to prevent breast cancer, but he could not answer me because he was in a hurry, so he asked me to join a section of the hospital where breast cancer is been discussed with the women, luckily for me I met them discussing about the prevention measures and few of the things mentioned by the lecturers are;
- Keep weight in check.
- Be Physically active (regular exercise).
- Eat fruits and vegetables.
- Limit alcohol and stop smoking.
- Breastfeed, if possible for the total of one year and more.
- Avoid birth control pills particularly after 35 or if you smoke.
- Avoid Hormone therapy for menopause.
- Tamoxifen and Raloxifene for women at high risk.
- Find out your family history to help you take special steps to avoid the risk.
- Don’t forget Mammograms. Regular checkup help you battle cancer at early stage.
Just after the prevention, Mrs. Bright who is a survivor of Stage 3 Cancer educate the women about the treatment of breast cancer and tells us stories of other survivors and few of them were present. She mentioned few treatments that has helped most of the survivors.
- Medical procedure: use of radiation therapy (radiotherapy) and tele therapy.
Radiotherapy is using beams in high doses by radiation to shrink and destroy cancer cell. - Medications: it involves the use of estrogen modulators – chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy is standardized and aggressive use of anti-cancer drug to destroy cancer cells. - Surgical treatment: it involves tissue expansion, lymph node dissection, lumpectomy and mastectomy.
Lumpectomy is a surgical process of removing the tumor and any other surrounding unhealthy tissues.
Mastectomy is a surgical process of removing affected tissues in the breast or the whole breast in some cases.
Bidemi my bestie is a fighter, and I am proud to say she is a survivor of breast cancer, and just like the doctor had said, breast cancer is just a test of her strength and she did beat it – now she is my testimony.
Just like me, you don’t have to wait till you are a survivor, you can start your fight against breast cancer by taking prevention measures and if you are already battling breast cancer, just know that breast cancer is not a death sentence, it is a test of your strength, and you will beat it too, be strong.
References (Online Resources)
Stages of Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Treatment.
Source from SURJEN ARTICLE
BREAST CANCER TREATMENT IN NIGERIA
Types of Breast Cancer (Inflammatory Breast Cancer)
Source from AMERICA CANCER SOCIETY ARTICLE ON BREAST CANCER
Symptoms of Breast Cancer
Source from INSIDE PRECISION MEDICINE AND CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION ARTICLE
Prevention of Breast Cancer
Source from SITEMAN CANCER CENTER ARTICLE
Written by ADU KEMI MARIAM
