Breast Lumps: Discovered at the Age of Twenty

Breast Lumps are often hard to find unless you are very familiar with your breast. And if they are found it is a scary feeling. Women need to do a self breast exam once a month to be on the safe side. As many already know one in eight women will develop breast cancer. However discovering you have a lump in your breast doesn't necessarily mean you have cancer. But it is still a very serious thing that needs to be taken care of. October is breast cancer awareness month and the third Friday of October is National Mammography Day. This day was first proclaimed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

Five years ago this month, I had seven lumps removed from my left breast. I was twenty years old and had never preformed a breast exam on myself. I had already had two children and had been through many exams, but doing my own exams seemed silly. I was very much aware of breast cancer, but told myself it couldn't happen to me, because I was to young. Well one night while in bed I decided to just try a self exam. I had no clue as to what I was doing or how to do it. I lifted my arm and started feeling with the other hand. To my surprise, I felt a big knot in my left breast. I felt the other breast to see if it felt the same way, it didn't. The tears started coming to my eyes and I just knew I had cancer. I didn't know you could have lumps and it not be cancerous. Being as scared as I was, I refused to go to the doctor and waited about a month before I went. I told myself that it would go away.

I scheduled an appointment and headed to the doctor a couple days later. She said it was a fairly big lump and she would like to send me for an ultra sound. A couple of hours later I was in the hospital having an ultra sound done. The look on the nurse's face made me shake all over. She walked out the room after finishing the ultra sound. When she returned she said that she didn't like what she seen and that they really wanted to do a mammogram. If you can imagine a twenty year old hearing those words, then you can imagine how terrified I was. I had always been told how painful a mammogram was and I was not looking forward to that.