Some time in May 2008, I noticed a small bump like a size of a small green bean on my left breast, I thought nothing more than a usual oil seed under the surface of the skin which I have a few on my arms for years. I told my gynaecologist during my routine check up in October and she assured me that it was nothing, anyway I insisted to do a mammogram, but the mammogram did not show any lump at all, probably it was too small to pick up in the image. Whatever it is, my policy is never leave anything unusual in 'there' be it malignant or benign. Urgency was not in my thought so I told myself that I would get it removed during the year end school holiday, somehow I was so caught up with something else and also a last minute Australia vacation in November, then came Christmas and Chinese New Year. So I finally made myself available to remove the 'oil seed', thought nothing serious about it so I just opted for the nearest hospital, Dr Neoh in Pantai hospital for convenient sake. It was just a half-day in patient surgery, the surgeon told me after the operation that he did not think the lump is cancerous at all, anyhow is is a routine to send it for a pathology test. He schedule me for a follow up I presumed the main task was to remove the tiny little plaster on the surgery site. God knew what is ahead of me and put a burden in my husband's heart to follow me to the doctor office, it was Wednesday I thought that was unnecessary since it's just a routine follow up but he insisted, so he took a day off and went with me. We were completely caught off guard with the big news, asking the doctor to repeat what he said. I stared at my husband and he stared back! We asked him what would be his suggestion for us to do next, without hesitation, he said 'you can come back this Saturday and I will remove the whole breast' in cold blood. "Is this the only option?", he said yes and he has been performing at least 30 mastectomy surgeries per month and assured us that is normal protocol.
Thank God we did not sign up for that and went straight to our care-group for prayer on the same day. I called couple of friends to find out about other well known oncologists and surgeons in Penang. We spend the next whole week collecting data including sending the tissue for 2nd opinion and talked to at least two doctors on each field of oncologist and surgeon. We felt much better after knowing that I need not have to do mastectomy, it make sense, you don't burn the whole garage to remove a single rat. It surprise me that it is possible for doctor to be so ignorant and failing to upgrade their knowledge which will ruin a women's body for life. I later found out and talked to women who had mastectomy without knowing that they have a choice.
Lessons learn:
1. Never trust a doctor who told you 'I don't think its cancer'. No one will be able to know the truth unless the tissue is biopsied and confirmed by pathologist. Many women trusted that remarks and had a false sense of security and never took action only to find out after a few months that the cancer has spread to other part of the body.
2. Mastectomy is no longer the only option for many cases of breast cancer, research has shown that the survival rate is no different between lumpectomy and mastectomy. There are many surgeon who never upgrade themselves are still performing the aged old protocol and many young women lost their breast unnecessarily.
3. Ask for second opinion and take some time to research. The cancer will not do much harm if you take couple of weeks to do your data collecting before committing to a life changing decision.
