Let me start this off by saying; this is my personal account. I’m writing this of my own accord, to tell the story of my breast cancer in a space I control. So this is it, the first part of my diary that will chronicle all of my experiences upon diagnosis, and I hope this will be of help to anyone who goes through the same, or similar things. I’ll be updating this when I can, from time to time, while I remember things (I have an awful memory, if you know me, you know haha), j

Today it has been almost a month since surgery. It's January 15th. If I'm being honest, the emotions I've experienced during all of this aren't something I usually like to display, but I'm writing this to be clear and open about the process, in the hopes that it'll help someone down the line, so that they can find a little solace in knowing someone else has gone through the same thing. But I'll get to how I'm feeling a little later in this chapter. Since the genetics results

I woke up to unfamiliar surroundings. I heard someone talking next to me, but didn't really process what they said. I aksed for my husband, because it was a little scary, waking up somewhere like that. Everything felt super foggy, like I was in a dream. I felt something tugging on my hand. Tha cannula? But it was on the other side. I slowly started to become more aware of my surroundings, and the nurse asked if I felt okay. I mumbled something that sounded like "yes" to mysel

Surgery day. December 18th. I don’t know if you’ve ever had surgery, but nervous is an understatement. We woke up at around 5am to get up and moving for the first parts of the day. First, the hook wire appointment. We went to Dr Park’s rooms at 7am to have this done. It was simple, they put the local anaesthetic in, and then placed the hook wire in position under ultrasound guidance. They told me this was to help find the right spot to cut out when it came to the surgery. The

The MRI appointment came and went. It felt weird, I'd never had an MRI before, and as a first experience it was interesting. I had been told that it was going to be loud, and it was, but I was given headphones and earplugs - and almost fell asleep! It was like the sound of an airplane, which always puts me to sleep, no matter how awake I am. I laid face down, and it took about 20 minutes in total to get through the whole scan. They told me it usually takes about 7 days for th

I spoke to the nurse at the GP clinic. At first I was referred to the Mater hospital, because I didn’t have private health insurance for hospitals. It’s public, and that’d likely sustain a lot of the costs. Unfortunately for me, they are understaffed and overworked, and my GP received a letter saying that they wouldn’t be able to allocate me an appointment for some time. My GP, being the super great doctor he is, was not at all happy with this. I was told that I could see a s

The day this entire tale started was a day like any other. It was a Friday in October. I woke up, went to the bathroom as I always did. I looked in the mirror and noticed something weird. My left breast, the bottom corner was pulled in where it should go out. I was concerned and called to my husband, Connor, to check that it wasn’t a normal thing. Nope, that’s not normal. We agreed that I should schedule a doctors appointment if it hadn’t gone by Monday. Sunday evening, I che