How I Discovered Breast Cancer
My name’s Beth Heller, and I am 40 years old. Two years ago, I discovered a lump. I was getting out of the shower, getting ready to go to a basketball game for my daughter, and I got out of the shower and felt a lump. I told my fiance then, “This doesn’t seem normal.” And he said, “You better go get it checked out,” so the next day, I made an appointment to go get a check. And I had to have an ultrasound on and then a biopsy done on that lump. After a few days, they called me and told me that they had discovered that it was cancer, and then I needed to come into the office. I didn’t think much about it, so I went in myself, and they told me that I had Stage Two Grade Two cancer. So what that means is that grade two is how aggressive the cancer is, so one, not being very aggressive, three, being extremely aggressive, and then two, kind of being right in the middle.
I was Stage Two Grade Two, and then I had to kind of come up with a plan on what I needed to do, whether I needed to get a mastectomy or a lumpectomy. There are many options when you discover something like this, such as when you devise a treatment plan. So it’s essential to find doctors who are kind of on the same page as you so that you both kind of know exactly what you want to do and what your end goal is after the cancer is all gone.
Self-Detection and Awareness of Breast Cancer
I didn’t have any kind of history of breast cancer in my family. I tested negative for the BRCA gene, so my most significant thing is to make sure you’re self-aware that you are checking yourself and making sure that you’re following up quickly if you find something even if you don’t think that it’s cancerous to follow up with your doctor and find good doctors who can tell you kind of what you need to do moving forward with your treatments.
Treatment and Resources for Breast Cancer
I was fortunate to have a person in my life, a friend of mine, who guided me to excellent doctors through AGH in Pittsburgh. I was able to find a great oncologist, a breast surgeon, and then also a plastic surgeon. This was going to help me through what I always called a hike. In cancer, a lot of people call it a journey. A journey sounds fun, and a hike sounds less fun. I always called it my hike. When I spoke to my friend, she did something called cold capping, which allowed me to save my hair during my chemo treatments. I saved about 40% of my hair through the four chemo treatments I had.
The biggest thing that I can recommend to someone who just discovered that they had breast cancer is to do your research because there are so many resources out there. Go to doctors you feel will be on the same page. I’m so thankful that I discovered the doctors that I did and the cold capping because I was able to feel kind of whole while I was going through the chemo treatments and after I had the surgeries.
Life After Breast Cancer as a Survivor
Life after cancer went kind of back to normal. I’m very self-aware of what I put in my body now. I advocate for women to check themselves, whether they are 15 or 20, or in their 30s or older. When I was younger, it was always, after 40, you want to get your mammograms, but I encourage women to check themselves. Not only in the month of October but every month. I still have to go through treatments. I go every single month to get a shot to make sure that the cancer doesn’t return. You do have to take medications. But I’m just very thankful and blessed that I had such a great support system, and my family and my now husband and my children, for us to get back to normal and get back to life and basketball games and volleyball games, and getting the kids off to school and things like that, just being a mom and a full-time employee. So, life is good right now. I’m cancer-free as of today, and I’m just thankful that I’m able to have a voice and be an advocate for survivors, and help women through their hikes, and continue to advocate for early detection.